I am not a "Conservative"

I am a bit of a political junky. Sometimes I grow weary of it all and leave on the backshelf for a few days.

Yesterday a friend forwarded an email which is part of an attack campaign on Obama. He forwarded it to give me an idea of what kind of crazy things are being said. Many people we know from church are conservative (the friend in question is a bit more of a libertarian than anything) - and many times there are emails flying all over the place back and forth regarding such things that we never get (usually, people know better than to send them to us). Sometimes one slips past because a well meaning church member didn't get the memo. Mostly, I am glad I do not see these emails.

The emails themselves are disheartening - usually they are such thinly hobbled together pieces of nonesense it is difficult to understand why people would outright believe them. But the more disheartening aspect of it for me is to see that long list of people who are forwarding and being forwarded these emails. People I respect and like sometimes.

I grew up in a conservative home. I understand the positions very well. I understand and agree with the idea that everyone has a right to ponder the the big political questions and make their own decisions. It's one of the things I like about this country.

Do you know how many negative emails I get from fellow democrats/liberals which attack conservatives?

Zero.

I am on all kinds of email lists with liberal organizations that I think are important. I have friends and relatives who are also Democrat. We simply do not waste time on such things.

I'm not saying they don't exist...maybe they do...but I've never seen them.

By all means let's examine the issues on both sides, let's follow some sort of logic, let's find out the facts.

But I really hope that people do not make choices based on fear and misrepresentation. I really hope that is not what the political debate in this country has evolved into. If you get an email claiming all kinds of outrageous things, please check it out at www.factcheck.org They do a really good job of examining chain emails as well as television ads for the "facts".