It feels a little weird to have joined the ranks of the “conservative” blogosphere. I’ve been a yellow dog democrat all my life, as was my father before me, and as my mother is, and at least one of my brothers, and virtually all of my friends and acquaintances. I never voted for a Republican in my life until Arnold Schwarzenegger. And now I’m fixing to vote for another one. Some of my friends don’t even yet know about my dark secret. I don’t bring it up that I’m a Bush supporter, because it upsets people and makes them have to re-evaluate their whole relationship with me.
So I don’t mention it unless asked directly, which rarely happens because everyone just assumes that all nice, intelligent people despise George Bush. I don’t really know any conservatives personally except for one friend in San Diego, so I don’t know if they have the same kind of insular, cocoon-like tendencies, but I suspect not. I know I don’t feel that way. It doesn’t upset me if someone likes John Kerry and hates George Bush. It doesn’t make me wonder if I can be their friend anymore. Of course, if it did, I wouldn’t have any friends anymore.
One of the reasons I think the polls are skewed towards Kerry is that I think there are a lot of closet Bush supporters out there who don’t want to reveal their preference for fear of how it will affect their relationships, not to mention fears of violence and vandalism.