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Dear Theresa, Who Are You?

I've seen you flip flop on issues back and forth so bad that I've got whiplash.

By Katie MarchbankPublished 7 years ago 4 min read
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I'm not from the UK or even Europe at all. I live here in grand ol' America (sarcasm emphasis on grand), though I do come from Europe (born, but not raised, in Moscow, Russia). I've heard a lot about you, both from the other Dear Theresa pieces on this site and in the news. I kind of know what Brexit is, and I know that most people who believe in the same things as me don't like it.

But I can't figure out who you are. I've seen you flip flop on issues back and forth so bad that I've got whiplash. I can't tell if I'm supposed to dislike you, like you, or feel neutral about you. I guess living in the US, I can continue to be ignorant. Ignorance is bliss, right? But something keeps tugging at me to know more, and no matter how much I read, I still feel like I don't know anything about you or what you stand for.

Perhaps it is my interest in powerful women. As a feminist, I love seeing women rise to power and break through the glass ceiling. I'm even more fascinated, though, by women who work against their own interests in the name of party loyalty. I hear you're the leader of the Conservative party. Over here in the US, that, to me, means someone who doesn't like taxes and doesn't like social change.

I will admit that, as a bleeding-heart liberal, I approach all politics with a bias. I cannot and will not ever think that we should not give people the rights that other people have. I also don't think that taxes are the root of all evil like my entire family does. I like knowing that my taxes may have helped someone out. It's a good feeling.

I do, however, think it's important to have women in the conservative party. If the conservative party only had men, they'd only have male opinions (and lord knows there are not enough female opinions in politics anywhere). I think that's why people have called you a left-leaning conservative. You're a female voice in a male party and to them, it's automatically not conservative enough. I don't know about there in the UK, but here in the US, conservatives are often associated with hating women and feminists like myself.

So are you conservative? Are you a liberal in disguise? I really can't tell.

But, maybe that's OK. Our society has increasingly placed importance on labels and that you must be "this" or "that." Unfortunately, if you're not "this" or "that," nobody likes you.

I'm sorry Britain has had such a tough time lately. It can't be easy with all those terror attacks and then that fire thing and whatever else has been going on over there. But I haven't actually been hearing much from you about it all, honestly. Not sure if it's because I live in the US, but I feel like I know more about what Trump thinks about the UK than you do (and I actively try to avoid hearing what that guy has to say about anything, because I know I'll get mad).

But you've got to woman up. Tell me what you think. Even if I don't like it, at least I know. People need to know if they can support their leader or not. Nobody can leave in eternal ambiguity. It's not healthy and makes us very confused. This can lead to a number of things, including a very distracted nation that can't succeed in the world.

You've said some things, though. In so many words. It's hard to even find a simple listicle of "Theresa May's viewpoints" on Google, but they're there. I do know you think "Brexit means Brexit" because that's all that keeps coming up. It doesn't really matter much to me as a US citizen, though, so I can't really tell you if I like that or not.

I do like your views on allowing same sex marriage. I do like your views on women and their image in the workplace. I don't like your views on immigration. I don't like your views on the poor. I don't like your views on fox hunting. I don't like your views on abortion. I don't like your views on the environment. That's a lot more don'ts than dos, but I acknowledge that people can grow and learn. You used to be against same sex marriage, but you changed. People can change, believe it or not.

So maybe I don't know how to feel about you. Maybe you don't know how to feel about you.

But at least you're not Trump.

politicians
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About the Creator

Katie Marchbank

Just trying to take down the patriarchy while playing video games and eating too much pasta.

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