Differences of Opinion

There is a little primary election about to take place in our state next Tuesday for the Republicans.  Two candidates are running for our state legislative seat.  Another two are running for US senate.  Both races are getting ugly.

And I am a registered independent.

Because the primaries here are closed, I am unable to vote next week unless I change my party affiliation, just for the primary.  Well, no republican around here is worth that feeling that I have sold myself off to the predominate party.  So I am interested in what happens--let's be honest here.  Republicans seem to rule the local world.  What they decide affect me.  But there are principles here that I wholeheartedly disagree with in these races.

One that came up yesterday was that a member of our stake, using our ward member emails, is emailing me very negative messages about the candidate that I will choose to support when the time comes that I can vote (in November).  I support him because of his stand for public education issues that I believe in. 

Her emails, as passionate as they can be, are not the truth as I have researched it.  She is so convinced that the State Common Core standards are some kind of Obama-administration-led conspiracy theory to take over and run our local schools.  The most curious part of this camp is that the majority of folks who so passionate declare these falsehoods are in the charter school or home schooling vein.  They don't even have their kids in mainstream public education, and therefore, the common core does not apply.  So of they get their way, parents who are not the majority of the public school students will be making choices for the students for whom they have not stewardship.

The other very disturbing thing, to me at least, is that these people seemingly have very strong testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which, as I understand and believe, relies heavily on an individual's right to choose for himself.  But they want to deny me that choice for my own family.  Just like the Sex Ed bill that tried to remove the "opt out" choice for parents in favor of teaching only abstinence.  luckily for my mental health, the governor was wise enough to veto that one on the premise that parents should get to choose for their own kids.

The other disturbing part of this is the idea that one candidate is more "righteous" than another.  That is not what that little "r" after their name means.

I just want it to be over.  Waiting for the presidential election until November is unsettling enough, but this kind of neighborhood brawl waiting to happen just makes my stomach sick.  And makes me less enthusiastic about the Strawberry Days parade...where these holier than thou candidates will certainly be  this weekend.