#He said he supports the LGBTQ community and he voted because of the economy | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

taniuchiha · 3 years

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I don’t think anyone should die. But they can fuck off to nowhere and don’t ever talk to me again. They are voting for a guy who rather goes and hide in a bunker than stand with poc and protect them. They are voting for a guy who makes it’s own country pay for an unnecessary wall instead of putting that money into healthcare so that people would not have to pay for ambulances. They are voting for a guy who puts young easily traumatised children in cages without their parents anywhere near because they stepped foot in the country he leads. They are voting for a guy they believe will help the economy but has declared bankrupcy 6 times and has done the worst out of all countries during Covid-19. They are voting for a guy who spent money helping Jeffery Epstein’s child trafficking. Don’t get me started on what easy shit he won’t even try to do for LGBTQ+ rights. And women, who he sees as nothing more than sex objects he is allowed to touch without their consent.

Any and every Trump supporter is a selfish human being who believe every word he says despite being proven wrong and wrong again. You just need 5 minutes on social media to see thousands of reasons he is an unfit president.

Imagine putting your country in the hands of someone with so little brains that he is now questioning why he isn’t getting a lot of votes by mailed-in ballots when he told his audience not to do that for months.

But yes, let’s vote for him because he lowered some taxes you are spending on a FREAKING PIECE OF BRICK. Instead of healthcare which is needed way more.

A woman who voted for Trump actually said she voted because he treats everyone the same shitty way... she thought that was equality.

He’s also a guy who wanted to stop the counting of votes even though EVERY vote should count. He is trying to make your country in a dictatorship. He was/is working on changing the rules so that he would stay in house after 2024. He is trying to kill democracy.

And that great economy trump supporters like to use as a ‘valid’ reason consists of yes, having a lot of people keep their job, if only these jobs weren’t for fucking companies that are destroying and hurting the environment.

You are asking for people not to say that they hope Trump supporters will die, when voting for Trump is hurting a lot more people than some speech on the internet.

First off, You are valid in your opinion and are very much allowed to feel the way that you do.

I want to address some of the points that were made.

1. What do mean be he was hiding in his bunker? What was the issue you were citing because I'm not with it today 😅 work frazzles me.

2. The issue with the border wall and the cages are complicated because of the gang related activity involved. Ms13, cartel, and other bad individuals bring drugs and humans over the border to sell and traffic. Many of those "families" may not even be families. It could be a man bringing a child to traffic in the us. Those men are called "coyotes" I do think a wall is a bit crazy, but necesary against something of this magnitude.

3. And as a Trump supporter, I do not believe every word he says. I'm not completely blind to his faults. He said he wasn't touching social security and then I read a couple articles of which SS is on the budget of things to cut. So I get it, but like I said, with what research we do, we do like the things that he promises that he does keep to. Like providing more jobs and helping our economy. And yes, I agree that his Twitter posts can be crass. A lot. I feel that he's a very crass, but we have to remember that he wasn't a politician, he was an business man and an entertainer. He likes attention, which is what he gets by making those tweets. I think when he actually tries, which he was very successful at the last debate, he can be a better president.

4. The bankruptcy and the Epstein situation, I'm with you. He said that he distanced himself from Epstein a long time ago and judging by there weren't any recent pictures of the two, I believe it, but the fact that they were friends in the first place makes me feel sick.

5. And yes, the mail in votes were expected to be mostly Democrat because yes, trump did in fact tell his voters to vote in person, which if you heard there were issues with the in person polling booths. People saying that they weren't working and to leave them with pollers. People didn't trust that and stayed in line and suddenly it working after several hours. That sounds just a little sus to me.

In my opinion, yes, every counts, but if you are mailing in your vote, you should plan to send it early so that it makes it in time. If it doesn't make it by Nov 3, than it shouldn't count.

And if we are talking little brains, Joe Biden is not the best comparison. Considering that he thought he was running for Senate, waved to an empty field, said "hello Minnesota" when he was in Florida and played despacito in his phone.

6. Concerning covid, I don't think joe Biden would have done much better. Not a lot of evidence shows that he would have.

We can't just lock everybody down, that's impossible. People have bills, and jobs that need to be done. Suicide rates jumped, depression jumped. For the economies sake, we needed to open. Yes people died, and i really am sympathic. But it didn't help that Cuomos idea of trying to help was putting covid patients in nursing homes, which infected and killed many elderly people and actively refusing to wear masks even under threat of fines which probably doesn't bother him one bit. There are mistakes in both parties concerning this matter.

7. Trump isn't trying to kill democracy. I haven't seen anything about him killing democracy, however, I did see on kamala Harris's Twitter her outright supporting communism! Which I am completely against! The video she posted equity is not equality. Watch it and it is pretty much the definition of communism which sounds good on paper but never in execution.

8. There are plenty of other positions in gov that have done the same thing in keeping life positions. I do not agree with this and believe that it should be limited to terms.

And I don't believe his next four years would hurt as many people as you say that it would. 8 years of the Obama presidency probably hurt people more than trumps 4 years. That's just my stance on it from my perspective. I remember the government shutting down constantly, 5$ a gallon gas, the bombing in foreign countries and also his influence on racial tensions.

Now, you are entitled to feel however you want to feel. That's the beauty of America. In another country, these criticisms in our conversation wouldn't be tolerated. I do believe wholeheartedly that we should protect that with everything we have. And that's why I love these conversations.

I get to hear what you have to say and how you feel, and i can also express to you the same. If there are problems, we can try to find a way to fix them. Stay strong, peacefully and work together to make it fair.

But I think a lot of the problem is the anger or hate, as it comes of as. The aggression, be senseless violence... It doesn't make people want to support that cause! I believe that black lives matter. I believe that lgbtq lives matter. They all matter so much, but this violence, this damage is not getting the message across. It's scaring people. It's chaotic.

Sorry I'm rambling in again 😅 this is already long enough and sorry for the late response. Work has been a little rough.

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emirabella21ahsgov · 4 years

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BLOG POST #3: POLITICAL PARTY ACTION - Immigration

Republican Party

The Republican Party values legal immigrants and their contributions to society and our economy. However, they believe that illegal immigration “endangers everyone, exploits taxpayers, and insults all who inspire to enter America illegally.” Therefore, they want to increase border security and build a wall along the southern border. Republicans want to enforce stricter penalties for undoctumented immigrants and implement a variety of verification programs to weed out illegal immigrants from their workplaces and communties. In addition, they want to cut federal funding to “sanctuary cities” and protect states’ right to limit illegal immigration. Republicans believe that asylum should only be granted for those fleeing religious, ethnic, or political persecution. Finally, if unable to fully determine whether a refugee is safe or not, especially if they come from countries that are “breeding grounds'' for terriorism, Republicans will deny them entry.

I don’t think it’s reasonable to deport undocumented immigrants when the path to legal entry and citizenship is as difficult and inaccesible as it is today. I agree that it’s important to have secure borders, but our inability to determine whether a refugee is safe or not shouldn’t automatically deny people entry. I’m not sure how the vetting process should be amended, but this denial based on country of origin and ethnicity encourages discrimination and limited diversity in the US. In addition, ending federal funding to sanctuary cities endangers both legal and illegal residents.

Democratic Party

Democrats believe that all immigrants should be treated with respect and kindness. They want to end the construction of the southern wall and remove Trump’s travel ban, which excessively discriminates against Muslim, Arab, and African people. Democrats want to pass legislation prohibiting future presidents from creating discriminatory travel laws. Democrats want to protect the Dreamers, parents of American immigrants, and those seeking asylum in America. They will reverse Trump’s laws that exclude the LGBTQ+ community and those affected by gang and domestic violence from applying for asylum. Democrats want to fight structural racism that plagues the immigration system and create a faster and more efficient path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. They’ll prioritize keeping immigrant families together and provide more visas to victims of sex trafficing. Democrats will reform the detention centers to have safer and more humane conditions, and help mitigate the causes of immigration through international programs and relations.

I completely agree with the Democrat’s position to protect undocumented immigrants and eliminate racial discrimination in the immigration system. I also agree that there should be a clearer path to citizenship. However, I don’t know where I stand with their “diversity preferences” when determining who can enter the country. Although I support its purpose of promoting diversity in the U.S., I don’t believe legal entry should be granted based on ethnicity or race. However, there do need to be systems in place ensuring structural racism in our government doesn't affect which people are granted admission.

Libertarian Party

Libertarians believe that all immigrants who are peaceful should be welcomed by the United States. Education and country of origin should not be taken into account when admitting immigrants, and only people who have/are/or plan to act violently should be refused entry, deported, or imprisoned. Libertarians denounce the criminalizaiton of undocumented immigrants and believe that if Americans want immigrants to enter legally, they have to provide easier and more accesible paths to legal immigration.

I also agree with the Liberitarian platform that if America doesn’t want people to immigrate illegally, they should create a clearer path to citizenship and legal entry. I’m not sure if this is included with the position that only peaceful immigrants are allowed, but I think the country of origin should be considered in the screening process. To protect refugees, we need to know if they’re escaping dangerous conditions in their home country so we can get them to safety faster. In addition, background checks should clarify if an immigrant shares destructive ideology with violent groups from their country of origin. Immigrants shouldn’t be denied entry just because they’re leaving a certain country, but it’s vital to the safety of current and future Americans to know someone’s full history, including where they’ve lived, before welcoming them to the U.S..

