There is more division in this country than ever in my lifetime. The country is now divided over the new funding bill in the Senate. The funding bill was put together without any input from the minority party, the Democrats. Now if you look at the last election both the Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate got 49 percent of the vote. Yes, the Republicans won but does that mean that 49 percent of the country has no representation? That is what is happening. Is that what representative government is supposed to look like? If half the country doesn’t have representation, we don’t have a democracy.

That is the problem that party politics has caused in America. In fact, party politics are what is killing democracy. We do not have a government that represents the people anymore. Our government is now controlled by money and not by the people. Yes, we do have elections but most candidates are sold to us like a box of laundry detergent. We are increasingly being told who to vote for and are not voting for the best people. No one will ever be able to convince me that Louisiana can’t find a better candidate for Senator than Kennedy. Tuberville who represents Alabama lives in the Florida Pan Handle. Can’t Alabama find someone to represent them who lives in the state? Let’s face it, most of our Senators have become residents of Washington DC and no longer are real residents of the States they are supposed to represent. Too many of our politicians on both sides of the aisle are now just residents of Washington and are more accessible to the lobbyists and the money than the people who elected them to office. The swamp is Washington DC and the people who are always screaming they will clean up the swamp are the very people getting rich off that swamp.

I am what would be called an independent but in today's political atmosphere can you really be an independent? I always said that I was an independent since about 1995 before then I would have said that I was a Republican. When I stopped supporting the Republicans inclusively, I stated I wanted to support the best candidate.  I did do that until Bush Two lied to us and his lies led to the death of too many people.  He forced people to follow in line with his lies or else they would not be considered patriotic by not supporting a President in wartime. All Republicans just stepped in line with Bush but so did too many Democrats. That bothered me because I knew that we were being lied to so I was very much opposed to the War in Iraq. We invaded an innocent country on intelligence and charges built on lies.  At that point, I knew that too many Republicans would outright lie to the American people and that too many Democrats would not stand up to those lies.  One Senator did and that was Russ Feingold from Wisconsin where I lived at the time. One thing that I don’t tolerate is being lied to and Feingold stood up to those lies. He lost his next election because he stood up to those lies but I will always think of him as a great man for standing up for the truth.

Of the two parties, the most honest of the two are the Democrats hands down. If honesty is what is the most important thing to me, I will support the Democrats. Gone is the time when you could vote for the best man because now there is no such thing. In today's Republican party if you stand up to Trump's lies you are branded a RINO and drummed out of the Republican party like Liz Cheney was. The world witnessed what happened on January 6^th, 2021. It was not a bunch of tourists. It was an attack on our democracy. Men who are trying to tell me how honest they are have been lying to me and are still lying to me. They claim that there is all this fraud but I don’t see people being charged with crimes. I believe we again are being lied to so they can just cut services and give billionaires more tax breaks or it is the billionaires committing the fraud and they don’t want to stand up to their masters.

The Republicans have now passed a budget that I believe will be another nail in the coffin of the middle class and another step toward making slaves out of the people in poverty. They are cutting badly needed services the people need because billionaires have grossly underpaid their employees. If you want to look for the reason for poverty all you have to do is look at the Billionaires that control just about everything. They will tell you that people are lazy. I think the proper thing to say is that rich people are greedy. The paths of poverty are not there that were there when I was young. Back in the 60s we had people that lived off of welfare and did not work. Today we have people receiving aid because employers don’t pay a livable wage. The saddest thing is those people who have been receiving the most aid are the people who have strongly supported the Republicans.

There are a lot of people who were upset with the ten Democrats who voted so the Republicans could pass the budget. They didn’t actually vote for the budget they just allowed it so it could be voted on by the Republicans and not filibustered by the Democrats. I was upset just like everyone else but now that I have had a day to think about it, I have cooled off a little. I still think Schumer needs to step down from his leadership role but what he did isn’t the end of the world. The thing that I like about the Democrats is that they aren’t just sheep that have to follow their master like the Republicans do. I just think that not all the reasons given are sincere. He is very much beholden to Wall Street and a Government Shutdown would have devastated the market. Not as much as Trump has done but still the markets would have been affected. The people this is going to affect the most are the poor and children who don’t have anything in the market. They are the ones who are struggling every day to make ends meet. They are the ones who are already suffering from the inflation that the Trump tariffs are causing. The people are looking for people that will talk to them and help them in this fight and I just don’t think Schumer is that person. The Democratic leadership needs to get out and meet the people. They need to talk with them. Bernie is doing it and AOC is joining him. You all should be doing that.  When the people are reaching out to you, you must reach back.