In 2000 I was a supporter of John McCain, I cast my first votes in 1994 and mostly voted for republicans. I was always a registered independent so here in Pennsylvania I am not able to vote in the primary elections, I supported McCain but after he lost I voted for George Bush.
My brother served in Desert Storm earning a bronze star, he was out long enough that he didn’t get sent back to Iraq when George Bush thought it was a good idea for America to invade a country for the first time in our history for no really good reason. At the time my brother and father (also a veteran) said it was a huge mistake and we would be fighting that war for 50 years and get caught in a civil war, guess that’s what happens when you actually served in the military unlike Bush or Cheney, you can predict these things.
I started to turn off of the republican party when I saw them exploiting 9/11 to win political office, the bodies weren’t even recovered yet and they were already using the corpses to win office and attack democrats. I will admit up until this time I was truly ignorant as far as politics, I just went with what the candidates said and what the party claimed to be for and never really did any research. Starting around the 2004 election I really started to pay attention and what I saw was just sick — watching republicans use 9/11 and fear to win election and Bush manipulate the terror warning system to scare people into voting for him. It was also around this time that I did some research on voting machines and how easy it is to steal an election but that’s a whole other story.
I watched the next for years as republican ran America into the ground,the corruption in Iraq that allowed contractors to steal billions from American taxpayers to the bank collapse and everything in between. I watched as a CIA agent was outed and America resorted to torture and was proud of it, this was no longer the America that I knew and loved. I watched as republicans added things to the defense spending bill like making online poker illegal than yelled if any democrats voted against it that “they hate our troops”. I watched as anyone who had the nerve to speak out go Dixie Chicked and was told over and over “it’s UnAmerican to question a president in time of war”..
This was enough and in 2008 for the first time in my life I voted straight party ticket for democrats. I realized the party that I had been voting for is a lie, everything I thought they stood for was not true
Debt — I watched as republicans spent like a drunken sailor, they didn’t care about the deficit or debt and most of the spending went to help rich people and corporations while they cut benefits for poor people.
Military — I thought they were for a strong military but honestly they’re for a strong military industrial complex, spending exploded and as my brother pointed out the soldiers didn’t see that much more in benefits but Hailliburton and KBR sure got rich.
Welfare — turns out they are huge fans of welfare, not for poor people but for corporations and people like Donald Trump. They gladly take away benefits and tax breaks for the middle class so they can hand out more and more to the richest Americans.
IT was after I did research that I realized that there is a reason racists and homophobes vote republican. I watched as the man I elected stripped away rights and the American population just sit back and accepted it because they wanted to feel a little safe.
I realized that if I wanted my America back that there were some things that needed done..
1. — had to stop voting republican
2. — need strong unions, America worked best when more people were in unions and we had a strong middle class
3. — can’t sit out any elections, republicans don’t
I can’t take back my vote in 2000 and the mistakes I made but I sure as hell can never make that mistake again. Sadly I have seen a lot of America that still lives in that bubble I escaped from and that’s why I fear Donald Trump actually has a shot.