Green Party

The Green Party wants to amend unfair U.S. trade policies that endanger local communities and force families to leave their countries. They believe all immigrants, no matter their legal status, should be treated with respect. The Green Party asserts that a country has the right to deny entry to immigrants that may endanger the public’s safety. They want a complete overhaul of U.S. immigration laws that currently encourage discrimination against immigrant families and the immigrant community as a whole. Under the Green Party,familes will be reunited, all refugees and resident undocumented immigrants will be given legal statues, those from Meixco or Canada whose identities’ can be verified will be given border passes, and permanent residence will not be subject to discrimination against ethnicity, sexual orientation, or political views. The Green Pary wants undocumented immigrants to be protected in the American workforce, the border wall dismantled, and changes to border security making it humane and safe.

I agree with the Green Party anti-discrimination beliefs and protection of undocumented immigrants. Although, I’m confused about the border passes for Canada and Mexico. It seems like they’re equivalent to passports, but I’m not entirely sure. I’m not educated on this topic, but maybe we could adopt something similar to the EU’s border policies. There, travelling throughout Europe is fairly easy, and maybe that could be the same for those in North America.

Peace and Freedom Party

Those in the Peace and Freedom Party stand for open borders, ending deportation of immigrants, and complete rights and protection for non-citizens living in America.

I disagree that we should have completely open borders. Without screenings and thorough (yet fair and anti-discriminatory) background checks, our national security is at risk. However, I agree that immigrants shouldn’t be deported because of our failed immigration system. If legal immigration was more easily accessible, people wouldn't cross our borders illegally in the first place.

My Party

I’m really not sure which party I identify with the most. I don’t agree with the Republican or Peace and Freedom Party, but there are also small aspects of the remaining parties that I disagree with as well. I’m tied between the Democratic, Libertarian, and Green Party because they share similar views on immigrant protections and reforms. I’d vote for Biden because voting for one of the third parties would be helping Trump, who’s platform I disagree with the most.

The Debate

Immigration wasn’t really discussed in the debate. They did, however, discuss the travel ban on China. Trump said that he’s blocked travel from China and that Biden would have left the country “wide-open” and not closed its borders for another two months. Biden didn’t discuss the borders and instead emphasized the importance of protective gear against the Covid pandemic. I don’t think Trump’s argument was effective because he didn’t prove Biden would have restricted travel from China.

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reading-writing-revolution · 4 years

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Heather Cox Richardson:

24 Aug 2020

Trump is running far behind Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the polls. In early February 2020, at its best, his overall popularity rating hovered close to 50%. In the same month, according to a Gallup poll, 63% of Americans approved of the way he was handling the economy. To keep this economic success story going, Trump downplayed the coronavirus, leaving us wide open to its devastation. It hit the U.S. in earnest shortly after this poll was taken. The economy shut down, and we plummeted into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

But Trump is determined to be reelected, so determined that he has begun to suggest he will not accept a Biden victory as valid. There is room to speculate about why he is so obsessed with reelection that he took the unprecedented step of filing for reelection way back in January 2017, on the day of his inauguration. One possible answer is that campaign money can be used to pay for lawyers under certain circumstances. As of May, the campaign had spent more than $16 million on legal services—in comparison, George W. Bush spent $8.8 million; Barack Obama spent $5.5 million; and, in May, Biden had spent just $1.3 million. Another possible answer is that the Department of Justice maintains that a sitting president cannot be indicted.

To pull off a win Trump is trying to guarantee loyal Republican voters will show up to vote. To that end, he is favoring evangelical voters, his most loyal bloc. Last week’s posthumous pardon for Susan B. Anthony was a gift to anti-abortion activists; yesterday Trump explicitly called the attention of evangelical Christians to his lie that “The Democrats took the word GOD out of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democrat National Convention.” (They didn’t. The Muslim caucus and the LGBTQ caucus, both of which met privately, left the words “under God” out. All the public, televised events used the words.)

This morning he was more abrupt. He tweeted: “Happy Sunday! We want GOD!” And then he went golfing.

He is also trying to consolidate power over Republican lawmakers, making the party his own. The Republican National Convention starts tomorrow night, and it seems it will be the Trump Show. The convention was initially supposed to be in Charlotte, North Carolina, and then Trump moved it to Jacksonville, Florida, when North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, would not guarantee he could have full capacity despite the coronavirus. Finally, in the wake of the under-attended Tulsa rally, Trump recognized that the convention would have to be virtual. But this has left planners scrambling to plan a convention in four weeks, when planning one usually takes a full year. No one seems quite sure what is going to happen.

It is traditional for a candidate to put in a short appearance to acknowledge the nomination and then give a keynote acceptance speech on the last day. But the RNC’s announced line-up features Trump speaking every night in the prime-time slot. The speakers include the First Lady and all of the adult Trump children, including Tiffany, but do not include any of the previous Republican presidents or presidential nominees, which is unusual.

Trump will speak live from the White House. This raises legal questions because while the president and vice-president are not covered by the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities, the rest of the White House staff is. Further, it is against the law to coerce federal employees to conduct political activity.

Vice President Mike Pence will also speak from federal property—possibly Fort McHenry— the First Lady will speak from the newly renovated Rose Garden, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will apparently speak from Jerusalem while on an official trip to the Middle East, although secretaries of state generally do not speak at either political convention. Democrats have raised concerns about the overlap between official property and business and the Trump campaign.

The Republicans have written no platform to outline policies and goals for the future. Instead they passed a resolution saying that “the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.” The party appears now to be Trump’s.

But….

The Republicans’ next resolution calls on the media “to engage in accurate and unbiased reporting, especially as it relates to the strong support of the RNC for President Trump and his Administration.” And a final resolution prohibited the Republicans from making any motions to write a new platform.

If you read that carefully, you see people trying to convince everyone that they are united, when they are, in fact, badly split.

Trump’s extremism is alienating the voters that other Republican lawmakers need to stay in power, and those lawmakers are trying to keep their distance from him without antagonizing his base. Yesterday, in Portland, Oregon, the police refused to respond as neo-fascist Proud Boys and armed militia members staging a “Back the Blue” rally attacked Black Lives Matter protesters, who fought back. It is a truism in American history that violence costs a group political support, and militia groups are angry because Facebook has banned them, hurting their ability to recruit.

Today, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officers shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back multiple times in front of his children; the shooting was caught on video and has sparked outrage.

Tell-all books are also undermining the president. Yesterday, it came out that when researching her book, Mary Trump, the president’s niece, recorded her aunt, Maryanne Trump Barry, Trump’s sister, discussing Trump. “All he wants to do is appeal to his base,” Barry said. “He has no principles. None. None.” “Donald is cruel,” she said, “he was a brat.” A new book by CNN reporter Brian Stelter shows how Trump simply echoes the personalities at the Fox News Channel. And former Trump fixer Michael Cohen is about to release his own book about his years working for Trump.

Trump also took a personal hit tonight, when advisor Kellyanne Conway announced she was leaving the White House. Both she and her husband, George Conway, a co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, are stepping away from the public eye to deal with family issues exacerbated by the political drama of the past several years.

And the Russia story, revived by the fifth volume of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on Russian connections to the 2016 Trump campaign, is not going away. Tonight, the Daily Beast reported that Jared Kushner—who after, all, could not get a security clearance until Trump overruled authorities-- has been using a secret back channel to communicate with a Putin representative. According to the story, Steve Bannon, who was arrested on Friday by the acting U.S. Attorney at the Southern District of New York and so now has an excellent reason to flip, knew all about it.

This afternoon, Trump tried to change the news trend when he called a press conference to announce what he called a “safe and effective treatment” for Covid-19. The FDA has approved an Emergency Use Authorization for convalescent plasma, a treatment involving giving anti-body rich plasma from those who have had the virus to those ill with it. Studies show that the treatment has some potential, but there has been little scientific study of it, and it is certainly not established as an effective treatment. Federal health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have objected to the EUA until there is more information; Trump has accused the doctors of delaying approval for political reasons. He walked out of the press conference after a reporter asked about the discrepancy between his triumphant announcement of a treatment and a doctor's explanation that plasma has potential.

So the best option for the president to win in 2020 might be to keep Biden supporters from voting. Yesterday, the House passed a bill committing $25 billion to the United States Postal Service and to stop Postmaster General Louis DeJoy from making more changes that are delaying the delivery of the mail. Today, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused to take up the bill.

But Americans have figured out that they can avoid using the slowed USPS by turning to Ballot Drop Boxes. So today, Trump tweeted that “Mail Drop Boxes… are a voter security disaster,” that are “not Covid sanitized.”

Twitter slapped a warning on it: “This tweet violated the Twitter rules about civic and election integrity.”

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lindentreeisle · 6 years

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The Masterpiece Cakeshop decision, for the layman

Hey, y’all. I know there’s a lot of alerts going out now about this decision being released, and as is usual in these situations, there’s going to be a LOT of bad, panicked reporting by people who haven’t read the decision or don’t understand it. I was just reading it and explaining it to my brother, so I thought I’d put something up here.

Here’s the short version:

They ruled for the baker

But it was very narrow, so don’t freak out

The Commission that heard the discrimination complaint and ruled against the baker was unfair, so he gets a new hearing

The Court did not give the ok to discrimination

More below the cut if you want to see detailed explanations/analysis.

First, the opinion is here, if you want to give it a read yourself. Second, DON’T PANIC. Yes, the baker won. But he won on a very narrow grounds, and not the ones his bigoted supporters leaned heavily on. This is not an all-out victory for the forces of discrimination. And while a total defeat of the baker would have been better, in the current Supreme Court “it could have been worse” is not the worst result we could have had.

