Still and forever a Democrat
I understand some of the rhetoric. I've been there. Heck, I'll be 68 in 22 days. How could I not have been where you feel you are now.
When I was 18, I was a McCarthy supporter, but was deemed too young to vote. One might think that would be enough to put me off the whole concept of voting right there.
I backed McGovern in 1972. We know how that worked out.
1976 found me in grad school and a shitload of possible nominees to choose from. Personally, I thought Carter was too openly religious. Living in Oregon like I did, most of the 15 candidates were out of the race by the time of the Oregon primary. Governor Moonbeam (Jerry Brown) filed too late to be on the ballot in Oregon, but he was my guy anyway. Didn't win. Neither did Morris Udall. So I was stuck with Carter and his "sinned in my heart" mentality.
I was for Teddy in 1980. But I was disenchanted in the end...and voted for Anderson. Not a good choice, it turned out. It was the only time in my adult life that I did not vote for a Democrat.
I was for Hart in 1984 and 1988 until the extra-marital affairs drove him out. Biden was a plagiarist. Sen. Paul Simon didn't last to Oregon. I ended up voting for Jesse.
By 1992 I was living in Arkansas and by the end of the year I was transitioning. I voted for Clinton in the primary...and was proud of that vote.
The rest is relatively recent history.
This year I'm voting for the Democratic Party. The California Democratic Convention was last month.
This year the platform includes
Protect the right of all people to use facilities and participate in all aspects of society consistent with their true gender identity, regardless of the gender assigned them at birth.
As the National Center for Transgender Equality states:
Transgender people face extraordinary levels of physical and sexual violence, whether on the streets, at school or work, at home, or at the hands of government officials. ... More than one in four transgender people has faced a bias-driven assault, and rates are higher for transgender women and transgender people of color.
While their recent action was a positive stride, it’s just the beginning. As Californians, we cannot stop until transgender people are treated equally in all parts of life—a mission that’s worth fighting for.
--Kris Hayashi, Transgender Law Center and Rick Zbur, Equality California
Vote your pleasure in the primaries. I will not try to sway you one way or the other about who is better for transpeople. But when the general comes, there is no choice, as far as I am concerned.
Some of you may be thinking "Life will go on" with a republican president. Your life may go on...but for some of us, that's somewhat in doubt.
Comments
Sounds like a good choice for you.
I always voted for the Democrat - except once. When Carter ran for re-election, I voted for Reagan. Took me 90 days to regret that. I do not believe there is a party or a platform. Just a bunch of individuals on the take. No matter Trump or Hillary, I lose. I can't imagine why I would want to vote for anyone who is going to make me lose.
If there is a right or wrong, history will decide it. I am just going to vote my principles for the first time in a long, long time. Devil take the hindmost.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Me, too.
I have been a member of the Democratic party my whole life and always voted for the lesser of the two evils in many cases, i.e., voting for a Democrat . That ends this year. I will no longer vote for the lesser of two evils. Those days are over starting right now.
LOL, well you can ignore my message on GOS :)
And here I'd just asked if you'd consider cross-posting to here. I value the way you've brought trans issues to my attention.
Insofar as how I'll vote, I'm the first to admit it's a cold-hearted calculus.... doubly so since I've managed to get myself and my wife to Canada so we'll be spared the worst if Trump takes office. And yet it remains true that if the war for the 99% is ever going to be fought then we must begin at some point. Whenever that point is, there'll be scary Republicans and crappy-assed neolibs and there'll be risks. I prefer to take those risks rather than accept the absolute certainty of gradual decay and a slow descent into ever increasing human misery.
And here's another point. There's a whole ton of Americans for whom life won't go on under yet more neolib policies. How many will die in some random war of aggression? How many will die due to their inability to get medical care? How many will die from environmental causes starting with things like poisoned water but extending to things like climate change? And while we're at it, what about those random brown people we will kill somewhere else in the world?
If we continue to allow the rich to get richer, the poor to get poorer, and the plutocrats to determine policy then every single one of us suffers along with random Muslim populations somewhere in the mid-east. When do we stop that? Where do we hold the line? When do we say "Enough is enough is enough!"
