Miscellany

Open Letter to my Twitter Friends re: Politics

January 7, 2012

twitter-logo-squareDear Friends That I Follow on Twitter,

If I unfollow you sometime this year, please don’t be offended. It will probably have nothing to do with our friendship and everything to do with politics.

I respect you and your opinions on politics, candidates, elections, and so forth; I’m just not interested in hearing about them on Twitter. I’m not trying to stop you from bashing or making fun of Obama, Romney, Santorum or any other candidate — you’ve every right to do that. I just don’t want to see/hear it. There’s way too much political noise out there already, and I don’t care to suffer through even more of it on Twitter.

This is not a threat!

I’m seriously not posting this to make anyone quake in their boots about possibly being unfollowed; why should anyone care whether I follow them or not?!? Plus, chances are very good that I’ll follow you again when the election is over, just like I did with many friends in 2008 and 2010.

I’m posting this because, when I did that in both of those years, I got more than a few angry emails/tweets from friends about being unfollowed. I’d like to avoid that this year, or at least be able to say “Hey, I’m sorry, but here’s why…” and point them to this post.

Again, it’s not about you. It’s about politics.

Thanks for understanding. Still friends. But if I unfollow, you know why. And I’ll see you in 2013.

Matt

8 Comments

  • Reply David Mihm January 8, 2012 at 6:04 pm

    I am curious, have you stopped following me? I feel like my Tweets are 100% objective…with the possible exception of trashing Rick Perry, who I think is a certifiable moron and scares the crap out of me…I would hate to lose you as a follower over stuff that I just like jabbering about…

  • Reply Matt January 8, 2012 at 6:59 pm

    I have not. And I have not seen you tweet about politics, either. But like I said, it shouldn’t matter. It’s no great honor having me as a follower. šŸ™‚

  • Reply David Mihm January 8, 2012 at 7:00 pm

    That is a relief! Pretty soon (February?) I am hoping to launch a political website (and separate Tweet stream) so you shouldn’t have to put up with it. But I find the sport of Primary Politics almost as interesting as the NFL šŸ™‚

    • Reply Matt January 8, 2012 at 11:14 pm

      Wow, for real – a new site? You’re as bad as I am with constantly adding new projects to your plate. At least one of us is trying to cut back in 2012. šŸ˜‰

      I used to appreciate/tolerate politics, but I’d probably blame Fox News and the Us-vs-Them mentality that it spawned (and now exists on CNN, MSNBC and pretty much every other network and radio show around) for making me hate politics. Sick of all the blame and name-calling, and no one bothering to get anything productive done. Sick of the demonizing of the other side. I think any politician that votes with his own party more than 75% of the time should be kicked out of office.

      And that’s about enough politics for me. Can’t believe I actually typed all that….

  • Reply David Mihm January 9, 2012 at 6:37 am

    I totally agree with you on the media. It has poisoned the water. Tom Friedman has a good line in his latest book that all of these attacks have “killed the category” of politics rather than killing one side or the other–which is a terrible thing for the country.

    Huntsman had a good line at the debate yesterday morning calling Romney out on it…but I’m not sure that any one person can change it.

    I like your 75% rule! At the very least he/she should ABSTAIN from the other 25%…which would make for some interesting math & force battles to be picked only on very important bills.

  • Reply Cari McGee January 11, 2012 at 11:37 am

    Why should he/she not vote along the party line more than 75% of the time? That seems rather arbitrary. “I really believe in this, like I’ve believed in the other 74% of the bills, but Matt McGee and David Mihm will see that I can’t continue to serve my constituency if I vote they way I want to, so I guess I’ll abstain.” But, I’m an idealist and I can’t imagine someone not doing the right thing by their conscience, so I should probably be quiet right now. šŸ™‚

    • Reply Matt January 11, 2012 at 11:54 am

      Because anyone who thinks his own party is right — and the other side is wrong — more than 3/4s of the time, is too narrow-minded to be a real leader. We don’t need party politicians in DC. We need leaders, as I suggested here: http://www.mattmcgee.com/health-care-reform-leadership/

  • Reply David Mihm January 11, 2012 at 11:58 am

    Cari, again the point of this would be that you would have to think a little more carefully about the bills you wanted to support or oppose. Moderate bills would have a WAY better chance of passing–let alone getting introduced for an up-down vote. A huge problem right now is that the leadership on BOTH sides won’t even introduce bills in the first place!

  • Leave a Reply