There’s going to be a lot of legal analysis (check out Scotusblog for a good sampling of analysis by lawyers) but my quick and dirty take is that the Supreme Court punted. I think the Court desperately wanted to avoid making a Big Decision on whether the state has a right to bar discrimination when it’s based on religious belief. They may well have not had a clear majority either way. And Justice Kennedy, who wrote the opinion for the majority, is a well-known swing vote. So what they were able to get 7 of 9 to sign on to is a victory for the baker that avoids making any declarations that are generally applicable: a very case-specific decision that will be hard for anti-gay bigots to use as a weapon.

The ruling was essentially that the baker had a right to “neutral and respectful consideration of his claims” when he was brought before the Colorado Commission on Civil Rights and pled religious belief as a reason for his discriminatory practices. (This is, in my view, an extremely pissant argument.) The opinion talks about how the commissioners made comments at the public hearing that were negative towards the baker, and therefore indicated that they were biased against his religious beliefs. Justice Kennedy adopts a scandalized tone when he says that the commissioners actually compared the baker’s practices to defenses of slavery and the holocaust!!! But what the commissioner actually said was that religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history, including things like slavery and the holocaust. Which is...you know...a fact. I guess it’s discrimination against religion to state facts that make religion look bad?

The majority also compares the Commission’s handling of this complaint to several other complaints where they upheld the rights of bakers to refuse to make cakes with anti-gay messages, and says that this is an indicator that the Commission was biased against religion. Of course this is a completely false equivalence; the bakery case is not about whether or not a business has to produce a first amendment expression they disagree with, it’s about whether a business can disregard public accommodation laws by claiming he doesn’t believe in them. To be plainer, saying these two situations are identical is like saying a business refusing to sell bumper stickers to black people is the same as a business refusing to print “fuck n**s” bumper stickers. You don’t have to be a lawyer to see those two things are not the same.

If the punting didn’t tell you already, you can see how deeply divisive this case was based on the fact that there are THREE concurrent opinions and one dissent. he dissent is by Ginsburg and Sotomayor, who unsurprisingly view this as a clear-cut case of discrimination that the Commission correctly identified as such. The concurrences are interesting only in that they tell you where particular justices stand and therefore what they are likely to do in future cases; concurrences do not make new law and can be cited only as non-binding statements, which we call “dicta.”

Kagan wrote a concurrence in which Breyer joined, solely to point out the false equivalence of comparing the baker who wouldn’t serve gay grooms-to-be to the bakers refusing to make cakes with anti-gay messages, and state that they felt the difference in results was based on a neutral reading of the discrimination law. Gorsuch wrote a concurrence in which Alito joined, leaning heavily on the false equivalence and how it proves religious discrimination. He says that because the Commission was so mean to the baker, they need to just give him the same ruling that it gave the bakers who refused to make cakes with bigoted messages. Thomas wrote a concurrence in which Gorsuch joined, saying that he would have found that baking a custom cake is a creative endeavor entitled to first amendment protection. (This was the biggest argument of the bigoted set, not surprising that Thomas liked it.)

No surprises on this one. Gorsuch, Alito, and Thomas firmly on the religious nutjob side; Ginsburg and Sotomayor on the progressive side; Kagan, Breyer, Kennedy, and Roberts hugging the fence. Roberts didn’t sign on to either of the conservative concurrences, which is strange- especially given his vehement dissent from the Obergefell decision, which found that marriage was a fundamental right for gay as well as straight couples.

What’s interesting, and what I’m sure has progressive lawyers salivating, are the meaty bones tossed to the anti-discrimination advocates by the majority opinion. Despite the concurrences, six justices signed on to the majority, which is therefore not a plurality and will be cited as the law of the case. So when future lawyers are writing their briefs and type “Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission said...” they can follow it with:

“The Court’s precedents make clear that the baker, in his capacity as the owner of a business serving the public, might have his right to the free exercise of religion limited by generally applicable laws.”

“Our society has come to the recognition that gay persons and gay couples cannot be treated as social outcasts or as inferior in dignity and worth. For that reason the laws and the Constitution can, and in some instances must, protect them in the exercise of their civil rights. The exercise of their freedom on terms equal to others must be given great weight and respect by the courts”

“Nevertheless, while those religious and philosophical objections are protected, it is a general rule that such objections do not allow business owners and other actors in the economy and in society to deny protected persons equal access to goods and services under a neutral and generally applicable public accommodations law.”

“Yet if that exception were not confined, then a long list of persons who provide goods and services for marriages and weddings might refuse to do so for gay persons, thus resulting in a community-wide stigma inconsistent with the history and dynamics of civil rights laws that ensure equal access to goods, services, and public accommodations.”

“Petitioners conceded, moreover, that if a baker refused to sell any goods or any cakes for gay weddings, that would be a different matter and the State would have a strong case under this Court’s precedents that this would be a denial of goods and services that went beyond any protected rights of a baker who offers goods and services to the general public and is subject to a neutrally applied and generally applicable public accommodations law.”

“And any decision in favor of the baker would have to be sufficiently constrained, lest all purveyors of goods and services who object to gay marriages for moral and religious reasons in effect be allowed to put up signs saying “no goods or services will be sold if they will be used for gay marriages,” something that would impose a serious stigma on gay persons.”

So while delivering a victory for an individual bigot, the majority opinion of the Court made it ABUNDANTLY clear that the state absolutely has the right to regulate businesses to protect gay people from discrimination, and that an absolute refusal to serve gay people based on religious belief would be illegal. I consider this important: not only is it a slap in the face for anti-gay bigots, the simple fact is that whenever you make a legal argument, even something that should be simple and obvious, you need to be able to cite the law or precedent to support what you’re saying. The quotes above are a pile of ammo for any lawyers briefing or arguing the issue of LGBTQ discrimination.

#masterpiece cakeshop #lgbtq issues #lgbtq civil rights #civil rights #discrimination #public accommodations law #supreme court

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patriotsnet · 3 years

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Which Party Is Bigger Democrats Or Republicans

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/which-party-is-bigger-democrats-or-republicans/

Which Party Is Bigger Democrats Or Republicans

Democratic Candidate Joe Biden

Republicans or Democrats: Who is better for the economy?

Reuters: Carlos Barria

The Democrats are the liberal political party and their candidate is Joe Biden, who has run for president twice before.

A former senator for Delaware who served six terms, Biden is best known as Barack Obama’s vice-president.

He held that role for eight years, and it has helped make him a major contender for many Democrat supporters.

Earlier this year, Biden chose California Senator Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate.

The 77-year-old has built his campaign on the Obama legacy, and tackling the country’s staggering health care issues.

He is known for his down-to-earth personality and his ability to connect with working-class voters. He would be the oldest first-term president in history if elected.

According to 2017 Pew Research Centre data, a vast majority of the African American population supports the Democratic party, with 88 per cent voting for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential elections.

Generational Divides In Partisanship

Generation continues to be a dividing line in American politics, with Millennials more likely than older generations to associate with the Democratic Party. However, over the past few years the Democratic Party has lost some ground among Millennials, even as it has improved its standing among the oldest cohort of adults, the Silent Generation. Gen Xers and Baby Boomers have seen less change in their partisan preferences and remain closely divided between the two major parties.

Overall, 54% of Millennial registered voters say they identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared with 38% who identify with or lean toward the GOP. In 2017, the Democratic Party held a wider 59% t0 32% advantage among this group. However, the Democratic Partys standing with Millennials is about the same as it was at earlier points, including 2014.

Voters in the Silent Generation are now about equally likely to identify with or lean toward the GOP as the Democratic Party . This marks a change from 2017, when the GOP held a 52% to 43% advantage in leaned party identification among the oldest voters. Still, the partisan leanings of Silent voters have fluctuated over the past few decades, and there have been other moments where the two parties ran about even or the Democratic Party held a narrow advantage since 1994.

Across all generations, women remain more likely than men to associate with the Democratic Party.

Wide Divides In Partisanship Persist By Race And Ethnicity

Some of the largest differences in partisanship continue to be seen across racial and ethnic groups.

The GOP continues to maintain an advantage in leaned party identification among white voters . By contrast, sizable majorities of black, Hispanic and Asian American voters identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party. Among black voters, 83% identify or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared with just 10% who say they are Republican or lean toward the GOP.

The Democratic Party also holds a clear advantage over the GOP in leaned party identification among Hispanic voters , though the margin is not as large as among black voters.

Among English-speaking Asian American voters, 72% identify or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared with just 17% who identify with or lean toward the GOP.

The balance of partisanship among white, black and Hispanic voters has been generally stable over the past decade. However, English-speaking Asian American voters have shifted toward the Democratic Party.

Also Check: Who Said We Are All Republicans We Are All Federalists

How Increasing Ideological Uniformity And Partisan Antipathy Affect Politics Compromise And Everyday Life

Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines and partisan antipathy is deeper and more extensive than at any point in the last two decades. These trends manifest themselves in myriad ways, both in politics and in everyday life. And a new survey of 10,000 adults nationwide finds that these divisions are greatest among those who are the most engaged and active in the political process.

The overall share of Americans who express consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions has doubled over the past two decades from 10% to 21%. And ideological thinking is now much more closely aligned with partisanship than in the past. As a result, ideological overlap between the two parties has diminished: Today, 92% of Republicans are to the right of the median Democrat, and 94% of Democrats are to the left of the median Republican.

