First let me say this is not an argument to win you over to my side. It's not a right or wrong. It's simply my thoughts on why I intend to vote the way I intend to vote. We live in an echo chamber these days. People have lost or it appears to me we have lost the ability to really look at each other. Instead we go to Fox News or MSNBC or political and religious sound bytes to tell us what the other person is really like. So, we have a distorted view from the start. One of the things that I found once I got on social media was how little some folks had spent the past 40 plus years since high school not thinking or really even remembering me. Gasp! The other is how little I have thought of certain folks and how few damns I really care about what some people think that I used to grovel, bow and beg for attention from. So, all of us are in our own inner world and have that feeling that things revolve around us. When in actuality things affect all of us and we are all on our own journey at the same time through life.
Most of us me included. Tend to look at other people as extra's in our own movie. Of course we have to in some ways. I mean if you got excited every time a person wins the lottery but then got crushed every time a human is suffering on this planet then you really couldn't function. So, I try to be a good person in that I try to treat others as I would want to be treated. It ain't always easy. But, that's why it's the Golden Rule instead of rule number five million and sixty six. If it was easy it wouldn't be exceptional.
Anyway, below is why I will vote Democrat the coming election. Please note I didn't say why I'm a Democrat. I wanted to. But, then I realized that there is a difference in how I view the world and how Antifa views the world. On the other hand there is a difference in how Franklin Graham views the world and I view the world. So, I decided to say Vote Democrat instead of being Democrat although I'm a little left of any Republican that I know. So having to put on a hat in this society I wear a moderately left Democrat hat.
Abortion: This is the hardest one for me because I see such hypocrisy on both sides of the debate. On the right you have people saying all life is sacred until they get out of the womb. Then no social services and if they are illegal then we should turn our backs on how they are treated and for God's sake don't feed em or treat them as if they are important. If they become Democrats then it's okay to label them and curse at them and make fun of them. They are Godless after all and not part of the frozen few.
We can't expand Medicaid to help the poor momma get her child to the doctor and keep rural hospitals open. We can't worry that nursing homes are underfunded and over worked and elderly are treated like crap. After all we never get old do we? Our momma will never be in a nursing home. Right? Yeah, it's a stupid way to act but hey it's how many act. What about the left? Refusing to even admit the being in the womb is a human or a being. Keep calling it a fetus and never under any circumstance call it a child or a potential living being. Call out hysterics when saying what about the life of the mother. The truth is the life of the mother is and has always been first when on the operating table. But, jailing doctors for performing a medical procedure? Telling a 12 year old that she will have a baby that also belongs to the man who molested and raped her? Really? If men had babies then you could get an abortion in a vending machine. You know it and I know it so get real.
Still it's a heart wrenching thing to go through and it leaves a scar and I don't think all things being equal there are many women who would choose it. Ironically it's the Republican cuts to welfare programs that make abortion more attractive to some.
Anyway, at the end of the day I find myself leaning left. Not because I think Abortion is a sacred right of womanhood. But, because women are the ones who have to decide to bring life into the world. Men have made it harder for a single woman to do that and yet I find myself struggling with this. On one hand I truly think women have the right to decide over their own body. On the other I would hope they could understand that life is gift and at the end of the day it's the children that will be your rock and your hope one day as you age beyond jobs and sexuality and career. Still, how could I pretend to tell a woman she should be a mother. Who the hell am I to say that to another human. Now, late term abortion? Honestly? Most Democrats don't like late term abortion either. But, the left and right have both decided on a scorched earth policy of all or nothing. Leaving most of us in the middle without the bullhorn of the far left and far right. So, yeah I'm reluctantly pro choice.
Finally I have to say this on the stupidity of or at least how stupid the politicians think we are. Many years ago while working in my hometown of Gadsden, Alabama a person was running as pro life for the Etowah County Commission. Really? You will be in charge of the potholes and the Kiwanis meeting on 2nd Avenue. What does pro life or pro choice have to do with it? Still, it gives you the jist of Bama politics and what they think of Bama voters.
Alabama: I was born and raised in Alabama. Some of the most kind people I know are from Alabama. Some of the meanest and lowest people I know are from Alabama. In other words it's just like any other place in most ways.
