This is an unedited entry from my personal journal...
July 26
I’m reminded that this upcoming election is going to be one of those moments when younger people ask me, PS NOT saying ‘my kids will ask me’, where I was when the first woman ever was named a presidential nominee for a major party. It’s one of those things like, where were you when the first black president was elected? Where were you on 9/11? It brings up a lot of things in me… I remember being initiated (? wrong word here probably) into the job at a big chain supermarket in 2009 ish, I voted for Obama and I was very proud of that. I was also a Green party member, and once we were all new employees were done filling out paperwork there was a spot where you could put a small portion of your paycheck toward the democratic party, which is the preferred party of the union I was a member of. I declined, since it said “optional”, Huh, lo and behold a few weeks into the job two union officials came into the break room and well.. I’m not going to say that they strong armed me BUT they came in and said I ‘forgot’ to fill out something and it was the campaign contribution option to the democratic party. Now hey, don’t get me wrong. I understand that this election is important. I understand that third parties are important. I changed my party affiliation in order to vote for Bernie Sanders, and even though he’s not the nominee I’m going to vote for Hillary. I’ve made that clear that we need her. We need someone in that office who doesn’t care what other people think of her, who knows how to hide their shady business, who knows how to deal with world leaders. And yes, I admit that she’s done good as senator of New York, she helped floundering communities in upstate NY and she was always an advocate of children's education, the disabled and minorities.
I use to think I was a radical liberal, but now that there has been such a contrast between the democratic and republican sides I have come to realize that I’m a moderate democrat (insert ? here). All I care about now is a living wage and not getting murdered by people who are supposed to be there to help me maybe? Or maybe I’m a republican who has values that harken to a time back when the republican party was all about keeping their hands off businesses and civil liberties. But this iteration of the republican party only cares about the 2nd amendment and no other amendments apparently.
I changed my party because I know that a third party can’t change the two party system overnight, and continued support of third parties is important. But I guess I’m willing to leave that to others, and I’m hoping that people who are third party members understand that stakes are high this year. Remember what happened when we all voted for Ralph Nader? I still am sad about that, Al Gore was a major speaker on the immediate need to pay attention to climate change. I feel like if Nader was running as a democrat he would have made concessions toward Gore in the same way Sanders has made toward Clinton. Sanders made some good points on policy for the Clinton camp. It is strange to picture a country run by a b list celebrity. Who knows what kinds of people would be appointed to the Supreme Court, more b list celebs? I get a pit in my chest just thinking about it. I think the Sanders campaign brought to light a lot of issues that the Clinton camp cannot ignore and needs to get on board with in order to win over everyone. To me, that’s a win I’m willing to settle for. So coming back around to the unions, please don’t say I’m bad mouthing unions. My mother was a union member for the better part of her career, and that’s how my family got their medical insurance. Things I remember during the (first) Clinton era were that even though my parents were not college educated we had a roof over our heads and they had well paying jobs. I remember being a high school kid and I didn’t like my after school job. So I quit and got another one within a week. I never knew anyone on welfare, and if you lost your job it wasn’t a big deal because you just got another one. I remember being in high school making $10-15 an hour, and then settling for minimum wage in a retail job in college. What I’m saying is that I’m pro-union always. I just wish they would have said it was mandatory I totally would have checked off that box instead of having two men twice my size approach me while I was alone in an employee space and well, there was a level of intimidation there because a. I needed that job so duh ok take my money fine and b. I’m not even 5 feet tall and two grown men were asking/ not asking me to do something I already thought I said no to. What I’m REALLY trying to say here is that there are no ‘good/ bad’ guys in this election. There are options that would hurt this country and options that would sort of keep this ship afloat until we can vote out do-nothing representatives in the house. I just feel like there are better ways of getting everyone on board, but since that moment has past I think we need to get with the program, and foster strength among third party candidates in our local elections first before we try to tackle the presidency.
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I think that we have so much to worry about in our day-to-day that this election was a legit shit show, we have to stay positive and believe that people want to do good in this world and that they will do what is right even though it isn't always easy.
