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i have so much love for midwesterners. sales recruiters and people in television will tell you that most people are with me on this. midwestern accents have been shown in all sorts of studies to evoke impressions that a person is hardworking, family-oriented, honest, sensible, and unpretentious. i’m sure that growing up there accounts for a large portion of my bias, but i think my heart will always be in the midwest.

i rarely talk about politics on this blog, not because i don’t have strong feelings about the subject, but because i don’t want to upset anyone i care about. today i will take the chance because there’s still time to be having productive dialogues about the matter. it is as a displaced michigander that i feel i have any reason to be talking about this at all, because perhaps an outside opinion may have more impact coming from an insider.

y’all (just kidding, joke, joke, joke) in the midwest are really breaking my heart right now, and particularly in my home state where i know things are dire and people are desperate for a better economic situation. it seems damn near impossible to get accurate political information in the midwest because so many people have a vested interest in polluting the media. a LOT of political wars are fought there— unfortunately, the same traits that make midwesterners so lovable also makes them prime political targets. they’re incredibly patriotic, they love their country, and they vote. at the same time, they generally have jobs unrelated to politics, families to feed, and more important things to do than sit at home and analyze political records. apathetic citizens don’t vote, and ridiculously political citizens vote based on a large body of facts. and then, in america’s heartland, you have the people whose votes you can buy if you feed them enough propaganda, because as intelligent as they are, they don’t have time to fact-check every claim you make on television or every quote they read in the newspaper. They already have (at least) one full-time job; they can’t dedicate 40 hours a week to sifting through bullshit.

and that is why there is a huge pipeline of bullshit that runs directly from washington arizona to ohio.

it is because i’ve been to michigan and ohio recently, and i’ve watched tv there and read the magazines, that i can’t agree with my peers here who think that all people still voting republican are ignorant hicks (or the 1% of the population that has legitimate financial incentive to do so). i live in a college town where it’s hard to see why anyone would vote republican in this decade, but the newspapers you read (or i have read) in Ohio are not delivering the same content as the rest of the country. in a paper i picked up during my cousin’s wedding, 10 out of 10 “random” people on the street were excited to talk about what a great VP pick Sarah Palin was.

I am pretty sure that even in the most conservative state, 10 out of 10 americans are not going to agree that not only should rape victims not be allowed to seek an abortion, they should also not be offered emergency contraception, and they should be charged for the rape kit administered to help prosecute the attacker. I’m pretty sure that 10 out of 10 don’t think that a politician whose party doesn’t trust her to speak in public without extensive preparation for a specific event is capable of running the country if something happened to the president, and I don’t think those 10 would unanimously agree that global warming isn’t a real problem, and that not one of them would have picked up on the fact that she was an ardent supporter of that waste of money ‘bridge to nowhere’ until the plan was ridiculed to an extent that she changed her position. But this is how campaigns are run, and if you put all your money into the states that matter, you can convince a lot of intelligent people that you believe just about anything. that you believe what they believe. You can convince people that you’re offering something different when you’ve gone on record so many times touting your loyalty to the tired old administration. there was a time, 800 or so years ago, when John McCain really was a maverick. no one can take away that he’s a hero. But something different? no, sir.

Anyway. Maybe you think 8 more years of the Bush administration would be just fine with you. Maybe you believe that our government should be a theocracy. I don’t have much to say to you if that’s the case, and because I don’t think I could do my stance justice in a few short paragraphs, I will spare you the words you may not care about. I just wanted to take one moment during this campaign to tell the world that I enthusiastically endorse Barack Obama, and I would be happy to discuss the specific how’s and why’s with anyone who does care. And with that, I’ll get off my soapbox.

everything else is ok, i guess. i’ve been so excited for fall—it’s my favorite season—but last week we had one unseasonably cold day that left me afraid for the winter. the last time it was cold outside, it was like february, when my life and i were both a complete mess. the cold came and i found myself taking a shower to get warm and just standing it in, clean but with no desire to go anywhere. i did that a lot after my dad died…i would stay in the shower because it was the only place i felt warm and the only place where i didn’t have to talk to anyone about how i was doing or the other questions you have to answer when your dad dies and everyone feels sorry for you. i didn’t at all see it coming, and it feels dramatic to say, but i don’t think it’s at all extreme to call that day traumatizing. i am now really not looking forward to winter. if you don’t understand what’s gotten into me this week, maybe it will make you feel better that i don’t either, and i’m sorry.

i tried to write about this then, but then i saw the debate and was feeling all fired up. it has since warmed up a bit, and i have things to look forward to so i’m doing better. all i can do is buy some new sweaters and a scarf or two and hope for the best. that’s the game plan for now.