Thoughts from one in the sisterhood

I have a confession to make.

I almost voted for Bush Jr in the 2000 election. My ex was a hard core Republican and he dragged me to one of Bush Jr’s rallies in Missouri. I don’t know if any of your remember this, but Bush Jr ran on a staunch education platform. At the time I thought that’s what America needed, better education.

My dad was also a Republican his whole life (until Obama’s second term election), I still remember making Reagan posters as a child in Ecuador when Reagan first ran for office (my dad was American).

I was finishing my PhD at the time Bush Jr was running for president, and I am half Latina, so one can’t really say all Republicans are uneducated bigots because there are plenty of exceptions. My dad also had a Masters in Business Administration, was extremely well read, and had lived and travelled all over the world.

I guess to me and many others the Republican party used to signify something different, and some of the greatest presidents, from Lincoln to Reagan, were Republicans.

I believe all citizens should be taxed the same percentage of their annual income irrespective of what they make (and it should be kept below 30%), that government should be small, and spending low. Does that make me a Republican? And even though I am a Catholic who believes in God, I think every woman should have the right to choose, and that whatever our actions, we should answer directly to God and not to a bunch of bureaucrats in Washington. Does that make me a Democrat?

While I think people should be entitled to keep the wealth they’ve worked so hard to earn, I also think we should be compassionate as a society and take care of the sick, the disabled, the elderly, and of course our veterans. After all, wasn’t Jesus’ greatest teaching tolerance and compassion?

I lived in Europe for over 15 years and while many call the Europeans a bunch of socialists, I think as a whole they are a more compassionate society, even with the downside of paying higher taxes. Most children get a high quality, public education, even universities are mostly free; people are automatically insured, for illness, disability, and unemployment, and you seldom see homeless people in the central and northern European nations. I do believe this can all come out from a 30% tax bracket, if a streamlined government spends wisely.

So I don’t hold anything against Republicans, or ultra-devout Christians, though during this past election it was hard to understand why people voted for Trump when we had a much better choice available (even with all the accusations of corruption I’m still to see evidence for). Yes, people were tired of big government, middle-class America wanted more jobs, everyone blamed the immigrants (for stealing jobs they didn’t want to do or for raping their women).  But the way things are going we will see more damage to education, the environment, healthcare, racial tolerance, and international diplomacy than we will see benefits to jobs, crime, and personal wealth.

Today I attended my first march, the Women’s March in Denver, full of emotion. I felt part of something really big, maybe it was the overwhelming solidarity from women all over the world, marching alongside us, from Sydney, to Paris, to Nairobi, to Berlin. Because somehow 65 million Americans and millions of people all over the world seem to realize how dangerous this new POTUS is, not just for the USA but the world.

Yet millions of Americans still think Trump signifies a better America. FYI: America was already great. I’m not saying it was perfect. There were plenty of things that had to be fixed. But if one bothers to get educated and is willing to work his/her butt off, I would guarantee he/she would prosper. And if for some reason one didn’t prosper, the more sensible thing to do wouldn’t have been to blame it on the POTUS.

I often wonder if the average Trump voter had been given a free plane ticket to another continent, visited countries rich and poor, seen how other cultures live, how they treat each other and the planet, they would realise how thinking and behaving differently can be an asset not a threat, perhaps they would even see how great we really have it. I wonder if disgruntled Trump voters would stop viewing their needs with entitlement and their misfortune with disdain, perhaps even contemplate that their financial misfortune wasn’t Obama’s fault, or the doing of those bloody Democrats and their big government. Perhaps it was circumstance, global markets, or maybe even the Republicans who were in control of Congress for the last 8 years. Whatever the problem, and whoever caused it, I firmly believe Trump is NOT the solution.

We marched today because Trump has a complete disregard for the environment, because he belittles women and minorities, because he is a fear monger, because he lies, lies and keeps lying (e.g. draining the swamp), because he is nominating completely incompetent people to his cabinet, because he can’t speak or probably even think in coherent sentences, because he attacks anyone who challenges him, and because he is simply mentally unstable.

We have all lost friends and distanced family during this election because of differing political views. Let us not become enemies because we cannot understand what human values we all share.