A House Divided: Politics & Family

 I wrestle with the disheartening state of women's rights and the tough political decisions that lie ahead.

Family gatherings are supposed to be fun and heartwarming, right? My 4th of July was anything but simple as I confronted the challenge of bonding with relatives despite clashing beliefs and my introverted tendencies. I recount the uncomfortable decision to sidestep a Bible study, wary of the divisive interpretations that often accompany it. The political divide in my family only adds to the tension, with strong pro-Trump sentiments at odds with my own views. Yet, love keeps me returning to these gatherings, even if it means suppressing parts of who I am. As election season looms, I open up about my choice to support Kamala Harris, driven by my belief in equality for all humans. Tune in for an honest look at balancing personal health, political dilemmas, and complex family dynamics.

Chapters

• 0:00 Women's Rights and Political Alignment
• 12:07 Navigating Family Relationships and Beliefs

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

They say make America great again. But I don't see how going backwards will do that. All the women before us have been fighting for independence. How can you vote for Trump? They don't hide it. They come out and they say it. I'm sad by it.

Speaker 1: 0:21

The Lovey Mishy by podcast. Let's inspire each other. It is so good to be back on the mic. I have been sick. This will be day 13. I'm still.

Speaker 1: 0:40

I can't hear out of my right ear, so editing this podcast is going to be a little bit of a pain, but that's why I didn't release an episode last week. I barely had a voice. I couldn't hear out of my right ear. It was. I was just a big mess. I lost my voice today at like four o'clock. Yeah, it just came on like that.

Speaker 1: 1:01

I knew that my throat was kind of bothering me last night, but like I had my voice and today I don't have my voice, I am getting better. You may still hear a little bit of sickness going on, but I am moving through it and feel so much better than I did last week. So I was like I went I got a COVID test. Well, actually I had an expired COVID test in my house because I did send away and get those two free tests from the government, never needed it after I got them so I was like, well, I bet you I have it. So I took a test and it turns out I didn't. But then I'm thinking in my head it's expired, so maybe it wasn't accurate, because I have every symptom possible of having COVID.

Speaker 1: 1:49

What started as no voice ended up turning into complete congestion in my head. There wasn't really any lung problems, it was just like all up here, all up in my head. Then I got to the point where my ear just completely, you know, got so muffled that I couldn't hear out of it and I would assume it's because of all of the fluid buildup in my head. Um, it needed somewhere to go and ended up, uh, going in my ear canal. So I needed to go to the doctor. Actually, actually I have a, you know, I have an app so I can just, you know, send my doctor a text. It's a multiple doc, it's actually multiple doctors that can jump in. And I said I, you know, cannot hear.

Speaker 1: 2:33

So she suggested, if I didn't want to come in, to invest in an ear camera. I'm like what she's like. Yeah, they're not too expensive, expensive. I didn't didn't even know they existed. I just never knew. So I'm like, okay, I ordered an ear camera. It was probably like 25 bucks. I got it. I'm like, holy crap, all right. So I'm like moving it around, taking, trying to take pictures like a screenshot on my phone. Then I noticed there is the a record button. I'm like I can record this bad boy. So I recorded, you know, my ear and everything and took pictures and sent it back to the doctor. And well, I guess it either turns out that I'm not a very good ear camera specialist and they couldn't really make a lot out of it. So I had to go in.

Speaker 1: 3:22

And when I got in there, she looked at my ear and saw that I, you know it ruptured. Well, it had repeatedly filled up, drained out, filled up, drained out to the point where she's like we're not going to usually this will heal on its own, but we're going to go ahead and give you antibiotics, which I was thrilled about. But I took another COVID test and it turns out that too was negative. So I definitely did not have COVID. She says my lungs were clear, so I didn't have the flu either. What did I have, you ask. No one knows, it's just something viral, but I'm like, if this is the way, if this is the direction we are moving in for colds nowadays, this is an issue. This is an issue because I really don't get sick. I just don't. I'm hardly ever sick, like my daughter works in a daycare, which is obviously going to subject me to a lot more sicknesses because she's with little children all day that touch and touch their face and touch all these things, and yeah, so she's been getting sick for the last two years, but her immune system's building up, so whatever she brought home this last time knocked me out. Two weeks later, though, knocked me out, so let's just hope this is the end of that.

