Why I am a Democrat/Why I am not a Republican

I recently found Michael Gungor. He wrote a book called This: Becoming Free that is amazing. I would suggest it to anyone who is in the throes of self-discovery. Michael also has a few podcasts and I’ve been listening to one called The Liturgist and this particular episode stood out to me. In this show they speak with Peter Rollins regarding how we feel that the problems we face are caused by some person outside ourselves. He talks about methods they’ve used in Ireland to bring people together who are often opposed to each other.

One of the things he spoke on was sitting people down and letting them tell each other why they are the way they are (example: Democrat) and then they allow that same person to say what they believe about the other (example: Republican). He said the process is a way to make the two sides understand why they think like they think. That makes so much sense to me, so I thought I’d speak it into the ether and see how it shakes out. I know for people to sit down like this and get to level of vulnerability that it would take, is asking a lot of people but I’m ready to get vulnerable.

I want to point out one more thing from my understanding of what he said that might make this more meaningful. He said that the way we believe about a subject has been formed by our experience to it. If you grew up in foster care you might have a different opinion about who can adopt than someone who grew up in a home with both parents. If you’ve experienced loss at the hands of gunman you might have a different opinion about who can own guns. So, if I’m a Democrat my ideas about what that means may be different than what you, as a Republican, might perceive. Let’s keep that in mind as I unwrap this package.

Why am I a Democrat?

I’ll be honest and say first, I was raised that way. My grandfather, who was one of the strongest, most loving, trustworthy and disciplined persons I’ve ever known, was a Democrat. I can tell you without a doubt in my mind he would have never voted for the current president if he’d been alive to do so. I can tell you all the reasons he was a Democrat and why he believed the way he did but I’ll just tell you mine. I believe that all people are equal. Now, I know that my party does not always treat people as such, but I do believe for the most part they have a better track record than the opposing party in the time we are in. They try to enact laws that protect people who are not always white, straight and male. I know that can be a loaded statement, but you only must look at the history of this country to see that the white straight male has never had to fight for any right he enjoys now because they were written into the Constitution and early amendments.

Women had to fight to be treated equal and it’s something we still struggle with throughout the world. At one time if a woman did not have a man to care for her she had to find a home that would keep her or stay in abuse to keep her family from starving. This happened to my grandmother. Her mother stayed under the roof with a husband that molested her children and brought other women into the home to have sex with him. He claimed to be a Christian and went to church. The family sharecropped and he enjoyed their efforts without contribution. Could they have sharecropped without him. No, that was not the way deals were made back then. The man was in charge. My husband Bryan’s grandmothers both ended up in a home being cared for in exchange for their work because they did not have husbands. Women back then were just used for birthing farmhands, cooking, sewing and housekeeping.

I cannot speak for people of color, but our country has an ugly history of giving no love to people who are not white. Our history books only skim the surface of the story of people of color but only so much as to tell the literal white-washed version. They never tell the effects of what we’ve done as a country to nonwhite human beings or even to for a second make it look like white America has been the bad guy. Thomas Jefferson owned more than 600 people during his life, and some were children he fathered by his slaves. He wrote that men were equal but that was just his words not his actions.

I know you’ll point out to me that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. I know he was a Republican and if I felt like what he did represented the modern-day Republican party I’d be one of them, but they consistently make laws that do not usher in equality.

I also know Bill Clinton is responsible for the incarceration of more people including black males than any other country. I don’t forgive that. It’s wrong. I do believe if this is ever corrected it will be a Democrat that will do it. Here’s why I believe that. Since the last Bush was in office hardly anything Democrats bring to the floor sees the light of day because of the Republican held senate. No matter how hard Democrats have tried to do the right thing they cannot get one thing done because they are in the minority, but they've tried.

The last time the Democrats held the senate was 1995. Since Democrats last lost control, we have been in the war in Afghanistan, which is the longest war in US history and was started by a Republican. If you look it won’t take you long to see all the lives lost, mistakes made, and money lost for a war we will never win.

As long as I’ve been voting the Republicans have held themselves up to be the moral police and I’m speaking from own my perspective, the only way I see their morality is in words, not actions. I see a Republican man who, not only paid for an abortion but threatened the person who had the abortion about what he would do to her if she didn’t have it and now he's on Facebook raging against abortion on a near daily basis. I also know that the stats for people who have abortions are overwhelmingly people who consider themselves Christian. Look it up. I see church people walking past the homeless and looking the other way. I see church people praising a man that has raped, abused and fondled women, who abuses drugs and incites rage and violence against minorities. I had a friend tell me that his family has a book on their coffee table called The Faith of Donald Trump. This is a man who does not know scripture or even how to quote chapter and verse and people believe he is a man of faith. He once said “two Corinthians” like it’s two people and not the second chapter of the book. Anyone whose been in church knows how to quote chapter and verse. He has been married 3 times and each new marriage came out of adultery. Republicans believe he was sent by God and there are actual photos of him with Jeffery Epstein all over the web. I mean come on!

