What is a Democrat?

I used to be a Republican. Yes, it’s true. I switched parties because I liked the ideals of the Democrats more. They seemed to fit the ideals of what I wanted this country to become. While, at the time, I respected the old world values of the Republican Party, I recognized, at least for myself, my values were more encompassing of, and more closely matched, those of the Democratic party. My posts here on this page reflect those ideals.

My parents were Republicans. I saw a lot of prejudice in their hearts and a lot of hate there which turned me off. At the same time they considered themselves “Good Christians”. My heart couldn’t reconcile the two points of view. It just wasn’t right. I have studied the Bible, the Koran and the Torah along with Buddhism and Hinduism. None of those religions promote hate. None of them promote violence. It’s PEOPLE who promote violence and hate in their abuse of religion.

So I became a Democrat. I felt good about it and I still do. As the Republican Party fell into more of a “hate” party with the advent of the Tea Party fanatics, my feelings were affirmed. When the GOP attacked President Obama and his family in a visceral way that was so obviously racist, then obstructed absolutely everything he wanted to do for this country including shutting down the government at taxpayer’s expense, that sealed my deal with the Democratic Party. I was already appalled by the GOP’s behavior and encouragement of shouting down other people’s viewpoints, I already despised their tiny hate-filled minds, but that really did it.

My feelings were further affirmed by today’s GOP’s encouragement and use of conspiracy theories, outright lies and fueling the biases of the uneducated along with their use of fear-mongering tactics and other outrageous lies in order to manipulate the less educated in this country. Those tactics should make any American sick, educated or not. Their blatant misuse of the internet to anger people who should know better, but don’t, is what enabled a monster like Trump to get as far as he has. If the GOP of today really cared about this country, they wouldn’t stand by and let a crazy, incompetent, irresponsible, bigoted, ignorant moron even have the remote possibility of getting into the White House. Along with that is their misogynist attacks on someone like Hillary Clinton, who, while not perfect, hasn’t actually done 98% of what she is being accused of.

As a Democrat, I have been called many names, “libtard”, left-wing crazy, tree-hugger, you name it. The truth is, I am just someone who has pretty moderate views. I think the majority of Democrats are the same. We could, in many ways, be considered the “Old Republicans” with some newer, progressive ideas. I believe in a lot of the ethics the GOP used to stand for, I just can’t get behind the hate-filled, bigoted, misogynist party of today.