Dave/Chris: A question of politics

 I don't want to talk too much about politics. I know how polarising it is right now, but the election was a big event, and it affects me too, especially in this life. So without getting too controversial, I want to make one single post, and give my thoughts on the election.

I come from a conservative state. The vast majority of my family and friends have always voted Republican. Shane and I have too. I voted for Trump in 2016 and again in 2020, because he was on the ticket. Now don't get me wrong, I don't really like the guy. I've seen him speak, and he doesn't always make a lot of sense. But I've always been in favour of smaller government and taking responsibility for yourself, rather than hand-outs. The issues at the southern border also haven't been dealt with properly.

However, I now find myself in a blue state, and not only are all of Chris and Sylvia's friends very much Democrat voters, but so are the people whose bodies we currently inhabit. That has made for some awkwardness, especially leading up to the election. I tried to be as neutral as possible, but even that raised eyebrows, because both Chris and Sylvia actively campaign for the Democrats at every election. I don't want there to be issues for them later, when they reclaim these lives, so I reluctantly hung a couple of Harris/Waltz posters in the cafe a few weeks ago and pretended to support them as best as I could.

There were some lively discussions in the cafe, leading up to the election, and I was inevitably drawn into some of those, and by the time the election came around, I'd shifted my position a little. Some of that came from some well thought out arguments, and some came from just inhabiting this body. For example, the Republicans have made the use of public restrooms for trans people an issue in the past. I already have a real fear of using them in this body, because the anatomy doesn't fit the label. But this is made a lot worse from the Republican stance on this. I probably belonged to those people who believed that people couldn't change their biological sex, but suddenly becoming a trans person has definitely changed my stance on this.

I was torn on who to vote for by the time the election did come around, so in the end, I did something I've never done before....I didn't vote at all. Not that it really matters in California anyway.

That's all I'm going to say about this. It was an awkward time for both me and Shane, and I'm glad it's over. 

But we've had to deal with a lot of glum faces in our cafe the past couple of days....