Today 92% of Republicans are to the right of the median Democrat, and 94% of Democrats are to the left of the median Republican

Partisan animosity has increased substantially over the same period. In each party, the share with a highly negative view of the opposing party has more than doubled since 1994. Most of these intense partisans believe the opposing partys policies are so misguided that they threaten the nations well-being.

Many of those in the center remain on the edges of the political playing field while the most ideologically oriented and politically rancorous Americans make their voices heard

I Personally Align With Democrats

I believe that the Democratic party is a better party than the Republican party. One reason is that they allow for more freedom. The LGBTQ community mainly supports the Democratic party. This is mainly because the GOP states that being gay is a sin. No, Being gay is not a sin, Nor is it a disease or condition, But rather something you are born with. They still function like a normal human being. Transgenders, For your information, Are not simply swapping genders. In the head, They are one thing, But their body is another. Republicans make the claim that a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl. I have seen that some people in the Republican section have stated that the party flip was false, That is actually incorrect. If you are from the south, I could understand. Democrats who didn’t flip parties in the 1960s were/are known as Dixiecrats, And are mainly southern. Their political party is the Democratic party, However their views are conservative. Coming back to the party flip, Think of it more like this. Bill is wearing a black jacket and Joe is wearing a blue jacket. They switch their jackets. The same person is still inside, Just now they have differing appearances. My grandpa was a Democrat, But now he’s a Republican, However he has remained conservative.

Recommended Reading: What Are The Views Of Republicans

Urban Voters Grow More Democratic Rural Voters More Republican

Voters in urban counties have long aligned more with the Democratic Party than the Republican Party, and this Democratic advantage has grown over time. Today, twice as many urban voters identify as Democrats or lean Democratic as affiliate with the GOP or lean Republican.

Overall, those who live in suburban counties are about evenly divided in their partisan loyalties , little changed over the last two decades.

Voters in rural areas have moved in a more Republican direction over the last several years. From 1999 to 2009, rural voters were about equally divided in their partisan leanings. Today, there is a 16-percentage-point advantage for the GOP among rural voters.

While there are racial and ethnic differences in the makeup of rural, suburban and urban areas, this overall pattern of geographic divergence is also seen among whites. Among rural whites, the GOP enjoyed a roughly 10-percentage-point advantage throughout much of the 2000s; the GOP advantage among rural white voters is now 24 percentage points . At the same time, while urban white voters were roughly evenly divided in their political preferences for much of the last two decades, in recent years the Democratic Party has enjoyed a double-digit partisan advantage: Today, 54% of white urban voters are Democrats or lean Democratic, while 41% identify with the GOP or lean Republican.

Difference Between Democratic And Republican Party :

It is so tough to find out the difference between the republic and the democratic party. Here, there are some crucial differences between the democratic and republican parties to clear the audience and concerned people. We can point out ten dissimilarities in some categories. Such as:

1. Woman Abortion:

The first difference between the democratic and republican parties is womens abortion. Democrats believe at a sweet woman will have the right to do abortion in reproductive health care service. Whereas Republicans want to ban it from the constitution. Republicans stand against the killing of a fetus.

Read More: Major Symptoms of Democratic Backsliding

2. Same-Sex Marriage Rights:

Secondly, same-sex marriage legalizes the Democrats party. On the other hand, the Republican Party is against it. It is another difference between the democratic party and the republic party.

3. Climate Change:

Thirdly, Democrats believe that Climate change pretenses an urgent. It is a real threat to our national security, our economy, and our childrens health and futures. While Republicans doubt whether the climate is changing, rejecting the findings of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a political mechanism, not an unbiased scientific institution with intolerance toward scientists and others who dissent from its orthodoxy.

4. Israel Issue:

Read more: Private Administration vs. Public Administration

5. Voting Rights:

6. Money in Politics:

7. Iran Issue:

Read Also: Who Are Richer Democrats Or Republicans

Quiz: Let Us Predict Whether Youre A Democrat Or A Republican

Tell us a few details about you and well guess which political party you belong to. It shouldnt be that simple, right? Were all complex people with a multiplicity of identities and values. But the reality is that in America today, how you answer a handful of questions is very likely to determine how you vote.

This quiz, based on recent surveys with more than 140,000 responses, presents a series of yes-or-no questions to predict whether someone is more likely to identify as a Democrat or a Republican. It captures divisions that should make you worried about the future of American democracy.

We wont collect your answers.

The first question is the most important: Its about race. Asking whether someone is black, Hispanic or Asian cleaves the electorate into two groups. Those who answer yes lean Democratic; the others are split roughly evenly between the parties. Among those who are not black, Hispanic or Asian , the second most important question is whether the person considers religion important. If they answer yes, they are probably Republican.

Its not just race and religion, though. Party allegiances are now also tied to education, gender and age. Americans have sorted themselves more completely and rigidly than any time in recent history.

How demographics predict party affiliation

The group most likely to be Democrats are black women older than about 30.

Meeting in the Middle

Reliable Republicans

Republican Vs Democratic Demographics

Marjorie Taylor Greene: Bigger Problem For Democrats Or GOP? | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

Interesting data about how support for each party broke down by race, geography and the urban-rural divide during the 2018 mid-term elections are presented in charts here.

The Pew Research Group, among others, regularly surveys American citizens to determine party affiliation or support for various demographic groups. Some of their latest results are below.

Read Also: Do Republicans Want To Impeach Trump

Where Do Trump And Biden Stand On Key Issues

Reuters: Brian Snyder/AP: Julio Cortez

The key issues grappling the country can be broken down into five main categories: coronavirus, health care, foreign policy, immigration and criminal justice.

This year, a big focus of the election has been the coronavirus pandemic, which could be a deciding factor in how people vote, as the country’s contentious healthcare system struggles to cope.

The average healthcare costs for COVID-19 treatment is up to $US30,000 , an Americas Health Insurance Plans 2020 study has found.

Left Wing And Right Wing Politics

Politics is said to be split in half and you either have left or right political views. Left-wing politics is typically associated with progressive ideas and equality. Democrats are viewed as left-wingers. Right-wing politics values tradition, equity, and survival of the fittest. Republicans are viewed as right-wingers.

Left-Wing

Left-wing beliefs are liberal in that they believe society is best served with an expanded role of the government. Examples of an expanded role for the government include entitlement programs such as social security and Medicare, Medicaid, universal healthcare, food stamps, free public education, unemployment benefits, strong environmental laws, and other regulations on industries.

Right Wing

Right-wingers believe that the best outcome for society is achieved when individual rights and civil liberties are paramount and the role and especially the power of the government is minimized. Right-wing ideology would favor market-based solutions to the issues that these government programs aim to tackle. For example, encouraging a freer marketplace for healthcare, driven by consumer choice to drive down costs. Or privately held retirement accounts like 401 plans instead of government-guaranteed Social Security.

Read Also: Are Republicans More Wealthy Than Democrats

Republican Critics Of The Progressive Squad Are Quick To Ignore Their Own Lunatic Right

OPINION It was late June 1980 when I arrived in Washington after teaching political science for three years at Bucknell University. My job was to write for The Political Report, a little-circulated weekly newsletter that reported on House and Senate races.

The nations politics were in the process of changing more than I realized.

In November, Ronald Reagan would be elected president, Republicans would make significant gains in the House and win control of the Senate for the first time since 1954, and a new crop of conservative candidates were showing their political muscle sometimes by challenging relatively moderate GOP incumbents in both the House and Senate.

In Alabama, liberal Republican Rep. John Buchanan Jr. lost his bid for renomination to ultra-conservative Albert Lee Smith Jr. Even more noteworthy for me, growing up in New York, Al DAmato scored an 11-point victory over veteran liberal Sen. Jacob Javits in the states GOP Senate primary.

Also in the Senate, conservative Republican Steve Symms ousted Idaho Democratic incumbent Frank Church; conservative Republican Bob Kasten upset Wisconsin Democratic incumbent Gaylord Nelson; conservative Republican John East ousted North Carolina Democratic incumbent Robert Morgan; and Iowa Rep. Charles E. Grassley beat Democratic Sen. John Culver .

But while both the country and the GOP were moving right, the Republican Party still had room for a substantial contingent of moderates.

Women Arent A Voting Bloc

A persons gender is not especially good at predicting party affiliation at least not on its own. When combined with age and marital status, though, it becomes more relevant. Seventy percent of millennial women identify with or lean toward the Democrats, according to a 2018 report from the Pew Research Center, and about 57 percent of unmarried women leaned Democratic in a 2015 Pew report.

The gender gap has fluctuated

The age gap developed recently

The early 2000s saw younger voters break for the Democrats, possibly because of opinions on the Iraq war.

The difference between men and women peaked in the mid-1990s and shrank afterward.

Single voters are increasingly important. In 1960, 72 percent of U.S. adults were married; in 2016, only half were.

+30D

35 and older

The partisan gender gap developed in the 1980s as men drifted toward the Republican Party; it widened in the 2016 Trump versus Clinton election. Much like racial resentment explains support for Mr. Trump, researchers have found that hostile sexism measured by asking questions like whether someone believes women seek to control men is increasingly dividing the parties.

Also Check: Who Supported The Republicans In The Spanish Civil War

Democrats Or Republicans: Who Has The Higher Income

In the end, many people assume Republicans are richer based on these figures. Although, this is only a look at the richest families and politicians in America though. In everyday American households, it seems that Democrats have a higher mean salary. Its true that many of the wealthiest families in the country are contributing to Republican campaigns. On the contrary, families registered as Democrats have higher annual salaries than Republicans, statistically speaking.