Is it a crappy choice to have to make? Yes. That's why I'm doing what I can for Bernie. But one way or another here is where I hold the line. The only way that changes if someone, somehow can convince me that I've got Hillary wrong. But after her campaign of lies and deception that's going to be a mighty hard sell.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
I may still vote Democratic
but I am actively considering a switch to Independent.
I just don't believe in most of what the Democratic Party is peddling today.
Progressive to the bone.
I intend to remain a
I intend to remain a registered Democrat, to participate in primaries, but I will not be voting for the Democrat this year if their candidate is Hillary Clinton. My heart left the party years ago, in all truth.
This isn't your fault, but that political equation
Amounts to hostage politics. In essence, Let us wreck the world or the black guy (or trans guy) gets it in the face.
It's not "life will go on," for me. It's life won't go on either way. Choosing, at best, between blood spilled domestically at a higher rate and blood spilled overseas at a higher rate. That's not much of a choice.
At some point, you have to object to the odious choice that is being imposed on you, because there's too much death on both sides.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhFvZRT7Ds0]
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Amen Can'tStoptheSignal....
It's extortion not voting. As a woman the Republicans want to probe my American vagina along with inflicting their austerity. They wave the bible around like the bigoted crazy 'Southern Diplomat's' they are. Hell and brimstone demagoguery.
The Third Way Democrat's will do nothing to stop the abuses of women here and globally and yet still say they are better on social issues. Hillary will send women's children home to hell holes we created to teach their parents a lesson. Hillary will kill villages of women and children and support SA, African or anywhere on the planets religious fanatic's that will do horrendous things to transgenders as well as women, children and all GLTB's. She supports funds and sics the CIA on anyone anywhere who dares to stand up for human rights and democracy. Hillary will use GBLT rights as bargaining chips to get her transnational 1% (doing god's work) owners domsestic agenda through.
She is a member of 'The Family' a church, a cult of power hungry leaders and want to be rulers of the world that use Christ's name vain, that thinks anything that promotes world domination makes it ''worth it' as they are the chosen, the elite designated by God to rule the world. GBLT rights globally mean nothing to her and her cohorts like Kissinger, Doug Coe, Brownbeck, Mubarak, Albright, Blair, Obama, Poppie Bush, Rubin, and on and on and on, all of these people are not going to stop the killing or loss of human rights and misery to 'other' including GBLT's. They thrive on fear and hatred and keep it rolling.
Robyn's fear is misplaced as Hillary and her brand of Democratic domestic 'social values' is as empty as her 'foreign policy' which will make all humans and the planet 'worth it' collateral damage in their strange war on terra and humanity. All for profit and dominion and the good of greed dominion and Christian 'moral values' ,. She loves them and we all need to evolve so we accept the sleazy inevitable one who will prevail.
And meanwhile
the planet is cooking at an even faster rate than previously thought and our choices most likely will be between a ranting proto fascist who has no plans for anything other than to beat up a bunch of people and a war crazed lunatic who is owned by Wall Street. Neither one is going to do a thing about the single greatest threat to mankind.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Respect your choice
I respect your choice, I will not vote for Hillary Windsock Clinton if is she is the nominee of the Democratic Party.
The Democratic Party left me when it was taken over by the Clintons, and the DLC. I am an Independent and have voted for Democrats for almost 50 years. After what Hillary did yesterday, in her lies about Nancy Reagan, so she could get the votes of Reagan Democrats, and then manipulate with her good friend Andrea Mitchell on NBC to create another video, I would not trust Hillary Windsock Clinton to do anything, ever.
If she is the nominee of the Democratic Party, I will write in Bernie Sanders.
The words of the DNC platform mean nothing, as the promises of the Clintons mean nothing. If Clinton is the nominee, and is defeated, one good thing would be the opportunity to take the Democratic party out of their control.
If the super pacs, super delegates make Clinton their nominee, then the blame for electing a Republican POTUS is on them, not me.
