By Shabbir
There is an ominous silence when it comes to political conversation in America these days. Talking about politics is a taboo subject! We talk freely of football or family, traffic or weather, economics or the pandemic, but a very rare topic of conversation among us Americans nowadays is politics. Why is that?
In college I had two good friends, one a staunch Republican and the other an equally strong Democrat. I enjoyed listening to their impromptu debates late at night, especially during the Watergate era. My Republican friend had a picture of then President Richard Nixon over his desk, and one fine day, he turned the picture around so that it faced the wall! It was the day that he realized the President was lying to the people who elected him, and it was his way of expressing his disgust.
Politics must come back as a normal topic of conversation among all of us. We cannot just depend on news networks or social media for our political views. If ordinary citizens are too embarassed to talk politics with their friends, or even worse afraid to do so, how can we have a robust democracy? Try to talk openly about politics with your friends or coworkers or people you meet, to learn about different points of view. Ask your boss, or someone who works for you, what they think of a candidate. Ask the local grocery clerk, or the guy who cleans your yard, or your financial advisor, or your doctor, what he or she thinks about current issues. Let us all try and understand other points of view, and not just burrow among people who only have views like our own.
Do you know whether your friends vote? Would you like to know? You can easily find the voting record and voter registration of every person you know, as thats public information. You can’t tell who she voted for (that’s private to each voter), but you can find out if she voted in past elections, and if she is registered to vote this time around. Download this great free app “VoteWithMe” on your iPhone or Android, and it will search the voting history of every contact on your phone. It will also help you send texts reminding them to vote, or to register. Reach out to your friends and co-workers, especially to people with opposing views, and those in swing states with close elections.
I recently saw the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma”, and this should be required watching for all, young and old, as it shows how we are all getting manipulated by social media. It points to the importance of conversation and simple discourse between people, especially about politics.
We are far too dependent on social media and news networks for political information. We are constantly listening to “experts” and “media darlings” and following the comments of “celebrities”, and subject to manipulation by the AI behind the business models of social media companies. But why do we care more about what these celebrities think, rather than the people we interact with on a daily basis? It’s important that we open ourselves to discussion and talk with real people in our own social circle, and listen to different points of view. Ours is not just a choice between Fox or CNN, and their portrayals of Antifa or Neo-Nazis. There are 328 million of us in this country, each with views that are shaped by our unique experiences. Let’s listen, discuss and learn from each other, and this November, please vote your conscience.
Talk to your kids, especially your teenagers, and make sure they understand the political process in USA, and why voting is important. You may be surprised. They may know more than you do, and you may learn something from them. On the other hand, you may be able to teach them about the importance of their civic duty to vote. Connect to young people from any walk of life, whether at the grocery store or someone you know socially, and talk to them for 5 minutes about some political issue, and learn their opinion. Young people are especially important because they are the leaders of tomorrow. Again you may be surprised, and it may form a new bond. You might even get them to vote.