It seems to me that we’ve become so politicized over the past 10 years that the two major political parties have
not really had anyone sit down and spell out in detail what differences there are and why they matter so much. It reminds of the 1950’s gangs.
I must confess that I’ve also fallen into the trap of “I’m gay, so I have to be liberal”, without actually taking a hard look at what really matters to me and the ones I care about.
I care about immigration. Like most all Americans, I am the child of immigrants. Although, my most recent immigrant ancestor, as far as I can tell from genealogical research, came to Philadelphia in 1737. My earliest immigrant of record was a Thomas Powell who arrived aboard the sailing ship Swan in 1609, part of the 2nd Jamestown expedition.
I doubt any of my immigrant lines possessed a passport and a visa and the local population in 1609 probably didn’t get much of a choice as to who landed on the shore and built a city. We don’t think much about that today, we insist our presence here is by right and privilege when it is neither.
That said, I believe in strong borders. We should have workable quota’s that allow for people in dire 
circumstances to travel and live here without fear of starvation or death or homelessness or war. I feel strongly that if a woman with two toddlers is willing to climb mountains, cross deserts and risk death to land a job in Oklahoma cleaning bathrooms at a Motel Six or plucking chickens in Kansas then we should stand back and welcome her with open arms. Lord knows we can’t get our own people to work like that.
I’m as confused as anyone about boys who think they are girls and girls who think they are boys, but there is some science behind it and I think it’s something we should leave up to parents and doctors and the rest of us should keep our nose out of it. Same for abortions. It’s a private matter. And I do believe we shouldn’t be using taxpayer dollars to fund any private medical procedures beyond what we already do with Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance.
I struggle to figure out what Republicans want for America that’s so different from what I want. Why all the vitriol? Aside from the fact that the current head of the Republican party is an ass who has no manners and little decency, a lot of his goals make some kind of sense but he’s just being a big old bully about it.
Yes, our government has gotten too big, but how is that defined? It’s important to me that we have restrictions 
on corporations that want to mow down our national forests and dig them up for coal and oil. It’s important to me that we have rules and regulations that stop corporations from putting a factory on the edge of town that spews harmful chemicals into the air or dumps them into the water. It’s important to me that we have safe workplaces and fair wages.
It matters that in our system we can usually trust that the products we buy are safe for us to use and consume in our home. It’s important to me that my tax dollars are spent wisely, for the common good of all.
It’s important to me that I be able to marry whomever I please, and that my family is defined by me and not by my government. It’s important to me that my kids get a fair shot at a decent education – one of the first functions of our government was educating our kids – why is it such a big deal now?
It’s important to me that we care for our elderly and that we do what we can for the poor, but I have no issue with asking a recipient of public assistance to do something in return if they are able – such as public service. I don’t think it’s demeaning at all to expect something if they are capable. If you can keep pumping out a kid every 18 months with no job and no place to live except on the public dole, then you should be expected to give back what you can even if it’s picking up the trash on your block. There was a time past where Americans would never take something for nothing.
It’s important to me that we get to choose how and where and under what circumstances to practice our religion, or not. Freedom of Religion stops when it intrudes on the way another person wants to practice or not practice their religion. Religion has been a sticky subject on this planet since we started walking upright, so I know it’s not anything we’ll ever fix, but we can make an effort to be civil to one another. I don’t have much hope though – even in 1609 if you didn’t toe the line with the expected religious behavior you suffered dire consequences. We’ve never had much luck telling other people how to be religious. That doesn’t mean we can’t have some basic understanding and guidelines about where the lines we shouldn’t cross are painted.
I am as aghast as anyone else about paying $8 for a dozen eggs or $500,000 for a house or $75,000 for an automobile. I don’t have answers for that, but we are a land of very smart people. Perhaps we should listen to what they are saying? Why does a corporate CEO make 10,000 times what the janitor that empties his trash makes? Which job is more important to our society?
Generally speaking people should be left alone to live their lives as best they can, with as few rules as possible, but when you pack 9 billion people into a planet that really wasn’t designed for that load, you have to have some rules so the wheels don’t fall off.
Anyone with any awareness at all can see the damage we are doing to our environment. Sure, a lot of it might simply be the price we pay for letting our populations swell beyond any hope of the land they live on being able to support them. We’ve always had hurricanes and tornadoes and floods and fires, but we allow people to
continue to build houses and towns in areas we know are likely to be wiped out multiple times. I don’t have any answers, but the public pocketbook can’t keep paying to rebuild these places over and over again. These areas were never capable of supporting the numbers of people that want to live there. We need to face that truth.
In the end I don’t think my vision of America is all that different than what I hear from Republicans, but why does Trump and Greene and Vance and <insert your favorite Republican here> have to be so nasty about it? Trump is a criminal and just isn’t a decent person and certainly doesn’t have my welfare and well being in mind.
What’s with all the tech billionaires now allowed to dabble with our government? Are the dystopian science fiction books of my youth about to come true? Does anyone remember Soylent Green?
The pendulum will swing, it always does, but I fear it won’t come back to any standard of decency and fairness until long after I’m gone. Perhaps my grandkids or great-grandkids can make it happen?
In the meantime, I hope I can live out whatever years are left to me, with what savings I have lasting as long as I do. And I’ll try to watch as little news as I can.
