Voting: You're doing it wrong. Part 1

This is the first of a two part series on how people are screwing themselves, and maybe others, over at the ballot box all over the nation.  It just goes along with a major pet peeve of mine.  I can fully accept that people have different priorities, and that a representative government will have people of many points of view, because we're a diverse society. I embrace that about this country.  What I cannot accept is people who blatantly vote wrong.  By wrong, I don't mean voting for someone or something that/who doesn't benefit me.  I mean voting for someone or something that goes totally against their own best interests.

I stumbled upon this today.  Actually, I didn't as much stumble upon it as it was posted by an activist friend, so to her, I say thank you, because the timing was amazing.  I was talking about this with Thak just last night. When I saw this picture, the first thought that popped into my head was of a friend of mine.  He's a good guy, a fellow vet, and considers me a sister, as I consider him a brother.  (I've also had this exact conversation with him, so don't think I'm talking behind his back.)

He's been on the outside longer than we have, and has been working so hard the whole time.  Financially, he has struggled non-stop.  The injuries which ended his Army career aren't severe enough for the VA to pay money for, and experience in a job with no civilian equivalent doesn't help him in the face of stiff competition for well paid jobs.  He hasn't been able to finish his degree, although he's really smart, because he's had to work multiple jobs, and long hours, just to make ends meet.  Currently, he does maintenance and janitorial work.  His wife has to work, too.  They have one child, and thankfully, she's school age now, which cuts down on the daycare costs.  They barely make ends meet, and if something comes up, like an illness that causes one or the other of them to have to call into work for the day, an unexpected car repair, a higher than usual utility bill, it's pretty hard to deal with.  Like most people, they find a way, but it's pretty obvious that it gets difficult sometimes.

He never stops trying to make a better life for his family.  He has been trying to get into law enforcement for some time now, but old injuries and long waits for hiring have gotten in the way.  He's trying again in the near future, and is preparing for it.  Obviously, we are wishing him the very best in that.  It would really improve life a lot for him to get a job with benefits, and better pay, and advancement potential.  Every hardworking person deserves that, and he is a hardworking person.

Now, here's something that may or may not surprise you.  My friend I just told you about votes Republican 100% of the time.  I've made an effort to understand why exactly he does that, and I think I've got a fairly decent handle on it.  First of all, Republicans are very vocal in their support of veterans (although, I must say, as a fellow vet, I do not feel that Democrats and third party candidates hate us by any stretch of the imagination).  Also, for people who hold Christian beliefs, many times Republican candidates will represent some of the values they have.  Of course, there's also the gun issue.  Then there's the thing that Republicans always say about reducing taxes.  Nobody likes to pay taxes.  I always hated looking at my paychecks and seeing how much went out to some nondescript governmental purpose.  Less of that is surely a good thing by most people's standards.

The problem is, that's only part of the picture.  First of all, Republicans do like to cut taxes, but they mostly do that for corporations and the rich.  Are you a corporation?  Are you rich?  No?  Then they're probably not cutting your taxes by any significant degree.  Maybe you'll see $5 more of your pay each month, but even that is doubtful.  I cannot remember ever personally experiencing a tax cut under any president.  Taxes in this country are totally screwed up, and I honestly don't think anyone has the right idea about it 100%, but I can tell you for a fact that a party that supports cutting taxes for corporations, while keeping them the same on the middle class (if that even exists anymore), is not a friend of the average Joe or Jane, even if they do pay a bunch of lip service, a couple times a year, to how much our time in the military meant to the nation when we were young, able, and crazy enough to lace up our boots, throw on our rucks, and volunteer.

What's more, how on earth are you going to be against help in getting health care when you work at a job with no benefits?  This applies to a ton of workers out there.  Most jobs don't have benefits anymore, and if they do, most of the employees can't afford them.  I remember when Thak worked at BMW, and we were going through the benefits book to try to figure out what we wanted to sign up for.  We ended up keeping Tricare through the Reserves for as long as we could afford it because it was less than half the price of the insurance that we could have bought through BMW.  We did buy vision and dental insurance through BMW, but it wasn't like we could afford the copays of actually receiving care anyway, so we may as well have just kept the $40 a month that cost us.  Republicans oppose the Affordable Care Act.  The Affordable Care Act helps people who cannot currently afford to get healthcare.  If you're one of those people, and a ton of people in the US are, then why would you vote Republican?  I get that we're a nation of self made people.  We don't want help.  I understand that.  Are you willing to die for it, though? (Literally. You get no healthcare, you could die.)  Is opposing government paid healthcare your Baghdad International Airport, and do you fancy yourself the SFC Smith of this issue? If not, then maybe you don't want to vote Republican.

The fact is, society has changed.  We were all brought up on this boot strap mentality.  We've all heard the stories of our great-great-great-grandparents who came over on the boat from whatever awful place they came from, with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and their 14 brothers and sisters, and were millionaires by the time they died at a ripe old age.  We've grown up knowing that the American dream is real, that if we work hard, we'll get where we're going. We may never be rich, but we'll own a house, and live comfortably, and take a vacation to St Augustine, or Yellowstone, or South Padre Island, for a week every year.  That's all changed, though.  The only thing that's the same is our mentality and our attitude that people who are struggling somehow did something wrong and should fix it themselves, because it is for damned sure not anyone else's responsibility to do it for them.

I think that's one thing that surprised me most about when Thak got out of the Army and our life pretty much imploded.  We had never considered our lifestyle extravagant.  3 BR house in a safe neighborhood, 3 kids, 3 pets, 2 American made cars in the driveway.  We thought we were mighty thrifty.  Then Thak got out of the Army and it all came crashing down.  We landed in a 2 BR apartment, with 1 car, and all the remnants of our old life shoved into these tiny rooms.  The whole time, I kept thinking, "What have we done?" and "Where did we go wrong?" because we Americans honestly have bought the line that if you don't screw up, things will be ok, and the inverse, if things aren't ok, you screwed up somewhere.  I know I did.  So here I was, wracking my brain, trying to figure out where I screwed up, and totally embarrassed to be struggling because I just knew everyone would talk terribly about us, because obviously, if you're struggling, you're stupid, and nobody likes to be thought of as stupid.

Here's the thing, America.  It's time to put that mentality down.  A lot has changed between the time when that stuff was true, and now.  We are mostly the same, but the framework we have to live in is completely different.  Think about it this way.  When our parents were the age we are now, they all owned houses, were either working in their careers that they'd have forever, or well on their way to that, and not moving around all the time.  Yet, here we are, in our 30's, renting apartments just like what we lived in as freshmen in college, and in some cases, fighting like hell to forge a place for ourselves that will maintain us for the long term.  Why is that?  Obviously, the world has changed.  Our mentality needs to change, too.  First things first, though.  Stop voting for people who are going to completely screw you.  Unless you are a straight, white, rich, single, childless, male, CEO of a Fortune 500 corporation, from a well established family, with several off shore bank accounts, then Republicans probably aren't the best people to represent your interests.