Where is home?

When the day is over, and home is in sight, it is a really good feeling. We feel recognition of the place and a comfort at being there. We feel safe and at ease.
"Home," has two meanings for any of us who are not living in the area where we were born. One meaning of home may be where we now reside; the other may mean where we feel most "at home," though we do not live there.
The ideal psychological state is to feel at home where we reside. But that is not the case for everyone. And if "home" feels like it is somewhere else, we may always feel homesick, as if we are in a temporary uneasy situation.
Feeling "at home," has a number of elements: safety, familiarity, comfort, a sense of control, and feeling at ease. When I translate this set of elements to politics, I am aware that residing in my state feels like I am away from home. And I am homesick for the place in which I used to live.
Prior to the year 2000 many Democrats felt relatively safe, the news was familiar, we were in our comfort zone, we were in control, feeling at ease. Then we lost two elections in a row to Republicans and the World Trade Center was attacked by radical Jihadis. It was very unfamiliar territory, and it still feels that way. I do not feel enough at home in my own country or my own state.
The state where I was born and raised is now "Republican," and so is the state where I reside. No wonder I feel like a visitor wherever I go! And it is my own fault. I have failed to make myself feel "at home" in these places because of the way I look at things. I can not change the circumstances or the news, but I can change the way I look at the political situation.
Here is my little list of cognitive "reframes" to Republican rhetoric-

• War on Terror is a misnomer. There can be no such thing. If we feel constantly terrorized, unsafe, unable to feel at ease, it is because our government has fostered that feeling, not because it is true. The U.S. may be fighting and killing terrorists, but terror in our heads is of our own making when we buy into our government's fear producing propaganda. I can feel relatively safe.
• Red State is an overstatement. Having a Republican majority does not mean that only Republicans reside in my state of origin and the state that is now my home. Many Democrats live where I was born and are my neighbors here. I am certainly not alone.
• Republican control is a distortion of the facts. Holding a majority in the U.S. House and Senate has not meant that the majority has had its way on every issue. Democrats have been able to influence many outcomes for the better over the past 6 years. And we have a good chance at influencing the outcomes of many of the 2006 elections.
• Unitary presidency is a concocted theory. Theory need not become permanent practice, unless we allow it. The Constitution has a long- standing history of success, and has weathered worse assaults by presidents in temporary positions. Every 4 years brings an opportunity to right a wrong. I can feel at ease about the strength of our system of government.

I am home now.
Tags: Democrats home state