My Vote

I voted in the 2024 General Election today. I will get to writing about another epic trip to Malta in the next few days, but I feel it's my duty to share a brief rationale for voting the way I am. I realize that most folks have already made up their minds and are not going to be swayed but I have to put this out there with the hope that it does some good. 

Let me preface this by explaining that I'm going to throw some facts out there with little evidence to support them because it would make this post about 10,000 words, and nobody would read it. I'm asking you to trust that I'm not just throwing propaganda out there. I just want to be succinct in presenting some facts, and you can do what you feel necessary. 

I'm also not here to manipulate or sway anyone for my own personal gains. I care. I care about people less fortunate than me and instead of believing this life is a race to the finish where the person with the biggest house, most property, or coolest toys wins, I believe we all deserve to be happy. That's it. 

The first thing I want to address is the gender/race gap in the polls. It's a biggie. Women of all races overwhelmingly are supporting the Dems in this election. That probably has everything to do with reproductive rights and that's understandable. All I'm going to say about this is we all define our morality personally and I'm not here to say what is right or wrong for you and I would want the same respect for my rights from you. I will say, however, I'm also not the person to make the most difficult decision one would ever have to make for someone else considering a number of variables including rape, incest, economics, family plans, or health factors. I will also say, and this is where I get incredibly frustrated with our politics, that women are not making the choice to abort a pregnancy in the final trimester with the attitude that some folks would like you to believe, and babies are not being killed after birth. That is propaganda. The choice of terminating a late term pregnancy is tragic and comes down to unforeseeable scenarios that are heartbreaking. Instead of villainizing woman and their families and doctors for having to make these decisions, we should be showing compassion. 

Men, specifically white men, are overwhelmingly supporting Trump by about a 40 percent margin. They also overwhelmingly support Republicans on down ticket ballots. Why? One reason is the economics myth. Republicans are viewed as being better for the economy but if you look at the last 50 years, that myth just doesn't hold water. Recent recessions have always come at the end of Republican administrations. (Please do the research yourself. It's true.) That probably has to do with the deficits that are created by cutting revenues that would be gained through taxes that are cut for the riches people during those administrations. Right now, unemployment is at a level that is considered full employment for the most part. Wages are up. The stock market is breaking records nearly every day. Inflation? Housing costs? Both contribute to this myth, but the blame almost always gets displaced to politicians instead of recognizing it has more to do with a system that we revere as economic gospel that can be incredibly volatile. Covid created supply chain issues. We also dumped a ton of money into the system to prevent an economic catastrophe that started with Trump. People left the workforce because it made more sense to stay at home and take care of their children versus paying someone else to do it. Fewer people working means higher wages which means consumers have to pay more. Mass exodus from urban areas to rural areas changed the housing market and it took time for the Federal Reserve to adjust. With all of these things creating a perfect storm, our economy actually came out better than most countries post-Covid. Our best-case scenario was a soft landing, which we achieved but now we're in need of a market correction. It's happening and the best thing the government can do is to make things that are necessary to our most basic needs more affordable which is healthcare, housing, food, and childcare. One party has, and is, making policy proposals to address these needs, e.g., the ACA. The other party believes in more tax cuts for the rich that somehow will trickle down to the rest of us and let the free market do its thing. That never has worked for anyone but those folks on the top and just gets perpetuated from the execs and CEOs because it's in their best interests. The politicians representing those folks are incredibly good at making you believe it's also in your best economic interests to support them, but the rewards for being loyal to them never gets back to you. So, we can continue to consume the crap that is being served up by the rich or we can shift the levers in our favor by support programs that we actually benefit from. That's our only real way of shifting the economy in our favor. 

Maybe the gender/race gap has to do with guns? This also has to do with economics. Please read, "Gun Fight," by Ryan Busse and you will understand how this has way more to do with the gun industry wanting to make more and more money than it ever had to do with preserving your Second Amendment Rights. And if you spend any amount of time doing the research, it also has nothing to do with our safety as all the statistics will affirm. The vast majority of hunters and sportsmen and women believe in sensible gun laws that protect innocent people and understand our hunting guns and guns for protection are not in jeopardy. The advent of the AR style weapons and the culture around them was an intentional effort by the gun industry and the NRA to sell more guns and now the NRA owns the right side of the ticket, and they will tell you whatever they think they need to that will scare you into supporting them. 

Ok, since we're talking white males, (and you all know I fall into this demographic,) we might as well talk about the elephants in the room named racism and misogyny. Somehow, we have had it crammed down our throat that men are stronger leaders than women. I did a quick search and some of the world's most impactful Prime Ministers and Presidents from Europe, Africa, and Asia going back decades were women. We've never had one. Why? And it has nothing to do with this idea that we haven't had a woman with the credentials. We have but from economics to politics, woman have traditionally been overlooked in this country. It's the "good ole boy" network that is now in jeopardy that is fueling so much of the propaganda, creating this strong man idealism in our culture that again, influences our politics and determines who we elect. The "network" would have us believe that a white man is going to best protect us on the world stage because it is in their interests. It's their bottom line. And they're probably right. It is in their best interest, but it might not be in yours and mine. 

