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none of the above

none of the above

I get mail.

Sometimes I really wish people would just stick to the name-calling hate mail rather than ask the questions that are difficult to answer.

I received no less than three emails this week asking me to define myself, in political terms. What are you, is what they all want to know. Even my own mother said to me last week, I don't know how to define you.

I don't want to be a person who is easily summed up in one word. Republican. Democrat. Liberal. Conservative. I am none and all. I find it hard to describe myself by party line because neither party offers me everything I am looking for. I don't want to align myself with any side because while I fall this way on some issues, I may fall that way on others.

My father calls me a liberal and he says it like it's a dirty word. I've been called a right-wing nut because I think we should go after Saddam. If you have read this website for any amount of time you know how off-base the right-wing nut thing is.

I despise Noam Chomsky with the same hateful passion I have for Ann Coulter. I think extremists on any side of the fence are often dangerous and misguided. I would like to say I sit in the center of the political see-saw, but my weight shifst often and you can sometimes find me sliding either way. Just a little, though. Not too far over.

I am concerned about civil liberties. I am not one of those people who believes that we have to give up some liberties in order to retain our freedom. However, I am not, nor will I ever be, a member of the ACLU.

I do think that we need to take action against Saddam. If it means bombing Iraq, so be it. That does not mean I am a member of the local chapter of the Republican Club.

Yes, I do know it's about the oil. And I am all for ways of finding alternative energy sources and developing them. But I also think that the notion that we give up our cars is silly, short-sighted and utopian.

I eat meat. I love meat. But it's not like I'm going to go out into the woods and kill deer for sport. Just because I eat hamburgers does not mean I belong to the Ted Nugent fan club.

Some people are just not easily definable. You can't slap a simple label on someone and say that it defines their entire personality and outlook on life and the world at large.

Different issues speak to me in different ways. Which is why I choose to stay at the center of the see-saw so I am within reach of all options at all times. I can shift to the left, I can shift to the right, but not far enough to tip the balance entirely.

I don't want to be lumped in, I don't want a name tag, I don't want to join your coalition or your party or any kind of organization that would make me past a name tag on myself that says "Hi, I'm Michele and I am a (insert party here) and that means I believe in their entire doctrine and I never sway from the norm that the designated leaders of my party have set down for us as examples." Ok, so that would be a really big name tag, but you get my point.

It's hard to answer a lot of the questions that are posed to me in the emails I get. What's harder is when I get mail from someone saying "I thought you were on our side," and I have to tell them that I never signed up for anything and I am sorry if I disappointed you with the choices I have made, but it's my see-saw and I reserve the right to sway it whichever way I choose. It's strange how people view you with such disappointment or disdain when you make your choices known. We may agree on 55 out of 56 issues, but if that one issue that we do not agree on causes you to stop talking to me or unlink me from your blog or whitewash me with your very broad paint strokes, then that is your problem, not mine.

I do not make my political choices based on which side of the fence my friends are on. I do not shape my world views around guidelines set forth by someone's friendship or linking policy.

I am pretty much undefinable. Actually, no. If you want to stick a label on me, just call me None of the Above.

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Comments

I'm just as "wishy-washy" as you. You defined my positions on several topics precisely (though I'm still not sure about Iraq...yet). What makes me angry are people who fail to keep civil in a discussion or debate. I'm really tired of everything degenerating into one side calling the other "liberal environmentalist feminazi whackos" or "right-wing fascist imperialist nutballs". Or worse. Can't someone disagree with you without them being evil?

A lot of people like labels, but life isn't easy like that.

yes, yes. being the un-labelable is a GOOD thing... i don't WANNA be stuffed in a box.

I'm pedantic, it's Noam Chomsky.

And I should make you a 'label whore' teeshirt, since I'm all about the irony.

Wishy-washy has such negative connotations, Solonor. I disagree that either you or Michele are wishy-washy. It's about making your own decisions on things, beliefs, issues. That's just using your brain, something many people easily pigeon-holed people don't do.

