Whenever I have political conversations with Europeans, be they Italians or whatever, it impresses me that they’re always able to seperate individuals from the actions of their parties or governments. Maybe I’m just talking to the right people, but they’re always able to distinguish individual Americans from the policies of our administration. The ones who don’t like Bush or US foreign policy (most of the people I’ve talked to, but not all) are always quite clear about saying how they like Americans individually, and they talk about the good encounters they’ve had with Americans, and such. Makes me happy.

I think Americans can do this to a certain extent, but on the whole we really aren’t to good at it. Take this, and this, for example. Necessary? I think not. I feel like too often, too many people forget that everyone has an identity NOT RELATED TO POLITICS. Just because I self-identify as a Democrat does NOT mean that I a) agree with everything the Democratic Party supports; b) hate Republicans; c) am a hippie; d) am an athiest pagan heathen or whatever Democrats are supposed to be; e) plan on moving to Canada because of an unpleasant election result; f) am Socialist or Communist in any way; or anything like that. Try again. If you stop at my party association you won’t know anything about me.

Red states, blue states…screw that, I like purple. There’s way too much emphasis on division and difference going on. Republican, Democrat, whatever, guess what? We share one country, and belittling each other and mudslinging at each other really isn’t going to do anything for it.

Excuse the baby rant.