When we vote for someone do we carry some of the responsibility for what that elected official did? When we are a supporter of a political party do we carry some of the responsibility of what that party does? I have wrestled with that question for some time. I voted for Reagan because I was a fan of smaller government and less intrusive government. Reagan said that government was the problem, even though I did not believe that, I still voted for him. If you were a fan of smaller government you voted Republican. What about all the other stuff Reagan did? He was anti-welfare and so was I, but in the process he was starting the racial divide that we have today in the Republican Party. He was very anti-union which I wasn’t.

Looking back if I had to do it all over again I would not have voted for Reagan. He was the one that courted the religious right that so dominates the Republican Party now. He spoke of this lady in Chicago that was getting multiple welfare checks and was basically ripping off the system. Back then when you thought of welfare you saw the color black. This of course attracted all the White Christians that had left the Democratic Party because of civil rights. I don’t know what the Republicans were thinking by courting the religious right but it began to change the face of the Republican Party.

 Looking back I voted for smaller government and a less intrusive government but really did not get anything that really helped me. We got less regulations and oversight that may have helped businesses and military contractors but I can’t think of much that came out of the Reagan administration that actually helped the little guy. His was the start of the shrinking of the middle class and the expansion of the power of the upper class. Looking back did I actually vote my own interests? Probably not.

When I vote now I vote for what I believe is in the best interests of the nation. I try not to be a one or two issue voter but I do have a number one issue and that is racism. I believe that racism is what has created the big divide, the divide that started with the Reagan story about the welfare queen. It has slowly eaten away at the fabric of our nation until we have what we have today. The issue has never been about voter fraud. I will be very blunt; the issue is that we elected a Black President. I believe that if we had never voted for Barrack Obama we would not have had Donald Trump. I look back on the Obama administration and I try to see what he did that harmed America and I don’t see much. What I see was a good family man that tried to unite this country when in reality no Black man could unite this country. Did a Black President really mobilized the Republican Parties Religious right?

Along came Trump. Of all the Republican candidates he was the one that was not afraid to play the race card. He was not afraid to court the bigots. During the primaries the so called Republican mainstream was appalled with what Trump was saying. The real problem was that the Republican mainstream was no longer what they thought it was. The Republican mainstream will never say it but I believe that they were angry that the country had a Black President. It was that anger the helped Trump win the nomination. I had a friend that I don’t talk to very much anymore say to me that Trump was the only candidate that really talked to them. I was shocked that his message of bigotry was the one that touched her soul.  I do not believe that he would have won the national election without the help of a foreign government and our own Republican dominated FBI. If there was any election that should have been investigated it was the 2016 presidential election.

The question that I ask myself all the time is that if you stand with a bigot does that make you a bigot? If you vote for a candidate that wants smaller government and less regulations but the candidate is a racist what does that say about you as the voter that supports him? Are you a racist if you support a racist candidate? Everyone will have to answer that question themselves but do not try and justify it to me. I will not stand by a racist when I believe that it is the number one issue that will destroy our constitution and democracy.

I will end with this. My mother always told me that I was only as good as the company I keep. What kind of company are you keeping?