Speaker 1: 4:35

But as far as politics go, you know my absolute favorite subject, the subject that I choose typically not to talk about. I choose typically not to talk about. I'm finding it difficult not to speak on it, but we're in an election year, so I think that if I'm going to speak on it, it should definitely be this year. Well, I was having trouble. I have always voted blue.

Speaker 1: 5:00

After the debate, I watched Joe Biden and Trump debate and felt sick instantly. I was not confident that I wanted to vote for Joe Biden. I wanted to know more about him. Anyone that knows me knows that I am not a fan of big pharma. I really believe in cannabis research and not so much in prescription pills. It's greed over health. I know that RFK is a proponent of that. He's green, he's into the environment and a lot of things that I can align with and do align with. So I was looking in that direction up until a week and a half ago, when Joe Biden stepped down.

Speaker 1: 5:57

You could come up with a bunch of different reasons why he stepped down. I don't know. I wasn't there. They're going to tell you what they want to tell you. My guess is because a lot of the funds towards their campaign was frozen. People started to back out. He was being pressured to get out and only he could make that choice. Though, any way you look at it, he still had to make that choice. He still had to choose what to do in that scenario, and he did, and I have much respect for him for doing that.

Speaker 1: 6:30

I don't consider myself an ageist. I don't consider myself someone that that holds prejudice against age. I'm 50 and I definitely don't want that to happen to me, although I know that it does. I know that it happens every single day. So that is not the reason I was choosing not to vote for Joe Biden. My reason was I was afraid that he didn't have all the function necessary to complete his duty in making those decisions. I'm not a doctor, I don't know. This was just my own intuition based on what I've seen. With that said, he stepped down and Kamala Harris has stepped up and he endorsed her, so a lot.

Speaker 1: 7:15

Kamala Harris came out and did their own Zoom, which included Pink, and they ended up raising I guess it was either. I think it was around $11 million. Then there was the white men for Kamala Harris. I don't know how much they raised. I know it was a good sum $2 million, something like that and all the other Zoom meetings for Kamala Harris. Now I think I was a little taken back when it was so segregated. I think that took me back a little bit. I didn't love that.

Speaker 1: 7:59

I would much rather see unity and say all women for Kamala Harris or all people for Kamala Harris. I think there is something that adds a level of excitement when it's just a core group, because it feels like you guys are bonding together in this united feeling. So I can get that, and I do think in the environment that we're living in right now, with Trump and bigotry and trying to take women's rights away in oh, so many ways Let me count the ways it feels good to unite with women of all races to push for Kamala Harris. It does. I'm terrified of Trump. I'm terrified of everybody on his team, but you know what really gets me of everybody on his team, but you know what really gets me. You and I both know we can walk outside, we can go see somebody, and if they have American apparel on, what's the first thing you think? You think MAGA right, I do, I do, especially in Texas. I'm in Texas, so I stay away from the patriotic attire. I don't like that. It bothers me.

Speaker 1: 9:13

The Heritage Foundation is the creator of this document with people from Trump's camp in one way or another. 902 pages, I think. They say make America great again. But I don't see how going backwards will do that. They don't want IVF, they don't want birth control, they don't want much control for women at all, and it is frightening. How can you be a woman, knowing the things that they're about to do or want to do, and be okay, voting for Trump. I was born, so I was born at a time where women could not have their own bank account. We had to get it signed off by the husband or the man 1974. Do we want to go back to that America? Because I don't. We didn't get voting rights till 1920. 1920. All the women before us have been fighting for independence. How can you vote for Trump? They don't hide it, they come out and they say it. I'm sad by it, which brings me into my next part.

Speaker 1: 10:42

Do you have issues talking about politics with your family? Are you a family that's divided? How does it impact you, the political environment we're living in today? How is it impacting you and your family and your friends? Is it a problem? I just want to know.

Speaker 1: 11:01

I was raised, I would say, in a traditionally blue state of New Jersey. I was born in a red state, texas, and my whole family is from here. My entire family is from here. That comes with complications. I was always the city girl visiting, with the city mindset and I talked too fast and I was very, very excited when I spoke and my family here has always been very calm and very relaxed and spoke slowly. Yeah, so I was a spitfire, okay, and everybody knew it, and everybody knew it. So the slang and the things that would come out of people's mouths that are in my family caught me off guard. I'm going to try to explain this in the best way that I can, without pinpointing who, what, where and when. That is so difficult. Maybe one day I can break it down and be more specific, but I'm not going to do that. So this is all I'm going to say.

