Some current arguments offered by Steve Feinstein in American Thinker: A Democrat vote means you favor: No fossil fuel production. Like the price of gasoline, heating oil and natural gas these days? Inflation at a 50-year high. The government prints money, hands it out and it becomes worthless. No freedom of speech. Say the “incorrect thing” and you’re sued. Or fired. No opinions allowed. No civil liberties. Don’t think the vaccine is right for you or truly safe? Sorry—you have no say. De-funding the police. Smash and grab. No bail for criminals. Policemen being shot. Feel safe? A weakened military. Our top generals are more concerned with “equity” than winning wars. Higher taxes. You think the government spends your money more wisely than you do, right? Unrestricted illegal immigration. Your taxes support their education, health care and housing. Choosing your gender. Do you like 45-year-old men in the girl’s room with your daughter? Woke corporations. Everything is racist all of a sudden. Color/gender far outweigh qualifications. Digging deeper with just a touch of critical thinking into these arguments should give pause to anyone not brain dead. For example, the price of gas is just the tip of a very big and powerful iceberg. Fuel costs affect virtually every aspect of your life, including the goods and services you buy (i.e., think transportation fuel costs), the ability to heat and use appliances in your home, etc. etc.
As an independent, I try to weigh the candidates on their own merit (or lack of). Neither party "fits" my personal beliefs on all points. We need to move away from the 2-party system.
As an independent, my support is candidate, rather than party, based; however, I can readily see that one party of late is leading this country down the porcelain facility. Also easy to identify are the candidates who toe the party line, thus suggesting you take a look at that party line they are likely to stick to,
I used to be somewhat liberal in my thinking, but I outgrew that in my early 30s when I realized even then that the Democrats expected their voters to be dumb and uninformed. I lived in the South then, and the Republican party was non-existent but the thinking of most of the people I knew there was much more inline with the GOP than the Kennedys and such who controlled the Dems at the time, but the "Solid South" was enabling the Democrats to maintain their majorities and put forward the policies that the Southerners despised. Reagan seemed to break that block. The same thing exists with Black and Jewish voters now. Democrat policies destroy much of what the voters in those groups stand for, but they continue to vote for them and enable their idiocy. The hope for the future of the Democratic Party was supposed to be the immigrant Hispanic voter, but the Hispanic folks don't seem to be as compliant as the other groups. Only time will tell, but it seems Trump has awakened some voters to how they are being taken advantage of, just as Reagan did in the 80's.
Some people vote Democrat the same reason you "join" a union: so they don't get ostracized in their own community...or worse.
The thing is, nobody knows what goes on in the voting booth. Just keep it to yourself and problem solved.
Critical thinking, standing up for what you believe and going against the flow is seldom popular and will often get you ostracized. Some people can handle that OK but many cannot, being sufficiently insecure as to need to belong in the consensual majority. What seems to be in short supply are strong values and "gumption."
I think what's in even shorter supply are brains. People do not know how to think (look at some of the "critical thinking" scholastic exercises that are posted in the Education threads), they wait to be told what to think, and then go on a crusade with it. I think self-respect has gone down the toilet, when people unabashedly get in the faces of others with their strong positions, yet are not embarrassed when they cannot marshal the slightest support for their statements. Defensiveness (and aggression) has displaced learning and introspection. Of course, the underlying reason why this is such a hot topic is we have lost our constitutional republic because all power is amassing in DC, with damn little hope of getting it back. People look at the president of this country the same way others might view an emperor, which is completely antithetical to our form of government. The power to legislate has been delegated to unelected bureaucrats (with approval of the courts) in ever-expanding agencies, completely subverting (and supplanting) both the fed's limited powers as well as our representative processes. What sucks the most is I can list what I think the problems are, yet fall short of any functional solution. This does not mean that I have given up, it just means that I have no ideas right now.
As an independent, I hate both major political parties, but I view the Democrats as the enemy and the Republicans as collaborators.
I have been reading on Twitter that people have set up registration booths at some of the fuel stations, and are now registering former Biden supporters as Republican voters for the upcoming elections. I think that this is a small effort right now, but as the cost of living and fuel prices continue to skyrocket, I think more and more people will be voting for conservative government leaders.
If voting/ democracy worked, would a doctor's visit cost so much as it does for the last thirty or fifty or more years ? Would the natural remedies be illegal ? The natural remedies used before the druglords got their monopoly in government power and law. Does no one remember when you could see a doctor for twentyfive dollars , and when they did not cause so much harm with toxins given to treat symptoms and to make money instead of to correct the deficiency or imbalance in the body/immune system ? Thanks to government, all parties , ALL voted for, costs have gone beyond skyrocketing. i.e. the system works , for money, for profit, not for truth or health.
I can't see what one has to do with the other. As for natural remedies, while I am in favor, the fact is that some natural remedies are dangerous, and much of what has been sold as natural remedies throughout history were neither natural nor remedies. While I am not in favor of the current situation, where the pharmaceutical industry has far too much influence in the matter, I am not in favor of removing all restrictions. Not everyone is capable or willing to do their own homework and, in a time like today where facts are hard to come by, perhaps none of us is able to be sure of anything we read or hear.