But, being from Alabama I have a unique perspective in seeing what a right wing conservative republican majority looks like. Ya know what? It ain't pretty. Now, I often see the mess Democrats have made in California or Detroit as an excuse made by southerners when these kind of comparisons come up. But, I'm not from California or Michigan. So, I can only speak from my own perspective. We keep electing people that make big statements on God and Abortion and Socialism. But, once in office they play nepotism with state funds and jet mistresses and cuckhold (meaning the gov'na was screwing the dudes wife) hubbies to Vegas at state expense for the weekend.
They refuse Medicaid expansion (not takin' no federal money from them yankee democrats) while rural hospitals leave the state and we suffer one of the highest if not the highest mortality rates of new born's in the nation,
They operate prisons for profit and put people in jail for smoking a plant but let politicians walk who steal from the state. They pay homage to a horrible president who says people in the south talk like they have marbles in their mouths and has allowed Mexico to absorb jobs from my hometown Gadsden Goodyear plant that has been there since 1927.
I guess that wall has a hole in it when it comes to Donny's cronies lining pockets. When a man votes his conscience like Doug Jones did then he's a traitor. But, when a man like Sessions has his nuts cut off by Trump and then rolls over and praises Trump then he's a brave man. Let's face it Jones isn't going to get reelected in this state so he shouldn't listen to the far right's voices. They are never going to consider him. He won because the Republicans ran a pedophile against him. And he barley won then.
We can't have a lottery because it would be a sin. Yet we can fund Mississippi schools and Jawja schools all day long by crossing the state line and getting tickets. But, as long as a Republican politician only has to say the word abortion to get your vote then he or she has no other worry because he or she knows the average voter in Bama is stupid enough to vote over and over again for anyone who yells abortion no matter how much they lie, steal and throw state money away. So that's one more reason I'm voting Democrat. The republicans have had free reign over my state since the seventies and they have run it into the ground economically.
Guns: I was raised in Alabama. My family hunted. I can remember my uncle going out on frosty mornings in Altoona, Alabama and bringing back a squirrel or a rabbit and cleaning it and handing it to my aunt to fry up with the eggs and biscuits. I remember the first time I shot a 12 gauge. It kicked the snot out of me but I hit what I was shooting at. Now later I of course learned that shotguns spread so hitting a close target wasn't that big of a deal. But, you can't tell a 8, or 10 or even a 12 year old that. I felt like I was Dead Eye baby.
So, unlike many liberals from other areas of the nation guns were not some evil thing that only bad people had. Still, I don't see why anybody minds registering a gun. Honestly having a gun doesn't make you a big man. Any idiot can and often does pull a trigger.
But, it also doesn't make you an idiot to have a gun for protection or just because you like to shoot or hunt. I think most Americans are okay with registering a gun the same way you register a vehicle. Just common sense.
Automatic weapons? Well, honestly even President Reagan wanted some control over those. But, we seem to be yelling at each other over what an automatic weapon is these days. But, if we stop bowing down to the NRA in a knee jerk fashion and also stop acting as if the average gun owner who registers their weapon is a criminal then maybe we can have an honest conversation.
So, at the end of the day I'm for private gun ownership but also for registering and having restrictions on firepower when a person is a felon or mentally unstable. I'm not for open carry. Most people aren't.
I have seen y'all when somebody cuts you off in traffic. My God, I'd hate to see some of you with a freakin six shooter at your side when somebody looks at your woman's tits peeking out of her halter top or bumps you in the street. Sorry but my momma always told me plain talks easy understood so I am just talking honestly and plainly. We also need to be honest about the violence that black folks are doing to black folks in the inner cities and stop trying to be political about it. We need all people of all colors to engage honestly on controlling violence. But, instead we shout each other down and retreat to our echo chambers.
Health Care: This is the one thing I will never understand. I have seen people living in rentals and mobile homes and working two jobs and cursing Democrats. Why? Because Frankie Graham and Rush Limbaugh and Donnie Trump told them that the Democrats are evil and want to socialize medicine. That good health isn't a human right like clean water or shelter.
These same people who can't afford to go to the doctor but vote for people who have lifetime healthcare provided for themselves while denying your right to be treated without it being tied to a job that you are lucky enough to have. But, if you get laid off or the company decides to stop coverage then you are shit out of luck.