Speaker 1: 12:07

I went for the 4th of July to my family's house. They had a big 4th of July party. I ended up staying in my own little area for majority of the time. I played a game, I did this, I did that, but I didn't really bond with a lot of people at the party. So my son ended up staying over the house for like a week you know it was a planned thing and when I picked him up he said why didn't you? Why didn't you bond more? Why didn't you engage more with everybody?

Speaker 1: 12:51

I was like well, I'm an introvert, I'm a little bit of an introvert and I think that that's it. Like you know, you're like you're an introvert with your family and I'm not necessarily an introvert with my family. It wasn't just my family, it was extended friends, it was extended family, it was much more than that. And so I'm not an introvert to my dad no at all, like he knows me, but others there I am, and some of them you can look online and see how pro-Trump they are. I chalked it up to being an introvert and that's what I pretty much told him. But it got me thinking. I'm like am I such an introvert that I'm taking myself out of making these memories with all these people? Like, what's my deal, what's my freaking problem? And it hit me. It hit me.

Speaker 1: 13:42

Some people in the family have a Bible study every Monday on Zoom. I've been invited to this Bible study and I have turned it down. I have turned it down because I don't want to join a Bible study. Any beliefs or spirituality that I have, I don't feel like. I don't want to talk about the Bible. I don't want to sit around and discuss because it's your own interpretation of what those words say. And in my history I've noticed that people take those lines from the Bible and twist it into their own terms and their own thoughts and spit out what they think it means. And it is not even it's not meant to be hateful, from what I can tell. So how can you take a Bible verse and make it hateful towards a whole group of people?

Speaker 1: 14:37

I think all religion is beautiful. I think there are bits and pieces of religion that should be listened to, should be followed for your own internal well-being, just being a good human, but nothing that spews judgment or hate on other people do I want to be a part of. So I politely turned it down and said I'm spiritual, I just don't want to follow this. So, right there, I'm sure everybody thinks I'm burning in hell. They may not verbally say it, but I'm sure they're thinking it. They want to protect my soul. I have a lot of family members that probably want to protect my soul and I thank you for that and I love you, regardless if we feel differently on religion. But I'm in charge of protecting my soul and I think I can do a pretty damn good job, and if I don't, then it's me that has to suffer and not you. So let's love each other anyway. Okay, I went off on a tangent there.

Speaker 1: 15:41

Then I have the political stance at play, the political feelings at play, where I'm clearly not ever going to vote for Trump and these people who I love and some I think are fine, um are diehard Trump supporters. How can I bond with certain people? How can I be genuine with certain people, knowing they feel bad for me, they judge me? I can't and therefore it puts a divide between my family and I Not all but some and that is why it's hard for me to bond. That is why it's hard for me to sit in a corner and just shoot the shit about life, because my life and my views and my everything, my being, are completely different than yours.

Speaker 1: 16:43

But I go to these events because I love my family. I go to these events with already a preconceived notion. People are judging me and maybe they're not, maybe it's just in my head, but I've heard them speak of others and I don't need to be the loudest person in the room. I'm going to be the quietest. I'm going to just do my thing, visit with my dad and do my thing. So maybe it's internal, maybe I'm projecting, but I know that if they really knew me and my views, they may not like me, and I've accepted that well before. They've told me they didn't. So maybe it's on me too, but it's a lot easier to be in a room full of people that share the same core values.

Speaker 1: 17:30

I don't care if you're religious at all at all, just don't push it on me. I don't care if you're voting for Trump, I'd rather not know. If you want me to be honest, I'd rather not know, because if I love you, I love you. Just disappointed, because this isn't a nice guy, he's a narcissist and he terrifies me. He just does so. That's a little bit about the political world I'm living in right now, just trying to get through it. I guess it's pretty obvious that I'm going to be voting Democrat once again. It I guess it's pretty obvious that I'm going to be voting Democrat once again, and I'm going to be voting for Kamala Harris, who could possibly be the first female president. But I will say this I am not voting for Kamala Harris because she's a woman. I am voting for Kamala Harris because I am a woman. All right, love you, miss you, bye. Talk to you next Monday.