These findings still have some loopholes in them, of course. For instance, the data was collected over the last 40 years or so. Moreover, it is only based on the most recently collected information. As you know, demographics are constantly changing. These figures may have been affected as well. There is also a margin of error with every type of data collection like this. So, what do you think? Who is richer? Democrats or Republicans?

Wide Gender Gap In Partisanship

As has been the case for more than two decades of Pew Research Center surveys, women are significantly more likely than men to associate with the Democratic Party. While the gender gap has changed little in recent years, it is as wide as it has been at any point during this period: Among registered voters, 56% of women affiliate with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared with 44% of men.

From 2010 through 2015, about half of women identified with or leaned toward the Democratic Party. But the share of women who identify with or lean to the Democratic Party has risen in recent years, to 54% in 2016 and 56% in 2017. The partisan breakdown of men is relatively unchanged over this period.

The Democratic gains among women have not come from increased affiliation with the party. Overall, the proportion of women voters who identify with the Democratic Party has remained relatively constant for the past 25 years .

Don’t Miss: Are More Democrats Or Republicans On Welfare

Which Party Is The Party Of The 1 Percent

First, both parties receive substantial support. Much of it comes from registered voters who make $100K+ annually. However, Democrats actually come out ahead when it comes to fundraising for campaigns. In many cases, Democrats have been able to raise twice as much in private political contributions. But what about outside of politicians? Does that mean Democrats are the wealthier party? Which American families are wealthier? Republicans or Democrats?

Honestly, it is probably Republicans. When it comes down to it, the richest families in America tend to donate to Republican candidates. Forbes reported out of the 50 richest families in the United States, 28 donate to Republican candidates. Another seven donate to Democrats. Additionally, 15 of the richest families in the U.S. donate to both parties.

How Do Trumps Republicans Compare To The Rest Of The Worlds Political Parties

Which party has better plans for growing the economy?

An academic survey shows the American Republican party ranks as one of the worst in the world when it comes to standing up for the rights of ethnic minority groups.

On conventional left-right measurements, theres not much distinguishing Americas Republican party from mainstream conservative movements in Europe. In fact, when it comes to economic left and right, there are governing parties on the right in Europe who are more extreme.

On attitudes towards ethnic minorities and respect for liberal democratic values, however, its a different story.

The Global Party Survey , a project authored by Harvard Universitys Pippa Norris, has sought to allow international comparisons between political parties on a variety of issues by surveying almost 2,000 academic experts on their relative positions on various spectrums. Those include the social and economic views of those parties, as well as whether they are populist or pluralistic in outlook.

The surveys findings suggest Americas Republican Party remains mainstream in many respects but not when it comes to its defending the rights of ethnic minorities and standing up for liberal principles.

On those issues it is far more extreme than Europes centre-right governing parties and sits closer to the likes of Austrias Freedom Party, Turkeys Justice and Development Party, and Indias Bharatiya Janata Party the governing movement often accused of inciting hatred against the countrys Muslim minority.

Also Check: Should Republicans Vote In Democratic Primary

What Is The Democratic Party

Democratic Party is a big party in the USA. The Democratic-Republican Party processes this party. It is one of the two major political parties. It was most noteworthy in 1828 by Andrew Jackson, who was the first president of this party. Washington DC headquarters of this party. Its symbol is the donkey, and the color is blue. For instance:-

Read more: Management vs. Administration.

History Of The Republican Party

The Republican Party came into existence just prior to the Civil War due to their long-time stance in favor of abolition of slavery. They were a small third-party who nominated John C. Freemont for President in 1856. In 1860 they became an established political party when their nominee Abraham Lincoln was elected as President of the United States. Lincolns Presidency throughout the war, including his policies to end slavery for good helped solidify the Republican Party as a major force in American politics. The elephant was chosen as their symbol in 1874 based on a cartoon in Harpers Weekly that depicted the new party as an elephant.

Read Also: What Republicans Are Running For President

In The Most General Terms The Biggest Difference Between The Parties Comes Down To The View Of The Proper Role Of Government

The Republican party generally believes that it is the responsibility of individuals and communities to take care of people in need. The Democratic party generally believes that the government should take care of people. In general, the Republican party believes that if government needs to do a job then it is best for the local governments like cities and counties to make those decisions. The Democratic party believes that the federal government has more resources and is therefore in a better position to do those jobs.

Practical example for a child: There are a lot of people who dont have enough food to eat. Republicans believe that people like you and me should help them, and our churches should help them. The Democrats believe that the government needs to spend its money to help them get food.

But When You Watch The Republican In The Media Being Attacked The Majority Tend To Handle It With More Grace Then The Majority Of The Democrats

I dont think its because the Republicans have more money because the Democrats tend to be the wealthier group. The majority of the richest people in the world are Democrats or Liberals. Yet, they sure dont look like a happy group of folks . I think a lot of people who are rich were their happiest when they were working hard coming up through the ranks and earning their money. I also think sometimes the social issues they get caught up in when they become wealthy can be frustrating causing many people to lose their tolerance over time.

Recommended Reading: What Is The Lapel Pin The Republicans Are Wearing

Cook Partisan Voting Index

Another metric measuring party preference is the Cook Partisan Voting Index . Cook PVIs are calculated by comparing a state’s average Democratic Party or Republican Party share of the two-party presidential vote in the past two presidential elections to the nation’s average share of the same. PVIs for the states over time can be used to show the trends of U.S. states towards, or away from, one party or the other.

Can A Religious White Republican Party Survive

The partisan gap between black and white voters is the most durable and powerful split in modern American politics. Soon after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, he remarked, I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come. He wasnt wrong. Afterward, the Republicans courted racist white voters by opposing school and housing integration.

Among white people, religion is the most stable and important determinant of party choice. But the way religion shapes party attachment has changed. Today, the best way to sort the population of white voters is not by which religion they belong to, but by how religious they are.

Among white Americans:

else

Religious

The number of religious white Americans is plummeting. In the long term, that spells disaster for Republicans. I dont think the Republican Party right now has a sustainable business model, said Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University.

The party knows this. Or at least it should. After Republicans lost the 2012 election, the party leadership commissioned a report on how to move forward. One answer was clear: appeal to nonwhite and less conservative voters. But in the years since, the Republicans led by Mr. Trump have doubled down on white identity politics and seem to believe that their path to a majority is through gerrymandering, voter suppression or attempts to skew the census.

Read Also: Are There More Democrats Or Republicans In The Us

0 notes

statetalks · 3 years

Text

Which Party Is Bigger Democrats Or Republicans

Democratic Candidate Joe Biden

Republicans or Democrats: Who is better for the economy?

Reuters: Carlos Barria

The Democrats are the liberal political party and their candidate is Joe Biden, who has run for president twice before.

A former senator for Delaware who served six terms, Biden is best known as Barack Obama’s vice-president.

He held that role for eight years, and it has helped make him a major contender for many Democrat supporters.

Earlier this year, Biden chose California Senator Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate.

The 77-year-old has built his campaign on the Obama legacy, and tackling the country’s staggering health care issues.

He is known for his down-to-earth personality and his ability to connect with working-class voters. He would be the oldest first-term president in history if elected.

Generational Divides In Partisanship

Across all generations, women remain more likely than men to associate with the Democratic Party.

Wide Divides In Partisanship Persist By Race And Ethnicity

Some of the largest differences in partisanship continue to be seen across racial and ethnic groups.

The Democratic Party also holds a clear advantage over the GOP in leaned party identification among Hispanic voters , though the margin is not as large as among black voters.

Among English-speaking Asian American voters, 72% identify or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared with just 17% who identify with or lean toward the GOP.

Also Check: Who Said We Are All Republicans We Are All Federalists

How Increasing Ideological Uniformity And Partisan Antipathy Affect Politics Compromise And Everyday Life

Today 92% of Republicans are to the right of the median Democrat, and 94% of Democrats are to the left of the median Republican

Many of those in the center remain on the edges of the political playing field while the most ideologically oriented and politically rancorous Americans make their voices heard

I Personally Align With Democrats

Recommended Reading: What Are The Views Of Republicans

Urban Voters Grow More Democratic Rural Voters More Republican

Overall, those who live in suburban counties are about evenly divided in their partisan loyalties , little changed over the last two decades.

Difference Between Democratic And Republican Party :

1. Woman Abortion:

Read More: Major Symptoms of Democratic Backsliding

2. Same-Sex Marriage Rights:

Secondly, same-sex marriage legalizes the Democrats party. On the other hand, the Republican Party is against it. It is another difference between the democratic party and the republic party.

3. Climate Change:

4. Israel Issue:

Read more: Private Administration vs. Public Administration

5. Voting Rights:

6. Money in Politics:

7. Iran Issue:

Read Also: Who Are Richer Democrats Or Republicans

Quiz: Let Us Predict Whether Youre A Democrat Or A Republican

We wont collect your answers.

Its not just race and religion, though. Party allegiances are now also tied to education, gender and age. Americans have sorted themselves more completely and rigidly than any time in recent history.

How demographics predict party affiliation

The group most likely to be Democrats are black women older than about 30.

Meeting in the Middle

Reliable Republicans

Republican Vs Democratic Demographics

Marjorie Taylor Greene: Bigger Problem For Democrats Or GOP? | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

Interesting data about how support for each party broke down by race, geography and the urban-rural divide during the 2018 mid-term elections are presented in charts here.

