American Election Politics Turning Friends Into Enemies. Heres My Story Back in 2012, when this writer was finally adept at this social media thing, specifically Facebook, we in the United States were having an election. At the time Romney vs. Obama was billed as the most important in the nations history, and as usual, just about everybody lined up on one side or another, and started posting material that supported their position. I dont remember quite the context or even the post, but after some altercation online, three high school classmates unceremoniously defriended me. (Still connected to them on LinkedIn, though.) The same thing happened with a much younger and far less seasoned friend who used the platform as an evangelization tool, and attention generating medium for her crusade and for herself. She went beyond the pale at one point, I expressed my opinion, and POOF! I was gone. This had nothing to do with politics. It was about sex. After those two incidents, and having the observations of a number of my music friends, co-workers and colleagues being flaming moonbats confirmed, this writer decided to avoid posting material on her personal pages that had anything to do with politics. The main reason is that just about all of the people in my various circles are too engrossed in their echo chambers to know that they are being played that goes for both sides. I have friends and family of all stripes, and that goes for the people from all parts of my life. Blue collar, white collar poor who trash monied sorts as if they were blue collar (and have never run a business, so they have no idea what it takes to do that), white collar liberals, voting members of the Republican Party, truly flaky people, Bernie Sanders supporters, and just because this is a city run by Democratsmoonbats by default. (My God-father is one of these.) Ive only actually unfriended one person over politics, a relative, but shes perfectly obnoxious. Then there are mostly the people I have as friends through blogging. Ive never met them and most are bemoaning the reality that Hillary Clinton will probably win but, for the most part, in politics, anyway, were at least in the same chapter if not on the same page. (Its actually THESE people Im ready to defriend. They wont get out of their echo chambers, either. Most of them fell under the spell of Ted Cruz, and refuse to see the light.) Essentially, except for the occasional snarky truth bomb coming from leftist publications, for the last few years, my personal page has been largely apolitical. I dont even comment on the moonbats stuff. Its not worth the heartburn or the name-calling. Besides, its like arguing with a wall even with all the facts thrown at them. (If Frank Bruni from the New York Times says it, it must be true, right?) Nope. My personal page is one long series of classical music things, sports posts, gluten-free advocacy, Catholic stuff, cute and charming tyrant posts, quotes from Mark Twain and Jane Austen, and, of course, evidence that a drink a day contributes to longevity. The political energy is concentrated in the space on this publication. The last person who defriended me due to a political post did it over this image. According to this member of the army of the moonbats, it was stupid to object to the president saluting Marines with anything in his hand, and I was a ridiculous person. (She was in a really bad place personally at the time, so I didnt take it too hard.) Heres the thing, though. In the USA, we who have freedom of speech and of the press are free to say what we want without defaming, libeling, or lying about other people. Everyone is free to have an opinion, even if it is insulting to the recipient. And just as Christ came to the world to not bring peace, but separate the wheat from the chaff (Luke 12:51-53) politics is an American religion with the ultimate sacrament being voting. Among the various arguments, there will be no peace so long as all the people do not explore all sides, and come to the same conclusion. Human nature being what it is, that will never happen. Theres a reason why the old rule of manners dictated that one did not discuss sex, money, religion or politics in public. Those are the topics that are most often argued. 2016 is proving the point, and destroying relationships all over the country. It is up to any one individual as to whether or not they will let their social scene fall apart over an election even if the fate of the country is in the balance. This writer is just going to go the polls, grab a PAPER BALLOT, and confess her choice in the privacy of the voting booth. In the end, thats really the opinion poll that matters. And my moonbat friends and family who worship at the altar of Hillary can suck it. Inspiration for this post came from a Free Republic thread. 