I am always thinking about what I stand for. That use to be what made me decide how on how I voted and who I voted for. Now it is what political party stands for that is closer to my beliefs. I will tell you that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans think exactly the way I think. Probably some third party would be closer but that would be like throwing my vote away so let’s get that out of the way right away. I have found that politics has changed more than my thinking has. We use to have liberal, moderates and conservatives in both parties. Yes, believe it or not there were liberal Republicans and Conservative Democrats. Rockefeller was an example of a Liberal Republican and George Wallace would be an example of a Conservative Democrat. Today we have a party that calls themselves conservative and claim that they embrace conservative values and then we have everyone else that disagrees with them as a liberal. Remembering what I have seen in my almost 70 years on this planet I find the labels that they now give people politically disgusting.

Forty years ago if someone would have asked me what party I supported I would have said the Republican Party. Not so much for their conservative views but for their more liberal views. Being a teenager in the 60s and having the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War in the news on a daily basis I took a more anti-war and anti-segregation stance and that put me more in line with the liberal and moderate Republicans than the conservative Southern Democrats. I remember George Wallace standing on the steps opposed to the integration of the schools. I remember the Civil Rights Bill that Johnson signed and how upset many conservative Southern Democrats, like Wallace, who left the Democratic Party. Desegregation really split the Democratic party. So all you history buffs that like to point out how racist the Democrats were you are right. The key word here is were, they left the party because of Johnson and the Civil Rights Bill. Growing up in Kenosha Wisconsin I always had trouble grasping the concept of segregated schools. All of our schools were integrated. I went to school with children of all colors from kindergarten through high school. The Home Coming Queen my senior year was a very beautiful and talented Black Women.

Because politics are so polarizing today I have to vote not for the person but for the party. Civil Rights were important to me back then and they still are today. Much of our divide is now Black and White. When you have a person like Ted Cruz shouting on stage that they want you to hate your own race I can only call that one thing. Race-baiting! The only time that I am embarrassed being a white male is when I am listening to a race-baiting White politicians like Tec Cruz. When we have politicians attacking our schools claiming they are teaching Critical Race Theory. That is just plain is race-baiting. In Germany the study of the Holocaust is mandatory.  Why is not studying about this countries past sins mandatory? Slavery, the slaughter of the indigenous people, the history of segregation and the list can go on and on. Here in this country they want you to think that being woke to the truth is a bad thing. So I will never vote for a political party that endorses race-baiting and the suppression of the truth.

Today we have whole groups of people that are demonized because they have a different lifestyle than what some might find as unacceptable. We have politicians that have said that gay’s right to marriage should be revisited. We have politicians that want to not just blur the Separation of Church and State. Some even want to eliminate the Separation of Church and State. There are pastors that are running around saying that gays should be lined up and executed. They say if a person kills another person that is murder but if the State executes gay people then that is not murder. How can I stand with a political party that will stand by these people? State executions for religious principles? I know a transgender person that lives in a State that has many Evangelicals who believe that he should not have the right to live. I am not talking about sports and any of that minor arguments I am talking about a person right to live, work and enjoy the same freedoms as you and I. I worry about that. Does their difference hurt anyone in anyway? Does anyone’s sexual preference hurt anyone in anyway? If you really think about it the only answer is no. If what they are doing is really committing a sin in Jesus’s eye then that is the cross that they will have to bear not us. If the only thing they are doing is harming themselves in the eyes of the Lord then it is his job to judge and not ours and not our Governments.

The first election I ever voted in was the 1980 mayor’s election between Bilotti and Saftig in Kenosha Wisconsin. 30 minutes before the polls closed I decided I would go vote so I registered at the polls and voter for Bilotti and he won by one vote. I realized then that my vote counted. I have voted in pretty much every election that I could ever since. When I see any groups or political party trying to make it harder for anyone to vote it bothers me. We should be making it easier to vote not harder. People should not have to wait 8 hours in line to vote. We are in the 21^st century and we should be doing a better job. Why aren’t we? I think that it is voter suppression. Whole groups of people are being discouraged from voting, eight hours in live to vote should be illegal. All the horror stories seem to be coming from the poorer voting districts. Funny how that works.

Last but not least is healthcare. When I entered the workforce factory jobs were plentiful and all I had to do was go to the Brass, apply for a job and I got hired. After 60 days my probationary period was over and I got Health Insurance. It was very common to have a job with Health Insurance in those days. Why? One word Unions. As our union jobs have shrunk in this country and have been replaced with service industry jobs and our Healthcare Crisis has grown with it.  If someone talks about a National Healthcare System they are called Communists and Socialist. No one calls the United Kingdom communist. No calls the Scandinavian Countries Communist. Those countries are all freer than we are and all have National Healthcare. Healthcare that would follow where ever you go which helps enhance real freedom.  We are being lied to.

So that is just a partial list for things I will not vote for. I will not vote for a political party that would return us back to the segregationist that we were in the past. I will not vote for a party that will race-bait for votes and suppress education in the process. I will not vote for any party that demonizes whole groups of people just because they are different and do not meet your religious standards. I will not vote for a political party that would court violence. I will not vote for a party that lies to the American people when it comes to healthcare.

Needless to say I will be voting blue and if you are really the good person that you think you are you should be too.

 

An Extinct Species: The Liberal Republican | History News Network