The Pew Research Group, among others, regularly surveys American citizens to determine party affiliation or support for various demographic groups. Some of their latest results are below.

Read Also: Do Republicans Want To Impeach Trump

Where Do Trump And Biden Stand On Key Issues

Reuters: Brian Snyder/AP: Julio Cortez

The key issues grappling the country can be broken down into five main categories: coronavirus, health care, foreign policy, immigration and criminal justice.

This year, a big focus of the election has been the coronavirus pandemic, which could be a deciding factor in how people vote, as the country’s contentious healthcare system struggles to cope.

The average healthcare costs for COVID-19 treatment is up to $US30,000 , an Americas Health Insurance Plans 2020 study has found.

Left Wing And Right Wing Politics

Left-Wing

Right Wing

Read Also: Are Republicans More Wealthy Than Democrats

Republican Critics Of The Progressive Squad Are Quick To Ignore Their Own Lunatic Right

The nations politics were in the process of changing more than I realized.

But while both the country and the GOP were moving right, the Republican Party still had room for a substantial contingent of moderates.

Women Arent A Voting Bloc

The gender gap has fluctuated

The age gap developed recently

The early 2000s saw younger voters break for the Democrats, possibly because of opinions on the Iraq war.

The difference between men and women peaked in the mid-1990s and shrank afterward.

Single voters are increasingly important. In 1960, 72 percent of U.S. adults were married; in 2016, only half were.

+30D

35 and older

Also Check: Who Supported The Republicans In The Spanish Civil War

Democrats Or Republicans: Who Has The Higher Income

Wide Gender Gap In Partisanship

Don’t Miss: Are More Democrats Or Republicans On Welfare

Which Party Is The Party Of The 1 Percent

How Do Trumps Republicans Compare To The Rest Of The Worlds Political Parties

Which party has better plans for growing the economy?

An academic survey shows the American Republican party ranks as one of the worst in the world when it comes to standing up for the rights of ethnic minority groups.

On attitudes towards ethnic minorities and respect for liberal democratic values, however, its a different story.

Also Check: Should Republicans Vote In Democratic Primary

What Is The Democratic Party

Read more: Management vs. Administration.

History Of The Republican Party

Read Also: What Republicans Are Running For President

In The Most General Terms The Biggest Difference Between The Parties Comes Down To The View Of The Proper Role Of Government

But When You Watch The Republican In The Media Being Attacked The Majority Tend To Handle It With More Grace Then The Majority Of The Democrats

Recommended Reading: What Is The Lapel Pin The Republicans Are Wearing

Cook Partisan Voting Index

Can A Religious White Republican Party Survive

Among white Americans:

else

Religious

Read Also: Are There More Democrats Or Republicans In The Us

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/which-party-is-bigger-democrats-or-republicans/

0 notes

perfectirishgifts · 3 years

Text

Sarah McBride Talks About Having ‘A Seat At The Table’ As The First Trans State Senator In U.S. History

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/sarah-mcbride-talks-about-having-a-seat-at-the-table-as-the-first-trans-state-senator-in-u-s-history-2/

Sarah McBride Talks About Having ‘A Seat At The Table’ As The First Trans State Senator In U.S. History

Sarah McBride is the first trans state senator in U.S. history.

Sarah McBride is still weeks away from being sworn in to represent the First State Senate District in Delaware, but she’s already hard at work for her constituents.

McBride is fielding pothole requests in the district that encompasses Claymont (yes— the same place the incoming president, Joe Biden, grew up,) Bellefonte, and parts of Wilmington, Delaware. She is also creating a plan to address some of the issues she focused on during her campaign: healthcare, paid family medical leave, re-imagining the criminal justice system, repairing the economy, and building quality public schools for every child, regardless of zip code.

While McBride focuses on the issues that helped get her elected with almost 75% of the vote, she’s also quick to embrace the barriers she has broken. The 30-year-old who now represents the districts she grew up in also happens to be the first transgender person in the country to be elected to any state senate.

This makes Sarah McBride America’s highest-ranking openly transgender elected official.

And although she’s already had to counter offensive questions with quick-witted responses, McBride has been overwhelmingly welcomed in the district where she’s worked in politics since she was a teenager.

Trying To “Make The Most Amount Of Good”

McBride grew up the youngest of three children, with two older brothers. According to Sean McBride, her oldest brother, the McBride family has a deep and abiding love of politics, and from a young age, his sister was enamored with it. Sean reminisced about Sarah’s infatuation with elections as a kid.

“She was obsessed with politics, political culture, and specifically with the White House,” Sean laughed.

“I remember, she had a ton of books about— not just the occupants of the White House, but the building itself. She took a real interest in things like the layout of the White House and the history of architecture, which is, you know, that’s atypical for a nine or 10-year-old.”

When Sarah was around 12, she went from reading about politics to being actively involved. She began volunteering on political campaigns, including for the former governor of Delaware, Jack Markell. As a field organizer for Markell’s campaign, she knocked on doors, recruited volunteers, and talked to neighbors about supporting the state treasurer, who at the time was running to be the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in the state.

Markell said McBride even recruited around 60 students to support his campaign. He became so impressed by her, specifically her public speaking abilities, he asked her to come with him around the state and introduce him at campaign events.

“I probably would not have won without her,” said Markell, who became McBrides’s most significant mentor and friend.

When she was 15, McBride had her first political internship with none other than Beau Biden, late son of Joe Biden, when he was campaigning for Delaware Attorney General. McBride recalled part of why she immersed herself in politics instead of participating in typical pre-teen shenanigans.

“I think a big reason for that was that I, at a young age, I knew who I was, but also knew very definitively that there wasn’t much space for someone like me, in our society,” McBride said.

“And politics and government and advocacy seemed like a place where I could try to make the most amount of good for the most number of people in the most number of ways possible.”

As far back as she can remember, McBride says she knew she was different. But it wasn’t until she was 10, watching the sitcom NBC’s Just Shoot Me with her mom, when she realized there were other people in the world like her. The sitcom had a guest character, played by Jenny McCarthy, who is eventually revealed as transgender. As McBride puts it, whenever someone expressed interest in McCarthy’s character on the show, the punchline was that they didn’t know she was trans, and the laugh track would cue.

McBride reminisced how she turned to her mother and asked whether people like McCarthy’s character existed in the world. When her mother replied yes, she said, her heart sank.

“I thought, ‘Oh, my God, I’m going to have to tell you this someday, and you are going to be so disappointed,” McBride said. “And what could have been a life-affirming moment of finding out that there were other people like me, and that I wasn’t alone in this world, was really in many ways soul-crushing, because at 10-years-old, you don’t know a lot, but you know, you don’t want to be a joke.”

“And every time that laugh track would cue, I knew, or at least I thought I knew, that there wouldn’t be a place for me in this world. And even if I couldn’t personally benefit… I think I got involved in politics because I thought if I could help others in their pursuit of authenticity and happiness, that it would somehow fill the incompleteness and the pain in my own life.”

Along the way, though, she found herself. McBride’s most prominent supporters, her family, couldn’t be prouder – especially her big brother, Sean.

“I remember being a kid and handing out leaflets, canvassing for Harris McDowell, the senator who represented the district, I think for my entire life,” Sean said. “It would have been beyond belief, the idea that my youngest sister, my only sister, ten years younger than me, would replace him.”

“If you told me that when I was 16- or 17 years old, canvassing for Harris McDowell, I would have been shocked.”

‘Coming Out’ And Jack Markell

When Sarah McBride arrived at American University in Washington D.C., she dived right into campus politics and advocacy, and was eventually elected student body president. She helped restart a school scholarship program that had gone dormant, successfully advocated for gender-inclusive housing at the university, helped create an LGBTQ minor, and pushed for reforms to improve accessibility on campus, among other accomplishments.

But even with how busy she kept herself through her studies and student government work, there was still something missing.

“As professionally fulfilling as it was, it didn’t heal the pain,” McBride said. “It only emphasized that I was living my life as someone I wasn’t.”

During her term as student body president, McBride came out as transgender to her family, campus, and faith community. At that moment, McBride said, she prepared herself for backlash, and for the stigma to potentially corrode her friendships, and even her potential career in government. News spread not only through campus but also through Delaware’s political circles, as McBride had accrued much influence in her very public role as a young youth advocate.

There was one person she wanted to tell the news to personally, though — her mentor— Delaware Gov. Jack Markell. She remembers the day vividly. McBride reached out to one of Markell’s senior advisors.

“The governor was in New York on Morning Joe, I remember, and I called his senior advisor, and said I was hoping to talk to the governor and told him why,” McBride said.

Around three hours later, McBride was taking the elevator up to her college apartment when she received a call. It was Markell.

“I pick up, and he goes, ‘Well, that’s big news,'” McBride said. “I went through a very abbreviated, rapid version of what I was experiencing and told him that I didn’t want to take too much of his time. And he just said, ‘You know, slow down, let’s talk.’

McBride said she and the governor spoke for around 45 minutes in a conversation where he made clear he loved and supported her. A few minutes later, Markell’s wife called McBride to express support too, and then they both called McBride’s parents.

“I remember my mother was so scared when I came out, I’ve never seen her cry that hard,” McBride said. “To have the governor of the state and the First Lady reach out and say, ‘This doesn’t change anything. We love you. And we’re there for Sarah and are there for you.'”

“My mother was in a mall and fell to the floor and started crying.”

