As far as people go, I'm on the fence. I love my labels of "mom" and "wife". It thrills me to say that I have two "sons". And to me it's simply nothing more than a fact of genetics and birthplace that Diva Husband is "Mexican".
Over the past few years, and perhaps especially over the past several months, political labels have become a big deal. People make a huge thing over being "Conservative", "Liberal", "Democrat", "Republican", "Independent", "Socialist", "Libertarian"...
You get the idea.
While I'm not looking for a political discussion, I've made no excuses for the fact that my own views tend to run "Moderately Conservative". I vote on both sides of the ticket during the primary elections, but register as a "Republican", only because I have to declare a party affiliation, and frankly, that's where most of the candidates I support are listed. I respect the office of the President of the United States, but don't really care for many of his political stances.
I think the whole Tea Party Movement is fascinating and agree with much of what they are saying. Personally, Sarah Palin drives me batty. Her "cutesy" style of delivery seems unprofessional to me and it really makes me crazy to listen to her speak at these functions.
Recently, many polls have assigned labels to self-proclaimed members of the Tea Party Movement. White men, 45 and older, well-educated, etc.
Basically, they're saying it's an "old-boys club" and implying that certain races, genders, economic classes, etc. are being excluded. Having not attended any rallies myself, I can't speak for who participates or considers themselves members of the "Tea Party". As evidenced by this NBC interview excerpt, however, those labels may not be as accurate as the pollsters want us to think.
Nice try, NBC, but clearly there are Americans who resist the labeling.
1 comment:
A philosophy professor once told me (and the rest of the class, of course) not to use labels unless they've been self-identified. Therefore, I won't call a pro-choicer "pro-death" and hope they won't call me "anti-choice" for being "pro-life." Of course, you don't ALWAYS have to use a particular self-selected label if you don't think it's accurate, but that doesn't mean that you get to pick out something that inherently bashes their views.
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