NOTE: I wrote this to solidify some thoughts, not to open a debate. It’s a document, not an argument.
A day or two after the Supreme Court granted essentially blanket immunity to US Presidents, I made a Facebook post that said, “So, I guess it turns out some people actually ARE above the law….” In the comments that followed, one of my relatives –who shall remain nameless for the sake of any family who may read this– wrote this to another relative: “I have little doubt that your wish would be for Biden to use Seal Team 6 to assassinate President Trump. That is the complete jist of Sotomayor’s juvenile dissent. This is the unfiltered hate of the left on full complete display.”
Though I was not the target of the comment, I wrote this in response: “I know your comment about assassination was not addressed to me, but I can absolutely assure you that I do not wish that. On the contrary, I wish Trump, and every person like him, could find some way to fill whatever hole in their psyche causes them such torment. Until that happens, I will continue to despise his actions and his attributes. But I do not wish harm on anyone, anywhere. Statements like yours say more about the speaker (writer) than they do about the audience.”
Then on Saturday, as news spread of the assassination attempt at Trump’s Pennsylvania rally, this relative came back to the previous Facebook thread and wrote this: “And look who is consumed with violence. Speaks volumes about about people who vote a certain way…..”
(I should point out that this exchange took place almost immediately after the incident. Subsequent information indicates that the shooter’s “certain way” of voting is probably not at all aligned with mine, but that isn’t really my point here.)
Now, even as children, this particular relative and I rarely saw each other outside of occasional Christmas gatherings and, perhaps, a few marriage ceremonies and funeral services. I would be willing to bet that it wouldn’t require much more than my own fingers and toes to count the total number of times we’ve seen each other in our entire lives, and I’d be surprised if any of those encounters have taken place since we have been of voting age. Which is to say, I seriously doubt we’ve seen each other in 40 years or more. Which is to say, further, that despite our blood relation, we don’t actually know each other. So I’m not sure where he comes by the idea that my politics would be motivated by hatred and violence, especially since I’d just told him exactly the opposite. But whatever. How he votes is none of my concern, and I can’t imagine he truly cares about my voting habits, either.
But that online exchange, coinciding as it did with the assassination attempt, and coming during this time of such general political turmoil, served as a kind of catalyst to make me think a lot about the “certain way” I do vote, and why. I haven’t had any new revelations or anything. Everything I have to say, I’ve said many times before. But I decided to write some of it down, just to give it some shape and focus.
First, I want old people, and poor people, to be safe and secure. Obviously, the rub there is that reasonable people can have differing opinions of exactly what constitutes safety and security. And I certainly don’t have any definitive answers. But I know that a lot of people depend on Medicare, Medicaid, SSI, and similar programs, and I want those programs to be available for those people.
I also want hungry people to be fed. This is not rocket science. I want any kids who need it to have access to reduced-cost or free school meals. And if necessary, I also want them to have supplemental food between Friday’s school lunch and Monday’s school breakfast. I want people to have access to SNAP and WIC, etc. The thought that there are people out there going hungry absolutely kills me, and I want to live in a country that’s doing everything it can to prevent that from happening.
I want sick people to have health care, too. The medical care and medical insurance system baffles me. The fact that I personally know people —insured people— who have been denied coverage for medications or procedures prescribed by their doctors is just confounding. Pretty much all of my friends and family are regular, middle- or upper-middle-class Jacks and Jills. Hard-working, reasonably affluent, educated people with resources at their disposal. If we’re having trouble navigating our health care, I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like for those less fortunate. And the fact that health insurance is tied to employment status is just insanity. I’m aware that there are laws requiring hospitals and emergency rooms to treat any person in an emergency situation, but people need care when there isn’t an emergency. Sometimes to prevent an emergency from occurring. The fact that some of those people don’t have jobs doesn’t make them any less sick.
And to be clear: I don’t care how or why people came to be in their predicament. Maybe their situation could have been avoided, and if so, sure, we should address that going forward. But that’s a separate problem. If they’re in need, I want them to have help. Period.
I know all these things cost money. Lots of it. Here’s the thing: I’m OK with that. The old saw is always that Democrats, or liberals, or The Left (or other current pejorative) want everything for free. That’s simply not true. Everybody knows none of this is free. Some of us simply think it’s worth the cost. The United States spends more money on the military than the next nine countries combined. Count ’em. NINE. There’s essentially no limit to the amount of money our nation is willing to spend to kill people and blow shit up. But helping old people stay hearlthy? Medicare funding cut by 29% since 2001. Medicaid? $58 billion less allocated for 2024 than in 2023. And of course the battle to put food on the tables of poor folks rages on relentlessly. We are the richest country on the planet. It’s not that we can’t pay for these things, but rather that we choose not to. That’s shameful.
I have a lot of other concerns, of course. Environmental protections, for example. LGBTQ+ rights. Women’s rights. Minority rights. Human rights in general. Police reform. Gun control. Prison reform. Scientific research. Funding for the arts. Nuts and bolts things like tax reform & term limits. Circling back to the comment that started this whole thing, I think our President ought to answer to the same laws we do. By the same token, I don’t think Congress should be allowed to exempt themselves from the laws they pass.
My list could go on. But however long it gets, there won’t ever be any hate or violence on it. And it’s primarily those first three items above that drive me to vote “a certain way.”