This presidential election year, I have never been asked so many times by so many people the same question: You wanna explain to me why—how—can you possibly still be a Democrat?
I mean, it’s laughable.
My smarty response could be: Given our president, I could ask you the same question.
My knee-jerk reaction is: In the United States of America, I don’t have to explain my political views to anyone. But I realize the people asking the question are lookin’ for a fight. Bored, I suppose. We know we won’t change each other’s views on politics. So, I blog instead. Whether or not anyone reads it, I am just very thankful to live in a nation where free speech and free press (any idea is uncensored by the government) is the law.
It’s funny this modern Great Divide, reminiscent of the Baby Boomers and the WWII generation. Back in 1960s, it was thought to be caused by a Generation Gap. Now we’ve developed a Political Ideology gap, a heated angry vitriolic and maybe eventually deadly civil war-mongering divide. Each of us, Democrats and Republicans, honest to God thinks the others are completely nuts, dumb as cotton, silly billies, insane in the membrane. [And … not right with God. Keep reading.] With social media and the internet sending us views faster than our eyes can read, our brains can comprehend, and our emotions rationalize, we should know by this point in the Information Age to first take a few deep breaths. After all, reasonable people don’t want to press send on a hot-headed profane nonsensical smart-ass political quip or rebuttal. All CAPS and misspellings and exclamation points. That’s a real shame among us Americans.
Hot mess
America used to be a beautiful nation in concept, leadership and people. Our presidents were known as the Leader of the Free World. Our diplomatic work for democracy, fair elections and basic human rights were just. The bad guys feared us because we were the good guys. Now the world has watched several years of Americans cutting off our nose to spite our face. The world never realized the deep-seated animosity and hatred brewing among the races and ethnicities, once proclaimed as our greatest asset—that people of all religious and cultural beliefs and practices could live together in relative peace and harmony. But KAOS sat in enough American bars and worked beside us long enough to figure out our innermost prejudices and fears, basically of non-white non-Christian non-American-born ’nother beings. The KKK call them sub humans. The federal government kept those dangerous pockets within our nation, the areas with blatant racism especially against African Americans, under control for decades. But no more.
Since the end of the 20th century, the world witnessed every time a mass shooting occurred only in America, usually by young males, usually at school. The world watched as the Black Lives Matter movement grew to gain global support. The world watched every time an American police officer was caught on camera shooting or killing with his bare hands another Black American … right out in the open. The world watched our cruelest immigration policies culminate in caging kids and babies in diapers while sending their parents elsewhere—right here in America, the land of immigrants.
It’s laughable how Republicans have come to calling Democrats socialists. What happened to calling us communists? That’s what they thought of us in the ’70s and when I was starting to vote in the ’80s. They chided us for being card-carrying members of the ACLU. For the young kids out there, the ACLU stands for the American CIVIL LIBERTIES Union. Conservatives think ACLU is a cuss word.
America may be a republic, but our government provides a lot of socialist programs created to ensure the weakest among us (the elderly, children, the ill, the poor) are taken care of and protected: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public schools, food programs, grants for tech or trade school and college, etc. These are reasons I’m a Democrat. And the global pandemic, which has led to tens of millions of job loss and income reduction, has made us realize we have to help each other.
The moral of the story
When asked how can I still be a Democrat in this day and age, I’ve replied, simply, because I care about people; I believe we’re supposed to care for others not just ourselves. Life is hard. There are no guarantees especially of prosperity, income and job security. Then there are the unforeseen tragedies, often personal and private. I believe taxes are supposed to help the down-trodden get back on their feet. Like President Bill Clinton, I accept that when it comes to government ‘hand outs’ (as Republicans call aid to families in distress from: job loss, low education and job skills, health crises, death of a spouse, divorce, abuse, destroyed housing, natural catastrophes, etc. etc. etc.), ten to 20 percent of the government grants and loans will never be repaid. We’re not so naïve to think everyone is an upstanding citizen good for his or her word and signature. Like Clinton, I believe most Americans are honest, decent, law-abiding citizens who, like us, love our great nation and its many opportunities, economic assistance being one.
The Republican Party fought Social Security and Medicare. (Pssst. They’re still fighting it, and the younger generation elected to Congress want it gone.) They believe a person and family should stand up on their own, figure out a way to make lemon aid out of lemons, maybe come up with a million-dollar idea, get a job any job. They tout the rugged American individual, the larger-than-life myth seen on the silver screen. The rest of the world doesn’t believe in individualism. The rest of the world is ancient compared to our nation. Most of the world’s people have been through bloody wars; lost everything; migrated to stay alive; suffered plagues, floods, pestilence, starvation, and murderous coups with crazy dictators. Americans of the 21st century don’t understand history is what has brought us to where we are today. People need and expect government to help them.
Government should provide a safety net when times are hard. People are not to blame for circumstances they cannot control. The America I once knew, regardless of the leader’s political affiliation for the most part, was a nation that helped people in dire straits instead of kicking ’em when they’re down, blaming them for their predicament, and scorning them for not being white. First things first. Help the needy. That and practice what we preach.
WWJD?
Isn’t it peculiar that American Christians can be either Republican or Democrat? Neither political party honestly can claim all followers of Christ. Politics used to be second to our religious beliefs and to the particular church affiliation and denomination we were so inclined to belong. Somehow in America, politics has become the new Christianity. The belief is all or nothing, heaven or hell, right with God or as evil as the devil.
These were the same teachings and fervent preaching against communists during America’s Cold War. Then communism fell. But the anti-something sentiment so many Americans need in order to feel ‘American’ (or superior) was suddenly gone, too. Some Americans weren’t done hating. Now too many Americans have turned their hatred toward the masses of humanity. The list of ethnicities and races, gender and sexuality, religion and countries is practically endless. It’s … exhausting.
No, I’ll pass on joining practically everyone I know and become a Republican just to be nice. I remain a Democrat, few of us that there seems to be among folks I know here in Texas and northern red-state neighbors. No need to pray for my redemption just because I’m a Democrat. Spiritually, I’ve never been persuaded otherwise. And if the good Lord calls me home, I’m ready. If my explanation into the incredulous ‘how and why’ I still remain a Democrat—as they proclaim, with everything that has happened during the past four years—well, here it is: I just couldn’t in good conscious vote for Trump and most Republicans on the ballot in the year of our Lord 2020.