I’ve written at length how in religion, most of us have inherited our belief systems as opposed to doing an objective search. The same thing is true for our political party affiliations. Sadly most of us default to whatever our parents were without giving the matter too much thought.
That’s somewhat predictable. Challenging the status quo can be hard. I get it. It can also be painful to have to announce what amounts to the equivalent of a coming out party if you do decide to go against the grain. You risk getting ridiculed by family members and friends. Not an easy choice.
But it’s a necessary choice now. Republicans have gone off the deep end. Since Ronald Reagan, I used to think Republicans had only one devious plan and that was to completely unravel the New Deal. For decades they’ve wanted nothing more than to eliminate social security, medicare and welfare programs of any kind. It’s a move towards pure capitalism where the wealthy get their just rewards and if you weren’t so lucky, then that’s just too bad.
But it’s different now. Not only do Republicans want to cancel the New Deal, they actively support conspiracy theories, are willing to look the other way when our elected leaders taking bribes from foreign countries, gut our justice department of any semblance of independence, support a leader who tries to play both sides on racism, and now seem content with blatant voter suppression – but only in cities with a high percentage of minorities.
But it’s even worse than that. Republicans are suddenly open minded about national security when it comes to first family security clearances and personal e-mails. Such short memories. The latest incomprehensible strategy adopted by the party centers around science denial. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about a global pandemic that will likely kill 500,000 people or climate change , Republicans are on the front line of “you know, there are multiple opinions about this.”
During the Reagan/Bush years, it used to be standard policy debate about what blend of capitalism and socialism we wanted to define ourselves as a country. We’ve been a mix of both since FDR introduced social security in 1935. Until now it’s been a debate about how far to take the concept – full blown socialized medicine or reduce or even eliminate social security and medicate because you know, deficits. Those were the good old days.
Alas Trump and MAGA changed everything. Now there are real reasons to go through the pain and challenge the political party you inherited. Our elected leaders are ignoring science and the scientists. Anit-maskers are literally killing people. The pandemic has put the real hurt on small businesses. Many won’t recover. Food insecurity has reached all-time highs since the Great Depression. Some states are over 25% of the population. Meanwhile Amazon is killing it.
Speaking of Amazon, this brings me to the second reason people subscribe to a particular political party. Their beloved 401k. The “Trump helped boost my 401k, therefore I love him” crowd.
This is a special kind of ignorance that doesn’t get corrected until the poor become so poor that they have to step over a dozen people who haven’t had a shower in 6 months on their way to the Symphony downtown. A city with no middle class is no city to be proud of. Homelessness is getting worse, not better under Republicans’ dog eat dog pure capitalism play. If only you weren’t so greedy about your cherished 401k.
Maybe you’re a Republican because of your religious affiliation. That can be somewhat understandable given the pressures of crowd-think. Abortion has been a wedge issue for Republicans since Roe v. Wade. I get it. It seems black and white and simple to choose which side to be on. I can understand the struggle with a moral issue here, I really can. My best effort to convince you to reconsider the Republican party has to do with opening our eyes to all of the moral issues. There just isn’t anything in the Republican party’s platform on economic equality or social justice that remotely resembles the life of Jesus. I’m sorry, but it’s more complicated than one issue.
Leaving the Republican party does not equate to joining the libs. You can become an independent like myself. I grew up in a fiscally liberal but socially conservative family. But to my parents’ credit, that social conservatism was applied to our family and didn’t necessarily ascribe what’s good for us was how it had to be for everyone. I became an independent in the 1990’s during the first Iraq war. I didn’t see the benefits of party affiliation and if anything I felt there might be risk associated with party affiliation (see Saddam Hussein, Baath party members tortured).
If I haven’t convinced you to consider thinking for yourself and not being defined by the party of your parents or your retirement account, then consider one last issue. How does it feel to be a part of the party that bailed out Kyle Rittenhouse? The kid brought a rifle to a rally and opened fire on black people with no other purpose than to please the Proud Boys — also staunch Republican supporters. Perhaps you get tired of people calling Republicans racist, but what other option is there? They are literally packing heat to peaceful rallies and lining up their scopes with people of color. Meanwhile the party of Lincoln sits there and doesn’t denounce anything. I would make the decision to leave for that reason alone. Guilty by association. Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer are apparently your new peeps now.
It doesn’t have to be this way. You can leave the party and become and independent minded thinker and vote on issues. It affords you the flexibility to be fiscally conservative and socially liberal or the other way around. It’s up to you. But no one should have to be a Republican just because their mom and dad were.
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