I spent a large chunk of my life on a small farm in a medium-sized town where I was raised by parents who enthusiastically attended Bush rallies in 2004. My dad was dressed as a bedazzled Uncle Sam when Bush visited Saginaw. He’s convinced Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is going to ruin the country, but that doesn’t stop me from watching NASCAR with him on a particularly lazy Saturday afternoon. I don’t support strict gun control. I’m such a raging capitalist it’s not even funny.

So who am I? Did you figure me out yet?

I could confuse you even more by telling you that I use a PC but am getting ready to buy a Mac. I attended Catholic school from the time I entered kindergarten until I walked across the stage of my high school graduation.

If you haven’t figured out by now who I’ll be voting for in November, congratulations. You’re smart enough to realize that none of these quirks — individually or coupled with any other factor listed — can totally define a person or their political views.

Things are tense right now. At times, I feel like I’m walking around on eggshells, trying to avoid any topic that potentially could turn into a political discussion. But even when I’m totally on top of my game, doing my best to dodge any major red, white and blue bullets, I somehow end up embroiled in political debate with friends, family and sometimes co-workers.

How does this happen? It must be because I’ve been absentminded enough to make the mistake of wearing a blue or red shirt on a day of political significance. It also could be the fact that I’m reading “The Fountainhead” in my spare time. My reusable coffee mugs? Those really set people off.

It sounds stupid because it is stupid. People have become so caught up in taking sides in the presidential campaign that it’s beginning to stifle their otherwise normal social interactions.

Phone conversations with long-distance friends at other schools are no longer chances to catch up on gossip and important life details — we’re now wasting our daytime minutes trying to decipher what our friends mean when they say, “I’m ready for a change.” Such a statement is then immediately followed by deep contemplation on how much longer your friendship can last knowing the person on the other end of the line is “one of them.”

Watching the nightly news with your roommates after an exhausting day at school? I’d advise you to steer clear of ABC News anchor Charles Gibson — the obvious liberal who badgered Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with biased questions. And you already should know well enough to stay away from Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly. Regardless of your friends’ political beliefs, someone is bound to end up in tears after an hour in the “No-Spin Zone.” Choosing either of these as your source for news will not only reveal your political persuasion, it could result in a Brady Bunch-like division of your apartment, involving masking tape to draw a line down the middle of the room and red and blue paint to adorn the walls appropriately on each side.

These seemingly innocuous details we never would have given a second thought to a year ago have suddenly become red flags (or badges of honor, depending on your point of view), alerting everyone within mean-mugging distance to the scent of a political debate waiting to happen.

The truth is no one’s political affiliation or system of beliefs can be defined by the car they drive, the news they watch or the background from which they come. It’s far more complex than what’s on the surface — and that’s an idea I’m not willing to debate.

Whitney Gronski is the State News opinion editor. Reach her at gronskiw@msu.edu.