Religion & Politics & Friendships

With the upcoming election, everyone has their debate face on as far as who's right and who's wrong to run our country. Both parties are so unbelievably biased it's ridiculous, and regardless of the facts, people see the elephant or the donkey and they don't budge. I admit, I'm biased as well; I am liberal for the most part, and I don't like to conform to society's standards of what I "should" be like. I don't even like politics all that much, all the bureaucratic bullshiz and the scandals; we might as well be watching an episode of The Real World: White House, where instead of guidos and slutty chics running around, we've got men and women in pant-suits arguing and gossiping about everything.

I've even noticed how my "friends" on Facebook who are right-winged have changed towards the things I post, whether it has to do with politics or not, because of my left-winged tendencies.

Sidebar: I think it's funny, too, how I only communicate with like 15% of my friends. According to Facebook, I have 258 friends. HA. I totally associate with maybe 5 or 10 people, and some family members with whom I can have a cordial conversation. Some of these people that friend request me didn't even talk to me in high school; I'd admire them (the popular people) from afar, their glamorous and fun seeming lifestyles. And not a lot has changed since then; many of them still lead these seemingly perfect, carefree lives with no hardships and full of fun and partying. How nice fake it must be! Am I just another number to add onto your list of 1,500 friends that stroke your ego and make you feel popular? High school doesn't end with high school or college for the most part, unfortunately, nor does it end in the workplace. Cliques, drama, and gossip still exist in the adult word.

Back on topic...
I've never really expressed a political affiliation prior to this election; I didn't even vote during the last election because I didn't like either candidate, and I honestly wasn't that interested in anything to do with the elections (mainly because I was probably drunk, as I was the majority of the time I was in college), but with this election, seeing how much my future as a middle class citizen could be affected, I feel like I would be doing myself and my country a disservice if I didn't vote. Regardless of who I vote for, I just think it's crazy how peoples' true colors show when it involves their political beliefs.

I feel the same about religion. I went to Catholic school my whole life; rather, I wasn't given a choice to go anywhere else because my parents wanted a higher education for me, which was kind of them, however I don't think my mother really comprehended the fear and guilt the Catholic religion can instill in a young teenage girl with self-esteem issues, therefore resulting in self-loathing and depression. Anyway, I can remember sitting in religion class in my senior year of high school, and Brother Phillip, the religion teacher, was talking about souls. He said that animals didn't have souls; that when they died, they did not go into heaven because they had a soul comparable to a rock, i.e: non-existent. That is the moment I stopped believing in religion (I didn't say believing in God!). I was so quiet in high school and never really said a whole lot, but I had never felt the need to bite my tongue more. I didn't understand the contradiction, that God loved all creatures but limited the entrance into heaven to humans only. Didn't we descend from apes anyway? Of course, not in the eyes of the creationists. Evolution was hardly touched on at my high school so I didn't really get the chance to learn anything about that until college (where it became the most fascinating thing I  have ever learned).
I'm passionate about certain things in life (animals, women's rights, etc), but I don't sit around talking about my distaste in organized religion all day every day, or in the election. It's my personal business, and if people ask, I'll gladly answer, but it just gets redundant and annoying after awhile. Sure, I'll like a liberal post here and there on Facebook, (which unfortunately shows up in my news feed for all my friends to see, resulting in the suppressed animosity that I most definitely feel from the non-left-wingers), but that's what I think one of the joys of being liberal is about---peaceful passion. 
I don't want to shove any of my beliefs down anybody's throat; I want the freedom to choose whatever I see fit for MY life. Yes, it's MY life, and I don't want someone telling me I no longer have the option to take birth control, or that if I were raped, they would decide if it was legitimate or not. As part of a society, we all have to conform in some way or another, but I believe social etiquette and respect aren't too far fetched behaviors for us adults to portray. Is social decency extinct? Or am I naive and did it just never really exist?