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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI am voting for the Democrat, because people will DIE otherwise.
Many, many more than if I don't.
I'm sorry if it offends or hurts feelings to say it that bluntly, but it's true. Those of you who know me and are just appalled that I could ask for other people to put aside their selfishness and stick with us in the general, even if it means a vote for Hillary Clinton (oh, the horror)--well I'm sorry, my friends. But if you know me like you say you do, then you know that my family lives on the edge of a knife in more ways than one. A Republican in the White House is a source of angst and anger and frustration for most of you. For me and people like me, it could mean death. Literally.
Hell, the only reason that Rhythm is ALIVE right now is because she finally got healthcare under the ACA and they caught her endometrial cancer early enough to cure it. My mother died from not having access to healthcare for way, way too long. We are food insecure, trying to care for two teenagers, and I am recovering from a surgery that will save my life--a surgery I'd NEVER have had without the ACA.
There isn't a single Republican who wouldn't bend every ounce of his power toward destroying the ACA. Toward dismantling Medicaid, and SNAP, and WIC, and LIEAP, and SSI, and school clothing vouchers, and anything else that keeps poor, disabled, underprivileged people alive and functional. They would gladly see us all dead. And when people say they'll stay home just because their preferred candidate doesn't win, it makes me want to VOMIT. I cannot even conceive of how "liberals" could be that breathtakingly self-centered. It's like they are saying, TO ME and to other people who would be under the guillotine in a Puke administration (Hello racial minorities! Hello LGBTers!), that WE DON'T MATTER. Our lives are worth less, in the end, than someone else's petulant resentment.
So my apologies to those that I apparently shocked. You see, I'd like to survive the next eight years, so I tend to overstep my bounds a little and be a tad impolite when trying to show people that there is SO MUCH MORE at stake here than just Bernie versus Hillary. I don't give a damn if we nominate Wile E. Coyote, as long as he's not gonna institute Republican KILL THE POORS AND THE BROWN PEOPLE policies. None of our Dems would do that, so as far as I'm concerned, they're all just fine to me. The fact is that the Republican Party has gone completely insane. You all know it's true. They are evil and dangerous and SO MUCH WORSE than anything on our side of the political fence. Frankly I spend every day just waiting to hear Huckabee or Cruz start calling for gays and atheists and women who've had abortions to be rounded up and imprisoned/tortured/executed, and no, I am not exaggerating. The American right wing is a homicidal dictatorship waiting for its chance to happen.
I like Hillary because I feel safer with her; she's more moderate, and therefore less scary to the easily-spooked independents and centrists. She seems much more likely to win. But if Bernie is our nominee, I will be right there with all the rest of you trying my best to convince everyone I know to vote for him, and giving him the time and resources I can spare. Because the alternative is a living nightmare that I cannot comprehend.
What hurts me, what KILLS me, is knowing that if it goes the other way, we the underclass are apparently on our own. We aren't important enough for our lives to be worth having to cast a reluctant vote for the D. I am deeply affected by people who make it clear that their "conscience" has more value than my life. Than my childrens' lives. The things we talk about here are not just philosophical differences, for me. So I apologize for going emotionally overboard on occasion. Perhaps some of you truly don't realize how worthless and abandoned and terrified some of us have been feeling here, lately.
It's not about loyalty. It's about decency and mercy. A vote for the Democrat is a vote to save lives, because it's a vote AGAINST the horror that the Republicans are waiting to impose upon us. Upon me. My kids. My neighbors.
Please.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)Response to Lyric (Original post)
1000words This message was self-deleted by its author.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Like, not breathing anymore.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)support single payer,takes money from bankers and is a war hawk.
Bernie is the one to support if you care about lives and the climate.
newfie11
(8,159 posts)RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Amen.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)Victor_c3
(3,557 posts)I served in Iraq as an Infantry Platoon leader from February 2004 through March 2005. Although it was more than 10 years ago for me, the experience is alive and well in my head. My platoon killed 46 people that I know of and wounded the best part of 100 people while I was in Iraq. I personally lost 5 Soldiers who were under my command.
To simply say that I'm diagnosed with severe PTSD is an understatement of my condition. I've spend about 6 months out of the last 18 months in and out of psychiatric hospitals. I've had one very violent suicide attempt during that time and I'm constantly on the verge of another. I've lost two great careers and my marriage is in shambles and I'm ready to lose that too. Although my kids dole out affection and love to me, I feel none of that in return. The war has taken everything from me.
Unlike most of you out there I can't forget what she enabled in Iraq and I won't vote for anyone who ever supported that war. Hillary gets to sleep nicely and night and brush off her support for the war on Iraq as a mistake and move on. People like me can't. There are some things that a person can't un-see and war is one of those.
yardwork
(61,712 posts)A Republican in the White House means more wars.