President Sanders: an idea whose time has come
By "another video," you mean the beginning
of Hillary's interview where she praised the Reagans for HIV awareness in the beginning of her video was cut from the MSNBC website. The Alzheimer's issue was later during the same interview and that is what exists now, I believe.
Me too
I will write in Bernie.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I'm confident...
,,,that Bernie can win it all.If he doesn't it just means that we will have to focus our efforts on keeping the movement strong.If the choice is Drumpf/Cruz vs Hillary then I will vote Hillary,as bad as she is,I couldn't bear the thought that I might be responsible in any way for A Drumpf/Cruz in the White House.
Solidarity
I respect you a lot, I really do
You wrote this:
I will not be shamed or bullied into voting against my conscience. After I cast my primary vote next month I will be leaving the democratic party, likely for good. I am tired of getting the menu options: (1) shit sandwich, (2) turd sandwich (3) Diarrhea au gratin. I do not think life will go on very well if HRC is president. Is Drumph scary? you bet, and Cruz is worse. But I will not vote out of fear and I have a sibling in the LGBT community and one child coupled with a POC...
All my life (67 years) I've voted for a democrat. I have never and will never vote for a rethug, at least not in their current iterations. And right now HRC is a 70s republican. I'm done with the party.
Don't believe everything you think.
Lillian Hellman said it best
"I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions. " Lillian Hellman. I will not vote to put Clintons back in the White House.
Trump is also not the person we see manipulating the Republican party, manipulating & completely controlling the media, playing the banks & getting himself out of numerous bankruptcies. He has an MBA from Wharton. He's playing the reality TV clown to perfection,watching those making fun of him and laughing:he knows you can't make fun of a clown. He's playing to the people he wants to vote for him. If it were Clinton, we'd call it pandering. This is not an endorsement, & I think he's less of a narcissist than Bill Clinton.
He's a moderate. Generous funder of Planned Parenthood for years. His older sister is a well known liberal judge, strong advocate for women's issues. Crazy like a fox, remember his answer when asked why he gave money to the Clintons: "Because I wanted them to do what I wanted them to do." Doesn't get much better than that.
If Clinton is the Democratic nominee, we get President Trump. Only person who can beat him is Bernie Sanders.
With you, Hester
I'm in my mid-60s and have been a registered Democrat all my life until a recent move, when I registered unaffiliated. The only reason I switched back to D is so I can vote for Bernie Sanders in our closed primary. The party left me long ago--nearly didn't vote or Obama the 2nd time around. Brand loyalty stops making sense when the product over time no longer features the qualities that earned your loyalty in the first place. Person over party from now on. I understand how that can seem a luxury, and I respect the choices others make. But my vote is mine, and "better than the other guy" isn't good enough anymore. I can't, in conscience, vote for Hillary Clinton.
And it feels soooo good to be able to say that here without fear of repercussions. Thank you, c99%, for this flag-free zone.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti
one more thing
the folks responsible for a Trump or Cruz presidency are the folks that vote for him. No one else. No one
Don't believe everything you think.
Agree
My first presidential vote was for Anderson, also, and I was quickly embarrassed by that choice. The memories flood back with the recent passing of Nancy... and the 'misspeak' of Clinton. I couldn't ever vote any other way either. It will always be against the other guy. And with a little bit of luck sometimes I get to vote for my guy. That's the way I vote. I seem to particularly think of my daughters, when I think of voting in the general election. I'm not willing to risk it. ( Oh god, just remembering thinking when Bush II was appointed, ah it'll be four years and the doofus'll be gone. Eight years later and what insane number of lives did he take with him?)
I believe in sky faeries.
Another geezer who has voted straight D for four decades plus
And I am done, done, done. As soon as the primaries are over I am changing my affiliation to Independent. Or maybe not if we keep NY as a closed primary state, but I will no longer continue the practice of voting for the lesser of two evils. The only thing that practice has brought upon us is the party moving farther and farther to the right to the point that I can no longer in good conscience vote for the presumptive candidate. On a lighter note, I raised two yellow dog Democrats, my work is done.
Also, I am working so we can have a real choice.
