I rarely, if ever, talk about politics. The will be one of those rare moments. I just got finished reading a few politically charged exchanges on a blog and it spurred this post.
I have read thousands of political debates and discussions/arguments on the internet and each of the individuals in these debates is solidly entrenched in their respective corners. I don’t think I have ever read anyone concede defeat in such encounters. I do find reading these debates amusing from time to time but always find most of them pointless in that no middle ground is ever reached.
During my first college days back in the early nineteen nineties, I was solidly in the Republican camp. I listened to Rush Limbaugh every night and cheered on my republican constituents to take control of the senate and the house. This was before my mental illness established itself and before I had an experience with homelessness. I had plenty of money. I had a nice car. I had a stable living situation. I had inherited my family’s middle class status. I also inherited their politics.
When my mental illness established itself in my early twenties, my political landscape started to change. I realized that if it were up to the right, I would be thrust upon the streets and left to fend for myself if I were unable to take care of myself due to my illness. I realized that people would run to the aid of those with physical ailments such as diabetes or cancer but mention schizophrenia and people shied away. I fear most people see mental illness as a personal weakness of character and not an actual disease of one of our most important and major organs, the brain. It is easy to look at an MRI or X-ray and see a tumor but you cannot do this with a mental illness. That is why mental illnesses are so hard to diagnose.
My experience with homelessness was the final nail in the proverbial coffin for me as far as any right wing leanings I had. I realized that there is very little help for those of us in situations not of our making. There are safety nets for entities such as large corporations and businesses but little to none for those average citizens who are besieged by a debilitating mental illness. If you do not have a family who will support you or help you then you a quite frankly shit out of luck.
There IS help out there but it is not easy to find and often takes months or years to get. You have to become adept at maneuvering a complicated series of red tape, appointments, and interviews; most of the time you have to be destitute to finally receive this help. There is also the catch-22 when mental illness is involved in that if you are too sick to take care of yourself or think rationally then how in the hell are you going to fill out all those forms and make it to interviews and appointments? That is where your family becomes your last defense against insanity, poverty, and homelessness.
I have never met a homeless republican. I could be proved wrong and shown one but I seriously doubt that they are rational or possessing a sane mind. All the homeless people or formerly homeless people I have met online have been solidly left leaning and liberal many of them radically so. Your social and economic status greatly influences your political leanings.
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