Growing up in my home town you'd have to try really hard to avoid politics. REALLY hard. You grew up next door to the Constable, had swimming lessons in the Commissioner's pool and we're invited to the Mayor's Christmas party every year because your brother remodeled his kitchen. Politics were personal. Politics were fun.
I was fortunate enough to be raised around a man who breathed not only politics and a good argument but always fought for the underdog. Even when there wasn't much of a fight. Sometimes, especially so, because he believed that you didn't always fight to win and didn't speak only when you knew you'd be heard. He was a State Representative and he loved his job. Maybe I was spoiled by these circumstances. Maybe I have expectations that border romanticism because now that my small town is no longer small and the man that held such a big part of my heart is gone I don't see the fun in it.
Now, not even thirty, experiencing politics and the actions of those that I vote for through media I find myself disillusioned. I take my privilege to vote very seriously but I don't believe in the person I vote for. They are more like the lesser of two evils. I'm taking this course because it's required for my major but what I'd really like is to walk away with a little more pride. A little more faith that I can form an opinion on our government and the people we select to have the responsibility to run it because right now I just don't have one.
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