Why I Cannot Vote Republican In The 2016 Election
Because freedom is supposed to mean that I can make decisions you disagree with.
Because freedom does not mean curtailing other people’s rights.
Because gay people getting married doesn’t limit your religious freedom.
Because denying people services based on their race, religion, or sexual preference can never be an expression of freedom. That’s a perversion of the concept.
Because I really like the 1st Amendment, including the parts about not establishing a religion or abridging free speech.
Because I also take it seriously when the 4th Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.
Because I’m not afraid of women and their bodies.
Because I know that corporations are not people.
Because repeating lies does not eventually make them true.
Because we were not founded to be a Christian nation.
Because there has never been a war on Christmas.
Because your belief in American Exceptional has become not just a rallying cry, but a divisive way to end reasonable debate about the many real problems our country faces.
Because the disbelief about the place of our president’s birth was entirely motivated by racial prejudice.
Because selling out our food supply to corporate special interests is making people sick.
Because I respect the right of my fellow Americans to practice whatever religion they choose, including not practicing anything at all.
Because the devil is not a real thing.
Because income inequality is destroying the American dream.
Because being poor is not a moral failing.
Because we know that Trickle Down economics doesn’t work, and it never has.
Because shaming the economically disadvantaged doesn’t motivate them to change. Social policies that help them get out of poverty does.
Because turning prisons into big business incentivizes incarcerating people, and destroys families.
Because a penal system predicated on retribution does nothing to make our society better.
Because there actually are some things that government can do well if you don’t set it up to fail.
Because Obamacare, a policy you hate with a passion, was created by your party. It’s only when the black guy backed it that you began to oppose it.
Because healthcare should be a basic human right in an industrialized nation.
Because no one was held accountable after the mortgage crisis.
Because the difference between the Religious Right and ISIS is the Right’s lack of violence…for now.
Because the South stopped voting for Democrats once Democrats started caring about black people.
Because the largest major group to oppose voting rights, interracial marriage and gay rights sought justification in their religious texts.
Because we are not supposed to vote on people’s civil rights.
Because investing in education makes more sense than building more prisons.
Because the majority of people who receive welfare and food stamps are white, and yet our politicians perpetrate the lie that it’s black people.
Because our borders are porous, and vilifying people who came here to provide for their families is not the answer to this problem.
Because a woman should have a right to choose what she does with her body.
Because I don’t fear or hate people whose skin is a different color than mine.
Because the death penalty is absolutely applied unfairly along racial and class lines.
Because every current Republican presidential candidate has admitted to using recreational drugs and yet also believes in arresting people for the same behavior.
Because locking up people for non-violent drug offenses has built a permanent underclass.
Because a public health approach is always more sensible than creating more punitive laws.
Because war isn’t always the answer, and questioning the practices of our military doesn’t mean that you hate America.
Because debating whether or not we should enter a war is a moral imperative.
Because torture is wrong. Period.
Because lobbyists have better access to our leaders than the people do.
Because the gerrymandering of congressional districts only creates entrenched incumbents and further gridlock.
Because gay marriage in no way makes my marriage less special.
Because the same people who excuse their anti-LGBTQ bigotry by quoting the bible also enjoy tattoos, eating shrimp, and haircuts.
Because children need love to thrive, not a particular configuration of male and female parents.
Because forcing transgender people to use the wrong bathroom is a form of intentional humiliation, which means it is immoral.
Because science isn’t a democracy.
Because Intelligent Design is not science, and those who pretend that it is do so in a hope of sneaking their religious beliefs into our schools.
Because I do not just believe in evolution. Evolution has been proven through the scientific method so no belief is required.
Because there is no controversy to teach regarding evolution.
Because climate change is real and denying it could end civilization as we know it.
Because choosing our economy over the ecology is the new definition of being shortsighted.
Because sex feels good and that isn’t shameful to admit.
Because even if it was a choice, why is that any of your business? You make choices every day that I disagree with. Isn’t that the beauty of freedom?
Because almost every species of mammal has animals who engage in homosexual activity.
Because children deserve to be taught accurate information about human sexuality.
Because children deserve to be taught accurate information about the history of our nation.
Because a party whose leaders use terms like “legitimate rape” and “halfrican American” needs to pause and do some major soul searching.
Because, deep down, most of the criticism about our president stems from him being black, and you hating him for it.
Because the behavior of a good many of your elected representatives involving our president has been treasonous.
Because something must be done about gun violence. Something, not nothing.
Because you have become the political party of hate, anti-science, misogyny, homophobia, racism, xenophobia, big business, pandering, lies, and broken ideas. And I don’t love the Democratic Party either. Our nation desperately needs two political parties that offer ideas and solutions that could help fix our troubled nation. But yours are simply unconscionable.