Victor_c3
(3,557 posts)There is no way I can bring myself to vote for her or any other supposed democrat that ever supported that war.
As in the same manner me and my life has been destroyed by my involvement in the war, those who allowed the war to happen should have their lives destroyed by the wars consequences as well. When I see nasty scars on her wrists from suicide attempts and see her spend time in psych wards after being tormented from her involvement in the war for years then I will believe that she understands what she did and is truly sorry for it. When that happens, I'll be able to respect her and vote for her. Until then she is no better than a bush.
mymomwasright
(304 posts)It's a tough sell considering what you and your boys paid, but your kids are the end all! Always think of them, in that they not visit the world you've seen. I don't support "hawks", either. They suck to the nth degree! It's painful to see it developing again in Syria!
GoneFishin
(5,217 posts)and power have too strong a hold on Hillary and that for each and every decision she makes regarding business or finance there will be extremely influential and convincing lobbyists meeting with her to twist her arm to do it their way.
Nothing that I have ever heard or seen gives me the slimmest hope that she will say no to those people.
For any true progressive there is no down side to voting for Bernie. If he wins the primary he will win the general. I know of zero Republicans who will vote for Hillary, and many who will relish the chance to vote against her.
Nonhlanhla
(2,074 posts)Thank you for your impassioned plea.
I just can't believe anyone would respond to this with the usual talking points about how Bernie is the best. He is great, of course, but that is beside the point. The point here is that if Bernie does not get the nomination, those who choose to then abstain from voting for Hillary in the general, thereby helping a Republican to the White House, will help kill many people in the process. Why is that so difficult to understand? This "there's not difference between moderate Dems and the crazy GOP" BS needs to stop. Nader used that rather effectively against Gore in 2000. And we ended up with Bush. Is there anyone who still wants to say that there was no difference between Gore and Bush? Do we want to look back another 15 years in the future and say, oh goodness, there was a huge difference between Hillary and Rubio/Cruz/Trump/Carson/Bush/whatever after all?
Basically, don't cut off your nose to spite your face.
seaglass
(8,173 posts)to go through another 8 years of a Republican president. MY memory and conscience will not allow me to risk a repeat.
I agree Lyric, it is pure selfishness - anyone who thinks their "conscience" is more important than other people's lives is not on my side.
All 3 candidates have pluses and minuses. I am not committed to any of the candidates but I will vote for whoever wins the primary.
barbtries
(28,811 posts)and i 100% agree. i want a bumpersticker that says i'm voting for the democrat, because i am and that's that.
i can hardly read DU anymore. from the bernie purists who insist they will not vote for hillary even if she wins the nomination, to the condescending tone on the hillary forum it's about unbearable. i hate to see it, have no appetite for engaging in it. i support bernie and he's the candidate i have given money to, but hell yes i will vote for hillary if she's on the ballot!
yes, the republicans are insane. they're insane, they're MEAN, they hate women and poor people and anyone who isn't a white male. i shudder to imagine a single one of the republican candidates as president. they've fucked up so many of the states. they do have a plan and we must thwart it.
yardwork
(61,712 posts)If you must feel your vote is "voting against the Republican" rather than "voting for the Democrat," so be it. The important thing, as Kentucky will soon find out, is to get to the polls.
xmas74
(29,676 posts)and have been treated as though I'm a Nazi on this forum, mostly by newer posters. I lurked in the earliest days of DU but didn't actually sign up and post until 2004. It was a place for me to get news quickly and see that there were other progressives in the world. At the time I had a baby and was alone, living 15 miles from the nearest town and working at a very conservative police department. I needed to see that there were others.
I remember 2000. The difference between 2000 and now is that Nader never ran as a Dem. Sanders is running as a Dem, Clinton is running as a Dem, etc. Whoever earns the party nomination will get the support they need from the other candidates. By refusing to vote for someone in the GE because they were not who you supported in the primary is asinine. In the end, it goes against the work all the candidates have put in.
We need a strong Dem in the GE. Our main candidates fit the bill. I'd be proud to cast my vote for any of them in the GE.
LuvNewcastle
(16,858 posts)I don't know what does.
Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)(It's different if you support Hillary.) My favorite is multiple postings in LBN, GD-P, GD and as many Groups as they can get away with every time Hillary passes gas. Oh yeah, and it's always BREAKING!11!1!11
LuvNewcastle
(16,858 posts)Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)Not out of blind partisan loyalty, but because the alternative is always worse. I care about things like the environment, LGBT civil rights, women's rights, etc, and the Republican Party is hopelessly reactionary and backwards on pretty much every issue I think matters. However, I will vote for Hillary with misgivings, because, while she may support most of the same things I do, the points of divergence are important and troubling (her advocacy for military intervention in Syria, for US intervention in Iran during the "Green Revolution", for "confrontation" with Russia, etc etc). American lives aren't the only ones that matter.