By Kaley Pederson, Staff Writer
There you are, a Christmas dinner with your family (heavy Conservatives), and you are trying to avoid the topic of politics, but it seems they do not know how to talk about any other subject. Conversations now typically lead to “heated” arguments about who is “right”: the Liberal or Conservative side. Honestly, it is extremely tiring listening to people constantly argue over and over about the same topics. Everyone is always yelling about guns, abortion, or Trump, and at this point it is ridiculous. It is as if people cannot comprehend the arguments they have drawn out and hearing them time and time again has become a gruesome process.
All we want is a simple conversation, not a debate over your opinion on a woman being pro-choice rather than pro-life, sir. Did I mention that women cannot peacefully talk about bodily events without abortion being referred to? Possibly people will also include the fact that “our workplaces should not medically cover birth control,” but it is medicinal, is it not? These political arguments are tiresome and dragged on constantly. With the events happening in the world today, everywhere you turn there is politics, politics, and more politics. Is there an escape route that no one is telling us about?
Then, as soon as someone brings up guns all hell breaks loose. It seems that the only thing on the news anymore is: suicidal school shooting, mass school shooting, gun protests, and the National Rifle Association (NRA) making a surplus of money off of the panic to buy guns. Does this make any sense? There are shootings within the United States happening at least every week, so why would there be a panic to buy guns? If a person is shooting at about 30 people and each of those 30 people have a gun, then when the police show up who are they going to arrest or shoot at (if necessary)? The gun issue causes more problems than it solves and gun-owners are assuming that everyone wants to take away their guns entirely. No one wants to take your stupid gun. All that has been proposed are regulations to firearms and the process to obtain one. It should be an intricate process and no one who cannot pass a series of tests should be able to own a firearm.
Finally, our President Donald J. Trump, is the target of most political arguments. The thing that infuriates me the most is when someone tells you that he is “not their President”. Well, if that is true, then where do you live? As much as I would have loved for someone else to be in his position, Trump’s name is what is going to be on those posters of Presidents that you see in history classrooms. No one is saying you have to agree with Trump on everything, but you have to find ways to understand the things that he says and if it is entirely against you then find ways to rise against him and prove him wrong. The Parkland students brought a massive amount of attention to their advocation for a form of gun control after their school shooting and Trump had to acknowledge it, addressing a restriction on “bump-stocks”.
Political discussions do not need to invade our everyday conversations or our nice meals, we can save them for any other time. The facts speak for themselves and if you are a Conservative talking politics with a Liberal or vise-versa, remember to remain open-minded. It is extremely difficult to carry out a conversation with someone who is yelling at you, exclaiming how wrong you are, and finally telling you that you have no rights because, “What do you know, you are a woman.” Politics do not need to be everywhere all the time, especially if you are going to use these discussions to degrade someone.