Let me introduce myself for anyone who may happen to stumble upon this blog. My Name is Maureen Flanigan and I live in a suburb of Chicago. I am a Democrat married to a small business owner, a republican and a retired Army veteran. We have 5 children between us and six grandchildren. We have one teenager still at home. We are white middle class Catholics. I am revealing these facts because it may help understand where I am coming from and how there may be inherent biases. Although I would outwardly deny any bias we all know it is impossible to not be affected by your race, class and gender no matter how hard you try.
A few months ago I thought about writing a blog and I am am so glad I did not. Nothing gives you perspective more than being proved wrong. Nothing is more humbling than realizing that for every person that thinks like me there is a person that thinks nothing like me. I realize that all the conversations I have had in the last 12 months had a tinge of arrogance. I felt I could pretend to understand the Trump supporter, the conservative, or whatever you want to call half the country, because I felt in my soul that this country would never elect this person. I could be the rational one who could take the high road because my side would eventually have the ultimate say when we won. I could be condescending while being sympathetic. I understand how you feel but you are misinformed or confused about the facts. Well, obviously I did not understand and I, like so many Democrats or Liberals or Independents , I regret it.
This has been an emotional week for all Americans and I would like to use this Blog experiment to understand what happened, not on November 8th but in 2016. I want to understand what you see that I don't . I don't want to agree to disagree. I want to agree to understand.
To begin,I would like feedback regarding what is "Mainstream Media" When I have signed on to facebook in the past year my feed was filled with posts from Breitbart ,Fox News , New York Times and CNN. What qualifies as mainstream? Are the above outlets mainstream? Now that the country has elected Donald Trump, is he now the mainstream and the establishment? Can you be in the majority and still be an outsider. Tell me... Where do you find the facts? I am serious. I am not being patronizing, I really want to find the truth. What is propaganda and what is real? What is the motivation behind these "news outlets". Who is the expert? Who do you believe? Are we able to open our minds enough to perhaps change it? Are we so invested in our Ideology, our candidates, and our opinions that we are unable to change our minds for fear of looking hypocritical. Can we admit that voting for Donald Trump does not mean you are a racist? Can we admit that Hillary Clinton is not a criminal? Maybe we can't and this is why this conversation is so important. Lets communicate with our real words..not through tweets, likes or shares. When I write something on this blog I will try to link it to a source. I will try to read at least three accounts before I report it in this blog. Hopefully together we can decipher what is true.
I am so interested in people on both sides of this debate weighing in so if you are game lets begin.
Please comment. What is Mainstream Media? What sources do you trust and why?
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