If you have a heart attack or get cancer then you will gladly go to the ER and get help and if you can't pay for it let the taxpayer eat it. But, you would never vote to allow someone else the same opportunity to get help. I honestly know people who have done this and then get behind a pulpit and rail against healthcare on Sunday morning.
We don't have to be a socialist nation and go third world in order to make health care affordable. Obama Care on one hand gave me the opportunity to retire after heart issues from a very stressful job. On the other hand I have friends that Obama Care nearly broke with it's demand of penalties and rates.
But, surely we could either fix it or come up with something that will take care of those who are vulnerable and yet not break people who are working hard to stay above water. I think we can. I think Romney and the Republicans had a plan at one time. But, the Tea Party has done to the Republicans the same thing the far left has done to the Democrats. They have bastardized it to special interests.
God: This is personal to me. I was raised a Christian. I will always be Christian in many ways. I no longer believe in an angry old man on a throne. I don't recite the creeds and have a religious test or consider the bible a single flawless book. But, I still have a relationship with Spirit and I still feel there is meaning in my journey on this earth.
But, I don't think we need a big granite Ten Commandments idol in front of the courthouse. I don't think we can go back to a teacher reciting prayer over the intercom. Prayer is still allowed in school It was never taken out. You just can't force a person to listen to your prayer over the intercom.
I"m so sorry to have to tell you folks but everybody doesn't thump the same bible or take 2 to 6 thousand year old Jewish dietary laws as the rule for living. Grow up. I have my faith and my journey and you have yours. Go to church and pray and read your bible and love your neighbor but stop trying to politicize Christ.
You absolutely have the right to vote and speak up about your faith. But, so does everybody else. By the way. Do an honest search of history and not a Moody Bible Institute search. The founding Fathers were not of one accord born again Christians. Jesus wasn't an American and this land was stolen from the Indian people by hook and by crook. So stop acting like you have the moral high ground. You don't.
Love of Country: Really? When you let a president who can barley articulate above the level of a 10 year old throwing a temper tantrum attack disabled folks and war hero's and even make disparaging remarks about POW's then you say you love the country?
Y'all would have tarred and feathered Bill Clinton or Obama for some of the same stuff you give Donny a pass on.
You hate democrats and you are for the troops. But, did you know many if not most of our troops are black and Hispanic and loved Obama? Did you know that many of our troops are on the street and don't get decent health care? Do you love Chicago and L.A.? Do you love Iowa, Alabama and Maine? Do you love Democrats and Republicans and Atheist and Muslims? Do you love our gay troops or only the straight ones? You love the flag? Really? Which part? The one at the VFW? What about the one at the San Francisco City Hall? Do you love it more than you love the baby on welfare? Do you think God loves it more than he loves the Mexicans across the border? I don't. I'm sure he doesn't. But, if you love your nation then stop selling it our to Donnie Trump or Hillary Clinton or any other powerful person.
One reason the flag is special to me and I would never dishoner it is because we allow protest in the U.S. that is what makes us different than China or North Korea or Russia. We don't put people in jail for burning the flag. Not because we agree with them. Hell, we would beat their ass over it. But, because we are a free people we have the freedom to protest the flag. It says more about the protester than it does the flag but that is what being in a free nation is about. Having personal freedom as long as you are not hurting or robbing others.
Bottom line is I vote my wallet. I don't vote abortion or climate change. I don't vote at the end of the day for the self proclaimed party or man or woman of god.
I vote the same way I choose a dentist. I vote for the one who can give me the most relief with the less pain.
Right now health care wise and Social Security wise and Medicare and even Medicaid wise that's Democrat. If I were in a higher tax bracket I might change my mind. I might not. I don't know. I do know that I would find Trump a very low class human being and that's no lie. Trump said he fought to get rid of pre existing conditions while at the same time his administration was fighting the Democrats in court to maintain pre existing conditions. He lied. Gasp!
The republicans have been trying to dip into and cut Social Security for decades and they are still trying. Yet, some of y'all just blindly accept them because they are so called anti abortion. You need to wake up. You've been had. Now, at the end of this I doubt I've changed anybody else's mind. That's okay. There are plenty of things I could say about liberals and problems I have with Democrats. But, right now I just wanted to put down the reason that I am voting Democrat in the national election.