McBride said every two weeks, Markell would call and check on her.

“There’s no one in politics who has supported me and mentored me more than Jack Markell. He is a generous and compassionate person,” McBride said.

The Gender Identity Non-Discrimination Bill

A few weeks after coming out, McBride recalls Markell and his son visiting her in D.C. Markell’s son was looking at colleges, and American University was on the list. After a tour, the three sat down for coffee, when Markell asked McBride whether she wanted to return to Delaware after graduation.

“I said, ‘I do, governor, but I’m scared to come back because there are no non-discrimination protections for transgender people,” McBride said.

“He [Governor Markell] sat back in his chair, and he said, ‘Let’s fix that.’

Sarah McBride advocates for the gender identity non-discrimination bill.

From that moment on, McBride said she effectively became “the 63rd member of the Delaware General Assembly.” She camped out at legislative hall, day in and day out, advocating for the gender identity non-discrimination bill.

“When you are walking the halls with a person impacted by an issue, when you’re sitting across an office, or a conference room table, from a person impacted by an issue, the political becomes personal, and the abstract, becomes real,” she said.

“And it’s difficult to look someone in the eye and deny them the equal protection of the laws, or deprioritize their rights.”

Markell said his philosophy was always to provide everyone—regardless of gender identity, etc.— equal protections under the law. Besides that, he said it’s the right thing to do; it would help Delaware thrive from an economic standpoint. He said he believes McBride humanized the issue for members of the legislature and members of the public.

Sarah McBride spent months at Delaware’s legislative hall advocating for the gender identity … [] non-discrimination bill.

“Her coming down to testify, her coming down along with her parents, who are just extraordinary people, to meet individually with legislators or to stand on the floor of the House or the Senate, and frankly, in some cases, to have abuse hurled at them. But to be so strong was absolutely critical to getting the legislation through,” Markell said.

Within a year, Markell signed the Gender Identity Non-Discrimination bill into law.

The Delaware State Senate/The LGBTQ Community

McBride wasn’t sure she’d ever run for office. It’s not that she didn’t want to; it had more to do with the difficulty of “being what you can’t see.” There were no transgender state senators for her to emulate. As she climbed the ladder, she figured she’d find a role elsewhere.

McBride found advocacy work fulfilling. From 2016 until her election this year, she worked as a spokesperson for The Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group and political lobbying organization in the U.S. At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, she made history as the first openly transgender person to speak at a major party convention.

Sarah McBride launched her campaign in 2019, after years spent working in advocacy for The Human … [] Rights Campaign.

She was a successful advocate, but knew more might be accomplished by having a ‘seat at the table.’ She also had ideas and a vision for the district she called home for three decades. In 2019, she decided to run for Delaware State Senate.

Campaigning during the age of Covid wasn’t easy; her team of supporters and volunteers went from knocking on doors to sending texts, phone calls, and writing postcards. It didn’t take long for McBride to realize how accepting the voters of Delaware’s first senate district are. In the primary, she defeated fellow Democrat Joseph McCole with a whopping 91 percent of the vote.

“Those results reflect the fair-mindedness of the voters in the First Senate District who judge candidates based on their ideas and experience, not on their identities,” McBride said.

McBride would go on to win, making history. Soon after, advocacy groups such as The Human Rights Campaign, McBride’s previous employer, and The LGBTQ Victory Fund, an American political action committee dedicated to increasing the number of openly LGBTQ public officials in the U.S., reacted with excitement.

“One of the reasons the Victory Fund works to elect people is because representation matters. Ever since Danica Roam [a transgender woman in the Virginia House of Delegates] won in 2017, we’ve seen so many trans candidates inspired to step up and run for office,” said Sean Meloy, the senior political director at the Victory Fund.

“Sarah is the latest to inspire and give hope to a whole slew of people across the country.”

According to Meloy, there is a tremendous deficit in the elected office of people within the LGBTQ community. He said roughly 5% of adults identify as LGBTQ in the U.S. However, they only represent approximately .1% of roughly 500,000 elected positions.

Meloy and The Victory Fund say that for LGBTQ people to achieve “equitable representation,” there would need to be more than 22,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people elected to office.

Lucas Acosta, the Deputy Communications Director for Politics for the Human Rights Campaign, believes McBride’s election will spark more LGBTQ people to run for office.

“Sarah is the first trans person to be in the state senate, and the next step for the community, specifically with the trans community, is getting elected as a member of Congress, and I think that that is 100% doable,” Acosta said.

Sarah McBride was elected to the Delaware State Senate with almost 75% of the vote,

McBride emphasized she didn’t run to merely be a transgender state senator or to focus on trans rights; her focus is on all the residents in the first senate district, regardless of their identity or background. She says she didn’t want to make headlines or news, but wants to make a difference in her community. She did emphasize, though, that she will work to ensure she is not the last transgender person to be elected to political office.

“To be a first doesn’t matter if you’re the last, and the best way to ensure that I’m not the last is to be entirely focused on the nuts and bolts of the job that I have in front of me,” McBride said.

“I know how much of a difference it would have made for me as a young person to have seen this news, and my hope is that whether you’re LGBTQ or not, you see this result and you recognize that you can live your truth, whatever that is, and dream big dreams all at the same time.”

Andy

Sarah McBride says her late husband, Andy, immensely influenced her political career.

There have been many formative parts of McBride’s life, including her journey as a trans person and her political experiences as a young person. But when asked what influenced her journey the most, she said… Andy.

Andy was McBride’s late husband, whom she met while interning at the White House under President Barack Obama. Andy was a transgender man; they met at the White House Pride reception in 2012.

“He reached out to me a couple of weeks later, with a Facebook message where he said he thought we’d get along swimmingly. And he asked me out. Typically, I wouldn’t respond to a Facebook message like that. But I knew we had a bunch of mutual friends. And I thought, anyone my age who says the word swimmingly is good in my book,” McBride laughed.

They started dating almost immediately. McBride said Andy worked as an advocate in healthcare, trying to ensure the Affordable Care Act was implemented in a way that provided quality services and affordable healthcare to marginalized communities, specifically the LGBTQ community.

And then, a year into their relationship, Andy was diagnosed with cancer.

McBride served as Andy’s caregiver throughout his battle with cancer; he underwent chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery and eventually got a clean bill of health. And then, eight months later, after his final chemotherapy and radiation session, he got the news every cancer patient fears: it was back, it had spread to his lungs and it was terminal.

When Andy found out the news, McBride says, he asked her to marry him. They got married three weeks after his terminal diagnosis. He died four days after their wedding.

Sarah McBride and Andy got married three weeks after his terminal cancer diagnosis.

“When we ask people to sit back and allow for slow conversations to take place before we ensure them opportunity and treat them with dignity, we are asking people to watch their one life pass by without the fairness and opportunity they deserve,” McBride said.

“I saw that in Andy’s life as a transgender man, who had come out at a relatively young age and who should have had three-quarters of his life as his authentic self, but because of circumstances outside of his control, he had less than a quarter.”

“I left that experience with a profound sense of the urgency of the issues we face, and the preciousness of time.”

The Future

As McBride looks to the future, she has many things on her mind, including the Covid-19 pandemic. She’s focused on ensuring Delaware continues to face the crisis in a data-driven, responsible way. She encourages the legislature to empower a data- and science-driven approach in its response. She wants to ensure the economy is preserved, while the Covid-19 recovery plan helps all families; she also advocates for paid family and medical leave.

While she works on the issues at hand, she continues to receive messages about her historic win. The ones that mean the most are from transgender children and their families.

She thinks about them while she approaches her work and while reflecting on how far she’s come.

“I’ll never forget, years ago, standing on the floor of the Delaware State Senate with tears in my eyes, with my parents by my side, telling my story and effectively pleading for my rights,” McBride said.

“I was looking out on a chamber that didn’t include anyone like me. Now, seven years later, to have the opportunity to stand on that same floor as the newly elected state senator for the district that has always meant so much to me, as my authentic self, now fighting for dignity and opportunity for every single Delawarean, is an incredible journey to reflect on.”

From Diversity & Inclusion in Perfectirishgifts

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byakuyasbastardson · 4 years

Text

Some thoughts

Earlier I posted earlier that I felt very uncomfortable with a Christian prayer being said in the Senate chamber, even though I myself am Catholic. All day it has been eating at me as to why I was so uncomfortable, and really it was not the prayer but the invoking of Christ's name in that sacred hallowed hall. I want to share why.

America...as many, including friends, colleagues, family, across the country would argue otherwise is not a Christian nation. We are a nation founded on Christian ideals, beliefs, and notions. The founding fathers were very explicit that they wanted a secular state because this very country was founded on those fleeing religious persecution. From the Catholics in Massachusetts, Maryland and Rhode Island, Quakers in Pennsylvania, Jews in New Amsterdam (New York) and Rhode Island, and German Lutherans to Pennsylvania many fled persecutions to create a better life here. As such when this country was founded the very words were written into our Deceleration of Independence and later our Constitution. When they talked about the unalienable rights of man, they said those rights were bestowed upon man by their "Creator". They deliberately did not use the word "God" or "Jesus" though in this case as Islam had not reached the shores of America, the religions of the far East were only just being studied and attempted to be squashed, and those of the slaves and natives were being squashed, it really was meaning God. But they did not use his name because they knew of those that believed in other creators or no creators. Next in our Constitution in the very first Amendment they wrote the Freedom of religion, but they also meant Freedom from Religion. They meant that all men could practice any religion they see fit, and Congress nor any part of the government can create or pass a law that aids or harms a religion. It is why most states have laws that public scholarship funds cannot be used at religious schools due to that most private schools are Christian and thus it creates an appearance of favor. But the founders wrote this language because they saw what happens when a country ties itself to a religious institute. They saw it with Spain, Italy, France being Catholic and somewhat subservient to the whims and the Papal State they saw England and the Church of England, and they saw the Muslim countries of the Ottoman empire and Sunni states in Northern Africa. When a country links itself to a religion the needs and interests of the citizenry take a back seat.

