Being Liberal...ISH.

As I've said before, socialist is one of my pretend alter-egos. My great friend Melly and I pretend to be Communist Russians sometimes when we talk to each other, because we are two more-or-less liberals who happen to be members of the LDS church: a church which, for the most part, is made up of conservative members.

Disclaimer: It is NOT a bad thing to be a conservative. I have many conservative friends and I love them deeply, and I respect their views.

Anyway. Melly and I sometimes feel a little out of place. Her dad is an ambassador;  he works for Obama. And, well, as I've said before, I don't HATE Obama at all. Hence, the made-up Russian Communist alter-egos.

(Although, Mels-Bels is more legitimately Russian than I am. She lived there for I don't know how long, and she went to an American school in Moscow. Sometimes I get jealous of her awesomeness).

I feel like I should give a little background on why I ended up the way I am. That is to say, a more or less dark horse anomaly.

I place the majority of the blame on one fact: My maiden name is Forbush.

There are better things for me to place blame on, such as: my dad's an atheist, my family doesn't vote partisan, we have a long history of being moderate but with liberal leanings, etc. etc., I watch the Colbert Report and The Daily Show with the fervor of a teen girl reading Twilight...

But I attended an LDS private school based in Utah for 6th through 7th grade, and almost EVERYONE there had had the opposite upbringing from me. My 7th grade year happened to hit on the 2004 campaign of the Re-Election of President Bush.

With a first name and last name like mine, those *terribly clever* people were bound to pick up on the political joke. Hilary Forbush quickly became Hilary For Bush. Boy, did weeks of that get on my nerves. Especially because my parents never much cared for Bush, and political leanings do tend to rub off on children. So, he wasn't exactly high on my list of Favorite Presidents Ever.

Let the record also show, however, that I was NOT named after Hillary Clinton, although everyone and their dog seems to think that was the case (which was why that political joke was all the more funny...Hilary For Bush is good, but when it becomes Hillary For Bush, people dissolve into hysterical laughter).  I mean, as if the fact that she spells her name differently isn't a good enough indicator, I was actually born BEFORE Clinton took office. And although my parents are slightly liberal, no, they aren't fanatical enough to name me after any political figure. My mom especially wouldn't have stood for it; she dislikes politics and politicians in general.

"It's like Kurt Vonnegut says," is one of her favorite things to say when politics come up, "it's all the party of the wealthy."

I'm a lot like my mom. After watching Inside Job in my Econ class, I was totally tempted to move to Sweden (which is a communist country, but they are the happiest country on record, currently), just because the greed and the lack of concern for people that the government tends to show is really, really disturbing.

I'm not a complete and total leftie. Don't worry, my conservative friends. I like John Huntsman just fine; in fact, I kind of wish he was the one getting the nominee for the Republican Presidential Candidate, and Abraham Lincoln (a Republican) is still my favorite president. But I'm not going to shift or wishy-washy my own beliefs and opinions just because they may not match up entirely with someone else's. I'm not going to apologize for who I am, and I shouldn't have to. No one should.

In fact, if there was a political party of "Love, Peace, and Tolerance" I'd join it. I don't care if it sounds like some kind of hippie pipe dream. I think Christ, who was the most loving person of all by Christian standards, would probably be in favor of that party. That's what politics should be about, right? Love thy neighbor as thyself?

I don't know. I know nothing, but I keep learning. Tanner is the best teacher of tolerance I have ever had. Mostly because he tolerates, respects, and listens to my opinions. He usually contests them (and good for him for standing up for HIS beliefs and opinions!), but he still listens to mine.

I am who I am.

& That's Elementary.