I do define myself as a Democrat, and as a liberal. My thinking is left-leaning enough that it would be silly for me to try to say I'm middle of the road. That doesn't mean I agree unilaterally with all things liberal, and I sometimes surprise people by going against the liberal grain.

As far as Iraq, I have made up my mind and I think it's a bad idea. We're losing focus in Afghanistan, and that's a mistake. If we shift our attention to Iraq, I see a replay of what happened in Afghanistan after the Soviets pulled out.

I feel that I align more with issues than group policy. I've never voted party line and once shocked my mother when I told her who I'd voted for. (My mother is a very gung ho Republican, and she'd gathered up information on all the Republican candidates for our area for this particular election, and asked us to vote for them. I looked at them all, and ended up voting for about two thirds of the ones my mom had picked out, but only because I liked their stance on local issues--not because they were Republican. My mom was very shocked when I told her I'd voted Democrat for the local Attorney General because I liked the woman's stances.)

To me, it's about who can do the best job, and which issues you agree with. In many ways I'm considered fairly liberal (especially by Utah standards, where I grew up) and in many places (San Fran, for example) I'm considered very conservative. And my ex and I had a lot of fun discussions about communism versus capitalism. (He's a communist in essence on quite a few issues and he gets really peeved by the perception that most people have of communism, since most of them are most familiar with Stalinist socialism and the nasty regime that evolved from it. But I digress.)

You are very easy to define.
The nut who is licking Dawn Olsen's asshole.

Even when you label yourself people aren't satisfied. I'm always getting these self appointed political psychics "correcting" me on my chosen party affiliation.

Im all for being unlabled. I think that what makes all the mess in this world is when people cant see beyond the party line(or for all that matters, the religious leaders), that they cant bend just one of their own doctrines to match the situation better. Not even when it might solve the problem at hand it seems almost impossible to change from your stuck position of being left or right wing or whatever you now are. And it is all in the name of being 'firm' in your beliefes so people cant say you change your opinions to the most favourable. What is so wrong with adjusting to reality and the issues at hand? Life isnt like in the movies, even though you sometimes seriously wonder about it when you listen to the news...
Sorry about any spelling errors.. ;o)

I loathe and fear women. Calling all men, please damage my colen with your sex.

For those who ask this in the future, I'd suggest replying with the following:

"I'm un-fucking-believably inscrutable. Sorry for the language."

Having an open mind means you cannot be labeled...it means you are one who will look at issues from all sides before making a decision. That's a good thing. Labels are for people who blindly follow party lines. That's a bad thing....

lost track of what i was going to say reading some of the comments. like that 'idiot' person. whoa.

Brilliant! Trackback indeed.

I'm not a big pro-hunter myself, but as the daughter of a longtime deer hunter I would be doing my Dad a disservice if I didn't rise to the defense of the "Nuge". I thought he was a brainless gun-nut too, then I came across an interview with him and I actually read what the guy has to say. I was surprised to learn that Nugent doesn't actually kill for sport. He kills what he eats. He's actually this really big pro-environment guy. (As he put it, intelligent hunters have to be Greenies, because animals need clean air and water.) He's still a bit of a loon, but you've got to respect the guy's stance. He sees a kind of nobility in looking your food in the face, a kind of respect for life you don't get when you pick up a genetically-modified pile of chicken flesh at the grocery store. You can read the interview and ensuing discussion at my site here.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your comments. I just felt that in a post about rejecting labels for ourselves, all of us should realize that we shoudl resist slapping them on other people too. Most people are way more complex than we give them credit for (even the "Nuge"). :)

Michele,

Better that they question your political aligment than your inherent intelligence.

I wish someone would question my political alignment instead.

I love Dawn's Stalker comment - I think it really says a lot.

Did you vote for Clinton or Dole?
Did you vote for Gore or Bush?

None of the above.

none of the above. Good choice.

You're you.

Let em deal with it, michele.