What I have said does not mean that America cannot use Christian beliefs to help guide our path and policy makings on the contrary as stated we were founded on Christian ideals, beliefs, and notions. Those are that of Compassion, of Generosity, of Kindness, of Humility, of Love, and Forgiveness. It is why America has long been viewed as salvation to the world. It is why we were gifted the Statue of Liberty with those sacred words “Give us your tired, your sick, your poor”, it is why we have been called the greatest experiment in democracy, and why Reagan called us the “Shining City on the Hill”. But as we have continued as a country we have perverted and ravaged these ideals and changed them. We have perverted Compassion with Apathy, we have soiled Generosity with Selfishness, we have poisoned Kindness with Cruelty, swapped Humility with Boastfulness, tortured Love with Hate, and bludgeoned Forgiveness with Revenge. This has poisoned our country and our politics; it is why we are divided and there is so much hatred towards our brothers and sisters. Families are being destroyed because a father and son fall on different sides of the political aisle. Because a daughter has the courage to come out as gay to her religiously conservative family. In the past it was more of the same but also involved loving someone of a different race...who am I kidding it isn’t the past. Have you ever had a great aunt ask your own mother if she is “ok” with you dating a girl of African decent (half) and when you mother says yes and asks why, she responds with; “Oh honey down here we don’t mix”? I have. Everyone has heard stories like this, from my example, a friend who was disowned by their father for believing in something the other didn’t, or a friend who works up the courage to inform her parents she has a girlfriend but doesn’t know how they will react. From the earliest times of this country to up until recent past if a Black and a White wanted to marry it was called an Abomination before God, many souls lost their lives because they dared to marry a white woman. After that we still heard the same argument but this time involving homosexuals and others of that community, that their love for one another is an Abomination before God. When it was about race it was mostly the Democrats calling it this, now we add in homosexuals and it is the Republicans.

Democrats and Republicans, that’s where we are at now, one side is Right and Just and the other side is Evil. We have divided ourselves and will thus ruin ourselves, but how I see it one side wants to undo the damage to our Christian ideals we were founded on while keeping God and Jesus where they should be in the hearts and minds of people and not in our government, while the other side desires to keep it how it is while bring God more into the forefront of our nation. I’m not arguing that it’s all or none, but it’s the vocal minority that has made themselves the majority in our government. On the “Left” we have those representing us saying let us take in the tired, the sick, the poor. Let us work to give them and all people access to cheaper and free Medicare so they can live and work and create a better life, let us give young people easier opportunities like we had to go to school and learn, then go out and get better jobs. Let us tax those who have plenty a little more so that we can help those who have little. Let us broaden the availability for persons to participate in our most sacred duty of voting to keep this experiment alive. Let us allow people to love who they love and or change who they are so they can be happy. But in order to keep all people free we must put God in the background as our founders did when it comes to governing.

On the “Right” it is the exact opposite. They say “Let us bring in people, but only if they are smart enough, rich enough, healthy enough” They want the privatization of our medical system claiming it will be cheaper, but we see time and time again that it is not. We have diabetics skipping lifesaving insulin shots because they don’t know if they can afford the next one. We have people pushing off urgent medical care because they fear losing everything in medical costs. We have apathy to the young struggling to get by due to rising educational costs and when they cry out they are told to suck it up, that our fathers and mothers were able to pay for it on a part time job over summer, which is impossible when textbooks have risen 1000% since 1977, tuition has risen 260% since 1980 as of 2015, while the minimum wage (adjusted for inflation)is 31% less than it was in 1968. They have a President who implemented restrictions for green cards on those who use public services like Medicare and food stamps. A President who is putting travel restrictions on pregnant women coming to this country because he fears what…babies being born here thus allowing those Parents to live here and make a better life for themselves. This is a party that fears and seemingly hates those of other religions. Where their President puts forth a travel ban on Muslims trying to enter this country because he views them as dangerous, where he praises a fake story of a famous US General having his men shot Muslims with bullets dipped in Pigs blood, where when a Muslim man and vice-chair of his counties GOP had members attempt to oust him due to his religion. Where this President has had supporters torch synagogues and mosques in his name. We created this hatred and desire for revenge due to 18 individuals killing 3000 Americans, yet we never punished the country they came from, but seemingly all 1.8billion of them are bad Where a supporter of his and Pastor called the Impeachment a “Jew Coup”. This is a party that looks down on the poor, looks down on the sick, yet praises war and worships money all they while throwing Gods name around. They constantly want to cut programs designed to help the poor and sick all they while increasing the budget for war, a thing that only makes people por and sick except for a few that profit on it. They give massive tax cuts to the rich while increasing them on the poor claiming it will all work out, but it doesn’t. They worship the strength of our economy(money) yet 48% of Americans don’t benefit from it, and the 52% that do, only a fraction really does. They tell others to be thankful for what they have all the while they themselves own multiple houses and fancy cars, they ask if the poor are so poor why do they have fridges, cars, iphones. They refuse to increase the minimum wage which would help those being poor not be poor all the while increasing their own salaries. Where this party passes bills that will become laws trying to restrict Gays from getting married in the civil aspect because it is a perceived abomination against god. Bills that allow religious based orphanages to refuse LGBTQ+ families form adopting children there because they feel keeping them there is better than a loving functioning “Gay house”. Bills that will imprison doctors for offering medical services to transgender youth. All of this has happened only in the last handful of years, when the changes really became apparent. And yet, they do all of this while claiming every Presidential leader was chosen specifically by God to lead this nation yet when it’s a Democrat, they are mute.

I think that’s enough of that, I am not writing this to argue Republicans are evil, just that they and this nation has strayed away form the Christian ideal our forefathers set forth. I believe in this country and that means in Republicans, it’s a gross perverted minority that has risen confusing the word of Jesus with anything but. Growing up I only attended Christian schools, first a Catholic one, and then later a Lutheran one until High School. It was not until I went to the Lutheran school when I started to think and question my faith. Not because I lacked it, but I wanted to understand what I was being taught, what I believed in…what Jesus’ love meant to me. Being a Catholic at a Lutheran school meant for most of my time there I was the only Catholic in class, which meant, on occasion I was felt I was singled out for my faith, mostly positively. My brothers and sisters in Christ were curious about how a Catholic worships, when I traveled with some to Italy they bombarded me with Questions, in 6th grade we learned about the reformation and my teacher constantly asked me questions…not just to ensure I was paying attention, but mostly to ensure he got the information correct. But on some rare occasions I did feel the negativity of it. I was never bullied for it, but comments here and there and viewpoints that I wasn’t a true Christian because I held onto the “old ways”, or why I called myself a Catholic if my family didn’t follow the “rule” of no meat on Fridays during lent. So I started asking myself questions about this faith and reading into it not just the theological side but the historical side and I saw how this country has changed and fallen, then I realized we failed from the beginning. We call for the poor to come here but we hate the poor. First it was the Irish, then it was the Eastern Europeans, then it was the Chinese, then the Hispanics, then the Japanese, and now seemingly everyone. We hate everyone that isn’t us, we fear everyone that isn’t us, we horde materialistic things, and I am guilty of this too. It is not because we have taken “Jesus” out of schools, it is because we have twisted his words and used them for hate and selfish gains.

John 13:34-35 (NIV) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Do we do this? No, we do not we hate one another and only love those who are like us.

Mark 12:41-44 “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you; this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” All too often you hear how much the rich have given to charity, but in the end, it is a small amount that they will take off their taxes thus paying less money. In my time alive I have seen it is the poor that are far more generous and willing to help because they know what it is like to be poor, yet those that were poor and are now rich are not as generous because they have the mentality of why they should help the poor? They were once poor and brought themselves out so surely anyone can do it.

Please do not think I am trying to lecture any of you on your faith. I am not, I am the last person to do that. My brother got married this past week, in a Catholic church, and that truly was the first time I had been in a church and sat down for a service in about 6 years. In my time thinking about what Jesus’ love means to me, I have found issues with my religion I do not agree with, which is why I have stayed away, but I do not falter in my faith, I do not falter in my pride and belief that I am Catholic. I do not fault you for asking “How…how can I still be Catholic if I do not think Homosexuality is a sin?” “How can I be Catholic or even Christian if I believe that a woman should have a right to an abortion?” There are many other questions that go with this and the answer is I have my faith and I am waiting. In my faith our leader the Holy Pope Francis is slowly changing the viewpoint on Catholicism, in recent years he said that you do not need to believe in Jesus to be granted access to God’s kingdom if you lived a good life. Which is a start.

So, to get back to why I felt so uncomfortable, it’s because 1. We are supposed to keep religion and government separate to properly work for all Americans, but more importantly 2. also because of how far I see we as a nation have strayed from these Christian beliefs (that are taught in all other religions). How we have perverted them, especially it seems one party. I love this country, I love my faith, and I pray that soon very very soon we can work to get back to these ideals. Only then can America be great.

#america #religion #thoughts #impeachment

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