By Debra Houston, contributing columnist | All right, already. I got the message! Since I wrote that I might not vote in the presidential election because we have less than stellar candidates, my friends have gently reprimanded me. My friend “D” says, “It is your civic duty to vote.”
It is indeed my civic duty and my moral obligation. I have never NOT voted. When I became eligible to vote at 18, I couldn’t wait to enter the booth and vote for Senator George McGovern, a trustworthy man who honorably served his country. I was a proud liberal back then, when the word “Democrat” connoted Jeffersonian ideals such as all men are created equal and all lives matter.
Back then I loved how the Democratic Party defended blue-collar workers and their values. But since Bill Clinton’s presidency, progressivism has grown like a cancer in the Democratic Party. The progressive wing looked down on the working class. Eventually, Ronald Reagan became a hero to those voters. That was a bitter pill for Dems to swallow. Regularly, progressives speak down to blue-collars, especially those who are white, male, and God forbid, evangelical. In other words, those who cling to their guns and Bible.
Another pitfall: Democratic politicians and labor unions joined together and sold the line to workers that they would protect their jobs. However, after pouring millions of dollars of union dues into the Democratic Party, workers watched helplessly as their manufacturing jobs left and went overseas.
The middle class has also suffered under progressives. Those caught in the Middle receive the brunt of a sagging economy. Those who can’t find a job over an extended period of time are not even counted in the unemployment rate. No problem, say progressives. We’ll buy them off with “free” health care, food stamps, and welfare checks. But that won’t work with the middle class, who believe it right to take care of themselves, from holding down two or three jobs to making ends meet by making drastic spending cuts in their household budgets.
And, to be fair, the Republican Party has also failed us. It too is made up of intellectual snobs. I’m tired of elitists, and so I’ll join with the blue-collars and working middle class who have chosen a man who is rich but not a snob. No more McCain, Romney, or Bush. I’ll go with the businessman who usually gets what he wants, even if he is jagged around the edges. I’ll vote for Mr. Trump.
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