I would like to think that I’m a fairly open minded person. I was raised by a father who taught me to do my own research and not let anyone think for me. I was raised by a mother who taught me that no one person is more important than any other person. And I was raised by a grandmother who taught me that we are very fortunate to live in a country where we are all entitled to our own opinion. As such, I endeavor to understand why people believe what they do. And for the most part, I understand–or at the very least, think I do–their logic.
But there are two things that I cannot–ABSOLUTELY CANNOT–understand this election cycle:
- How you can claim to support The Constitution and The Rule of Law while voting for someone who is a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, and led an insurrection that stormed the Capital and wanted to hang the Vice President and Speaker of the House?
- How can you be a woman or love a woman and be okay with the targeted and deliberate attack on women’s sovereignty and the right to choose what she can and cannot do with her body? How can you want your daughters, nieces, and granddaughters to have less rights than you did growing up? How many more women and girls have to die before you realize these laws are meant to control and suppress and limit women and their voices? It has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with “States Rights” and everything to do with controlling women.
These two things. While we might have completely different ideas on taxes, having troops overseas, controlling prescription medication prices, the border crisis, and even gun control laws, I can follow the logic for most positions on these. But the two things above, those I cannot reconcile. And I’ve tried–I have asked and/or read all of the things posted on social media. But answers are at best vague, hypocritical, and vapid. At worst, they are breathtakingly and astonishingly unpatriotic and misogynistic.
Recently, I have seen this permission letter floating around Facebook stating that a vote for Trump doesn’t mean you support him, it means that you believe in your party. That was certainly true in 2016 and to a lesser extent mostly true in 2020. But that is no longer the case. The republican party of today is no longer the Republican Party we all know and love. The only thing the current republican party stands for is dragging our country kicking and screaming back into a time where only rich white men had a voice. And make no mistake, voting for Trump won’t save you if you’re not rich AND white AND a man.
Look, I know there is no such thing as a perfect candidate and policies touted by candidates–whether they are running for President or the House or Senate or even state level positions–are merely a way to communicate how they ideally want to run the country. But make no mistake about it: if Trump gets back into the White House, he has no intentions of leaving to face all the legal consequences for his actions over the last decade. We all watched on tv what he is willing to do to stay in power, just like we have all seen the lengths he will go to in order to declare war on the one population he truly loathes and fears: women.
Like Granny, I believe that you can think and vote how you want. But please spare the rest of us the sanctimonious bullshit that you believe in The Constitution and you support women because this year a vote for Trump very clearly states that you don’t do either.
The Epicurious Texan 