Political Pandering Pandemonium

Do you go home from family get-together’s fuming that your conservative in-laws just can’t see your point of view, or that your extremely liberal Aunt Linda just can’t see past the end of her nose? Is your opinion that you can’t trust any of the candidates because they’re only pandering to whomever they need to in order to get elected?

Political Pandering is the act of expressing one’s views in accordance with the likes of a group to which one is attempting to appeal… “Telling them what they want to hear” so to speak. It’s hard to decide who would make a good President when you’re not sure whether what’s being said is REALLY what the candidate will DO. So talk to your informed friends and see what they think. UGH!!!! If your friends are anything like mine, you’ll either get a tremendous Liberal Lecture or get caught up in a major Conservative Conversation. WHERE IN THE WORLD is our Devil’s Advocate??  Why does it have to be all the way right or all the way left?

I’m not going to take a political stand here, so if you’re holding your breath, LET IT GO!  I truly believe that from a Small Business’s standpoint, talking politics is a HUGE no no.  If you don’t want to anger current or future clients or customers, keep your politics to yourself.  Believe what you want to believe, just don’t use your business’s forum to address it.

Chances are you hate one guy and you love another.  Chances are that SOME folks will share your feelings for these candidates.  Chances are that some people will TOTALLY disagree with your feelings.  DON’T CHANCE IT!   When people feel strongly about something, they will fight tooth and nail to debate the issue.  You don’t want to be caught up in a fight with people whose respect and friendship you need.  If you are Conservative, chances are you can not see the Liberal side of things and vice versa.  So why Conservatives and Liberals SO different?

According to the study conducted at the University of Nebraska, conservatives and liberals pay attention to their environments differently, meaning the two sides of the political spectrum quite literally don’t see eye-to-eye.

Conservatives pay more attention to negative stimuli compared with liberals, the study found.  ”They’re essentially monitoring things that make them feel uncomfortable, which does feel fairly consistent with conservative policies,” study researcher Mike Dodd, a psychologist at the University of Nebraska. “They tend to confront things head-on that they view as threats, things like immigration and so on.”

The biology that Dodd is referring to is the way your body reacts to things around you.  For instance, do you get nauseous easily?  Scientists have found that Conservatives are typically more squeamish than Liberals.  Liberals, on the other hand, tend to pay more attention to the actions of others – eye movements and such – than Conservatives.

So there’s a little biology lesson to finish off my political pandemonium.  In summary, I myself am entirely and completely neutral on the issue of electing a President at this time… seeing both sides, ALL of the issues, taking into consideration things that are important to me and my family, making my decision when I need to and NOT a minute before.

I, Denise Hood, am the human equivalent of Switzerland until November.  Deal with it.