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
Don't have enough cycles left to vote for evil again
I totally respect your statements and your passion. I share your concern for the future. I have defended your right to vote with my life. And this time I am not going to vote for the party or the cause or the smallest (perceived) amount of evil: I will vote for the person. I will vote for the single most qualified and appropriate person to offer him/herself for the Presidency in my lifetime. I will vote for him in the primary, I will vote for him in the general, I will vote for him when he first becomes eligible for entry into the Workers' Candidate Hall of Fame. Saw a bumper sticker in 2004 that read: "If God wanted us to vote he would have given us candidates". Well, I've got one. Everyone who wants to contribute to cleaning up the mess we are in - maybe not immediately, maybe not for ourselves, but for good and all- will vote for Bernie Sanders in the general 2016 election. The outcome of a thing is dependent upon its beginning: how can we expect good to come out of evil?
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire
This must be the geezer thread!
My first vote was for McGovern, too. AND I voted for Anderson. Mostly because Carter was so far to the right that I wanted to send the Democrats a message. (Sound familiar?) I've been a registered Dem since 1972. If Clinton is the nominee, that will change. I don't identify with, and don't want to be identified with, these people anymore. Even Sherrod Brown endorsed Hillary. Funny, I wouldn't have thought he's a NAFTA fan.
Twain Disciple
Yeah, but, like the saying:
Yeah, but, like the saying: That was Zen; this is Tao
It is not WHAT you think, but HOW you think that matters.
aka HonorFredHampton on TOP
Robyn, I hear what you are
Robyn, I hear what you are saying, but if nominee is Hillary, she will lose. Trump and his hating supporters need to be stopped whether or not he is nominated. It is not just LGBT people endangered by this violent, hateful mindset.
We have a lot of work to do addressing the hatefulness and violence against everyone perceived as other. That includes immigrants, Latinos, Muslims, and more including the LGBT community. One of my children is LGBT. But I won't vote for Hillary.
The fight does not end with the general election. I think this time it only really begins then.
Hi Robyn,
I would really like to know why you think Hillary is the better candidate. Any time I would ask at the orange Satan, I would end up being crushed by a lot of people. Nobody ever answered me, just tried to smash me.
I'm 58, and believe I'm informed, was born a democrat (well, it seems that way)
, and have been part of the LGBTQ community since I was pretty young. I came here from DK because I was starting to be snippy with my comments and have no desire to be that way. Plus, I was shocked by the last two diaries Kos wrote about Bernie supporters like me.
I am asking humbly, and sincerely if you would mind telling me what you see in Hillary that I don't.
I will still have a lot of respect for you even if you don't care to answer.
'Well, I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it." Elwood P. Dowd "
I'm afraid it boils down to "electability"
Robyn seems to be convinced that Mrs. Clinton will be the Democratic Presidential nominee no matter what happens between now and July, no matter how many people don't want her, no matter how many upsets Mr. Sanders pulls off.
And that makes her, ipso facto, the "only" Presidential candidate to vote for. Self-fulfilling prophecy (as long as no one kicks the applecart over).
Some day somebody's going to explode that "electability" myth. Sanders is doing a good job of it this round - if he doesn't finish the job, someone else will next time. (I'm keeping an eye on Keith Ellison and watching how he develops.)
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
I am a big fan of Sen. Ellison,
Maybe vice president for Bernie if Sen Warren doesn't get it?
'Well, I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it." Elwood P. Dowd "
Wow would *that* make wingnuts' heads asplode!
A Jewish Socialist and a Muslim Progressive of Color on the same ticket - what a strange and wonderful idea!
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
I am amazed how this is being read as anti-Sanders!
There are no words in my diary which lead to that conclusion.
I'm sorry, I wasn't clear.
I wasn't saying you are anti-Sanders.
I just wonder why you are pro-Hillary. Especially when she polls so much lower in electability against Republicans than Bernie.
'Well, I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it." Elwood P. Dowd "
Just where does it say anywhere...
...that I think Hillary is a better candidate?
I was trying very hard to say that I will never find it acceptable to vote for the Republican choice. Never.
I misunderstood you
Robyn. I'm sorry. I agree with you about never finding it acceptable to vote Republican.