not in the comments!

Har har, Emily. I don't mind the comments section, but if a post gets down a ways on the page, I'd rather just start a new string. But to respond to your answer to Adam's question ...

That's just it. People are "blissfully ignorant and would not care to know more." That's BAD. It leads to something called blind partisanship, which means that once you've decided which political party you belong to, you come to think that your party's leaders can do no wrong, and the other party's leaders are evil. Last time I checked, the only assurance we have of a person being somewhat infallible is the Lord's promise that the prophet will never lead us astray, and that's President Hinckley, not President Bush. A healthy dose of skepticism toward ALL elected officials is highly recommended.

Yes, Adam and I are here in DC, working in politics and government every single day ... and it's this very reason that it frustrates us so much that our own families are so apathetic towards what we do. The whole reason I came to DC in the first place was to help inform people (particularly my own family) on the bigger picture. Here's what I see as an ideal situation:

Family Member X posts on the blog or emails me about a subject. X says "I've heard these things about it on the news. What else can you tell me about it?" Adam or I post/email back: here's what the people in favor say, here's what the people opposed say, and here are some links to read. Because of our jobs, we've likely already gone through all the junk and picked out the good information, and so you get only the good information. If X asked specifically, we would share our personal opinion on the subject. We could discuss pro's and con's, and share our thoughts on the blog and it would be cool because maybe X would have a perspective that I hadn't thought of before and we would both be learning. Then X would come up with their OWN opinion. Whether or not they agree with us is entirely irrelevant. But I would LOVE that, because it would be an INFORMED opinion.

As for caring about politics or liking it or whatever - here's the honest truth - I hate politics. It's the most totally frustrating thing I've ever come across. But I CARE about it, because after being sorta on the "inside" for 5 years, I've seen first hand at both the state and national level how badly these yahoos can screw things up for every single person in the entire country.