Every time I see the KKK/Alt Right on TV it is in support of Republicans. Every time I see someone commit mass murder on my TV they are affiliated with the Republican party. Do I believe that Republicans want to own this? No, I do not but it is obvious to me that the belief system of this party seems to create this wrong headedness or at the least, attracts the people with these beliefs. I cannot be part of that.

Another thing that will assure I’m never a Republican, is corporate welfare. Why do people despise welfare for the poor but find it completely okay to let billion-dollar businesses hide money so that they pay no tax at all, while the rest of us give up 11% of our paychecks to federal taxes.

Now, as I write this I see how so much of what I say about being a Republican crosses over the line into the same issues I have with Democrats. I know that they are a lot of times two sides of the same coin. Democrats have their flaws. If any politician can take money from big business they’ll always act on their behalf and not the will of the people. I know that Bernie doesn’t take money from big business and when he’s gotten donations from them he has donated them to charity. I want money out of politics. I want religion out of politics. If people use religion in politics they are exploiting people, who might have good intentions, for their own gain. That is the reason for separation of Church and State.

I also have a problem with our government operating like there is only one religion and using the judgement of religious inequality as it’s springboard into disenfranchising whoever they don’t agree with. I think if people who are Christian ever experience the shoe on the other foot they wouldn’t be comfortable with it at all. They would finally feel what it’s like to have a government that acts on behalf of one religion when religion was clearly meant to be left out of government issues.

I have a real big problem with all the laws that Republicans have tried to pass to govern the LGBT because of religion and nothing else. These are people just like you and unless you are governing straight white males in the same way, no law should be on the books limiting who a person is.

I abhor guns. I don’t think anyone realistically needs one unless they use it to hunt. You cannot probably even imagine how anyone could feel that way if you are a Republican, but I’ll tell you. I’m not a coward, bully or someone who believes I can control death. I don’t think I need to assert some sort of power by walking around with a gun on my hip. That person is a weak person and full of fear. All bullies are weak Weakness is what they are trying to cover by being a bully. If you believe you can control death by any means then you must think you are a God. You will never be able to stop a car wreck that takes someone’s life if their fate is to die in an auto accident. You will never be able resuscitate someone if it’s their time to die. You will never shoot your way out of death if your fate is to die at gunpoint. You can own every gun, millions of bullets and be an expert marksman and it still will not matter. You do not get to decide when death will occur. So, stop acting like you can.

If you are keeping count I’m a Democrat because I believe in, keeping religion and money out of politics, not enacting any law that limits a person from existing, treating all people equal, assuring all people have access to medical care that does not leave them bankrupt and looking at what we can do that makes sense about guns used to commit mass murder.

I’m not a Republican because I believe that they want to make laws that cause people to have to live the Christian expectation, though I don’t believe even they do. I think they believe it is more important how people perceive them and less about who they really are. That is why they use the bible to judge gay people and how they should live but give no mind to making laws that limit what you can do after you have committed adultery. They use the bible to judge everyone else but not to see the beam in their own eye. I don’t believe spirituality is an old man in the sky that wants to strike people dead if they disobey, that all should conform and have no individuality and that there is one way to wake up your soul. I believe our government should be unbiased and not govern based on what affects them as individuals but how their laws effect all people. Also, I want the government to be about the people and not about corporations. I believe the NRA can kiss my ass with all their fear mongering.

Wow, that was all over the map and not a clear division of how I feel about being a Democrat verses what I think a Republican is. That’s why I tried to clear it up at the end. I also noticed while I wrote how some of what I was saying sounded like both parties and felt I had to clear that up. I probably should have made links and been clear about every issue I raised but in this I piece I’m just trying to do it off the top of my head without looking up backup info.

If the truth were told, I’d say I do not like our government and I’d really love to do away with politics altogether and trust people to be decent human beings. I hope someday there will be a time for that.

If you made it to the finish line I appreciate you reading. I hope you weren't offended but I'm not at all sure that is possible given the way that conservative people seem to hate the word liberal. So, that's my take. Feel free to write your own piece and share it with me. I don't need your attacks here. This is my space to share and if you don't like what I say you should make your own space to speak your truth. I'm just not going to open this up for people to attack my point of view because I have a right to it just as you do.