Ok, so now we have racism. Let me just say this. I honestly believe that most of us are not intentionally racist. However, we do tend to lean towards supporting those folks that we feel represent us most and understand our culture best. There's nothing wrong with that until a fear from our leaders is invoked that says that we are in danger of losing who we are as a culture because other people who don't look like us or make the same life choices as us, are going to take it away. This is exactly what is happening when it comes to this push-back against wokism and BLM, etc., etc. Republicans are really good at recognizing this and stoking the fire of fear in order to garner your support when the reality is, we all just want the same things. We just want to be able to pay the bills and live a happy life. Again, it doesn't have to be a competition or an all-or-nothing sum game where either we win, or they win. We can all be happy and thrive if we stop looking at it as an us versus them paradigm. 

I want to share this story, and I want to do so with compassion and empathy for my nephew who was the person I was talking to that I feel, illustrates what folks, specifically white folks, are dealing with. He made a comment about the remake of a Disney movie with a black actor/avatar. He was showing frustration over all these movies he grew up with, being changed now to represent black people or Indian or whomever. What I believe he was really afraid of is that some other group was taking away his culture or forcing him accept something he's not comfortable with because he doesn't either understand them or they don't necessarily represent who he is. The fear is that somehow, they are going to take something from him or make his life more difficult. It represents change for some people and a power reallocation that they might not benefit from. 

I actually understand this. White working men feel like they are having to give up a lot these days. They have to be careful not to say or do anything that might offend this group or that group. They get blamed for other people's struggles even though they had nothing to do with the history of why certain groups are being left behind. They are just trying their best to thrive as well so why is everything their fault and why are they having to pay for it through either affirmative action or even just having to walk on eggshells every day? Again, the problem I see, is that powerful people are using these fears and frustrations to manipulate this population into supporting them and they don't give two shits about solving any of their problems or resolving any of the tension this creates. All they care about is ginning up the base so that they preserve their wealth. If those in power that are spreading the propaganda really cared, they would do less to fuel the fire and present more ideas to make our lives easier and less divisive by offering opportunities for cutting everyday costs, making advancement in our careers more obtainable, and not having to worry about our kid's safety every time they leave the house. Blaming all our problems on a group of people does nothing to solve the problems. It only creates more by perpetuating a competitive ideology where only one group can thrive. 

Change sucks. I get it and sometimes that change is too quick and isn't always in our best interest. That's why we need parties that are there to check each other but do it in a manner that is truthful and in our best interests as a country. Our lives our enhanced by bringing in other cultures and ideas. Our economy would crumble if we decided to kick out all the immigrants, but we also have to figure out how to welcome people in a manner that is responsible. There have been policies proposed to do this and then those policies were shot down because one party couldn't give the other party a win because it wasn't in Trump's best political interests. This is insane to me. And why are we allowing this to happen? 

I never really liked venison growing up. I know. Shocking. I loved hunting--didn't like eating it. Back in the day, everyone in my family thought venison had to be cooked to death, even though the damn deer was already dead. Then we salt and peppered it, smothered it in cream of mushroom soup, and served it on a bed of rice. It wasn't good. It was barely edible. Since then, I have been introduced to other ways of cooking by working with chefs from all over the States. Turns out, venison shouldn't be over-cooked because it turns it into shoe leather and brings out the gamey tastes. I also traveled and worked with people from all over the world. One day I decided to make stir fry out of the venison and thought, wow, that's pretty good. Then I added curry and again, pretty good. Once I made saffron rice...the point is, change can be good and often, that change comes from being introduced to things from other cultures. I'm voting the way I am because I want to stop this fear mongering way of politicking and help bring our country back to a more inviting and inclusive culture. 

I'm just about done, and I realize that 99% of us that are going to vote, have already made up our minds. But if there's a chance that I might influence a few folks, here's my last pitch. I'm tired of the fearmongering. I'm tired of listening to Trump's lies and having those lies being condoned and memorialized by those politicians that are only supporting him for their own economic gains. Their constituents are an increasingly smaller group because they aren't fighting for the average person with real life struggles. Conservatism and progressives are both necessary for our system to work as long as both engage in discourse that is honest and driven by facts. If we are willing to listen, we know who is lying to us and we shouldn't reward those people regardless of whether they are conservative or progressive. My hope is that we finally put Trump and his way of politicking to rest and get back to normalcy. Please, let's get rid of this D-bag once and for all. 

Shoot. I didn't even talk about Montana. Please just consider; Sheehy and Gianforte are all about privatizing natural resources and healthcare among other things. If you want a place to hunt and fish, or if you ever need to go to the doctor, you need to think about that. Seriously. There are a lot of things that the private sector just does better with. Then there are things that the private sector completely messes up by way of squeezing every opportunity for profit out of something. Keep our public lands public and access to our streams available to everyone and healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. That's all I got.

Keep 'em where they live...