I am not ashamed to say I have voted Republican my whole life. Most of the time the party beliefs have been mine. That does not mean that I have never voted for a Democrat before. I am tired of the broad brush that is used to demonize people who vote one or the other. Both parties suck and have this entire Century. People forget-or weren't born yet that we entered the 21st Century with a Federal Government surplus financially. They got rid of the deficit we had in the 90's. The deficit we currently have was racked up over the last 25 years-by both parties who were each in control half of those years. They use to know how to work together to get things done and it wasn't all my way or the highway. That is what saddens me. I grew up in in the 70's and 80's when things were far, far worse economically then anything going on now even with the tariffs. They suck no doubt about it. I have also been around long enough to know that this too shall pass. The thing that we need to be more aware of and try harder at is finding and voting for quality candidates. They choices for the last three Presidential elections have sucked quite frankly and I was depressed even going to vote for anyone of them. Still I am an optimist. I still believe in this country and what made it great. The pendulum always swings too far to the right or the left and eventually comes back to the middle when our government works the way it was intended. I haven't lost faith that that can happen still. We just need to find better candidates to vote for and spew less hatred toward each other.
I don't want to dogpile here and other responses hit first, so feel free to ignore this post if it does feel like you're being piled on for being possibly one of very few Republican-voters in this thread. However, there's some interesting stuff here that I really want to talk about and I'm hoping you posted at all because you're willing to have an open and honest discussion, and willing to engage with facts and generally in good faith.
I'd love to know which Democrat you voted for. And how they aligned more with your beliefs than the Republican party did, as someone that was otherwise a lifelong Republican voter. I'm assuming this wasn't a recent event, since the party goals of each have been pretty diametrically opposed for the last ten years.
Broad brushes are good for big pictures, let's be honest about that. I hazard to say no one really believes that any group of human beings that can comprise 25-30% of a country can all be exactly the same. But it's also perfectly fair to say that if you vote a certain way, at the VERY least, the more extreme views of that party don't upset you enough to not vote for them. In which case.. you do support those policies EVEN if just on a 'lesser of two evils' basis. Can we agree on that?
Both parties absolutely suck. But we need to be clear about in what manner and to what extent. Right? An apt comparison might be the difference between drinking a glass of milk left on the table all night in a warm room, or eating raw chicken. One is way more likely to get you seriously ill. Both are going to probably make you sick. I've looked very hard for an argument that could be made that Democrats are -as bad- as Republicans, and I've never found one. They're shitty. But they're shitty in messaging. They're incompetent at being activists for their constituents. They're bad at following through on promises or having a strong stance on anything meaningful. I could level a lot of complaints at Democrats - and OFTEN do. They're lukewarm dry toast, in terms of political threat level.
But Republicans literally want an authoritarian Christo-fascist ethno-state and aren't shy about it. I'm having trouble with this idea that the two parties are both bad, and are therefore -equally- bad when one of them is constantly crusading against your basic human rights and those of your neighbors. When one party is holding up the guy that unironically quotes Hitler, that seems like a good indication that they're the worst of the bad.
Now, let me also be clear without meaning to level this as an accusation; The Republicans want a lot of things that I think are pure fucking evil. If you also want those things, then obviously you aren't going to view the Republicans as 'bad' in the same way I do. If you WANT an ethno-state and just don't think Republicans are doing it fast enough, for example, then you and I could agree the Republicans kind of suck, but our reasoning as to why is very, very different.
Regarding the economy: I just don't know how to approach this without it seeming like I'm calling you out here but you're just.. wrong? Or lying. So I'm going to assume in good faith that you're just wrong. Also, the age thing isn't relevant. One doesn't have to 'remember' or have lived through anything. The US economy is a matter of public record. There's like.. entire books about the subject.
Republicans have destroyed the economy every time they've held the presidency and Democrats have put efforts towards fixing it every time. It's not a matter of 'both parties ruin the economy.'
Here's the actual facts:
Bush Senior raised the deficit from 40b to 255b. Clinton got the deficit to ZERO (still amazing even if you hate the guy) and actually ended his term with a 120b surplus. George Jr. inherited that surplus and left office with a crippling 1 TRILLION dollars in debt, and Obama roughly halved that amount in his two terms.
Explain to me, with the understanding that the above are simply facts in public record, how both parties are responsible for the deficit?
Ultimately, I very much agree that neither party is putting forward good candidates. It can still be true that one party is putting up -better- candidates. I would argue that people who understand how the government actually works are generally better candidates to run the government, for example. If you voted for Trump, I'm really not sure how you can square that circle. How was Kamala Harris, a career politician, a lawyer, and clearly a smart lady a WORSE candidate than the career criminal rapist that bankrupted a casino and a small collection of other companies? I genuinely don't understand the logic behind 'they're all bad, so I voted for the least qualified person to ever run for public office.' And no Republican voter has ever offered me even a coherent explanation, let alone a good one.
