Get out a pad and pen or pencil, or create a sheet with four columns on it.
In the first slot, type POLICY.
In that column, create a list of policy issues that you feel strongly about.
(I’ve included examples below, but you may have additional ones you want to add. If so, add them.)
In the second slot, write DEM.
In the third slot write GOP or REP.
In the fourth slot at the top write Fear or Fact?
You should have something that looks like this:
Now, go through the list and mark the number of times you agree with which party’s policies for each of the policies listed and any you choose to add to the list. Don’t over-think; just mark your first inclination. Then answer the question about what led you to that policy conclusion: FEAR or FACT?
Because when you do this, I think it might convince you to delve a little deeper into why your first response may have been driven by instilled fear more than by facts.
Remember: infants have only two fears at birth: the fear of falling and of loud noises. All other fears have been either culturally or experientially instilled into you.
Now, take the ones that you marked FEAR and ask yourself:
Have any of the fears I’m imagining about this issue ever actually harmed or threatened me in any way, other than perspective-wise?
For example, has anyone ever forced me to have an abortion/use birth control or IVF/enter an LGBTQIA+ wedding arrangement/change my gender expression/adopt a religion?
Has any member of any other race ever personally attacked, raped, or ripped me off? How many other people do I know who have been attacked, raped, or ripped off by a minority individual?
How many people do I know who have been attacked, raped, or ripped off by members of my own race? (I suspect the number here will be at least one, and probably at least five.)
Am I afraid to camp out in my own back yard for any reason having to do with bad actors in the neighborhood/my region? (This question alone will tell you a great deal about how indoctrinated you are by the news sources you listen to.)
Do I know anyone who has admitted being LGBTQIA+ to me? (If not, I guarantee you that you know several unless you’re living under a rock, but they haven’t felt safe enough to tell you because of something you have said, worn, put on your vehicle or done in their presence that made telling you too risky or uncomfortable.)
For every FEAR-based decision, ask yourself questions like those above. Because I guarantee you that if you will do this, you will discover something vital (and insidious) about the so-called news sources you’re receiving information from.
Which specific Democratic/GOP policies are you in accordance with? Have you researched how your representatives have been voting on these issues (not just what they’ve been saying with their mouths, but how they’ve been voting in their respective chambers)?
How has the other party characterized the policies you espouse? Which of those characterizations lead you to facts, and which lead you to continue using unrealistic fears to maintain your endorsements of them?
Now, take the ones you marked FACT and actually do some research on them. A good place to start is with any of these resources, which teachers have been telling students about for more than 15 years now. (No, they are not left-leaning. They are leaning-agnostic. These sites pursue facts, not flights of fancy or fear.)
Which party over the past sixty years has been better on economic issues, human rights policies, Medicare and Social Security policies, gun control, student debt relief, bodily autonomy, marriage equality, social justice, Supreme Court placements, COVID response, separation of church and state, Medicare for All, climate change mitigation, voting rights, and other policies that uniformly treat all Americans as equally-qualified Americans?
I think that unless you’re a white male supremacist at heart (and I know these particular Neanderthals exist in great numbers), I think you pretty much have to agree that the party most likely to have YOUR back is the Democratic Party.
Is the Democratic Party perfect? Hell no! It has enormous issues (which the GOP helped establish) — Citizens United, corporation-sponsored legislation that gave corporations personhood without the limits forced on actual citizens as to how much money they can donate to their favorite politicians, and more. But the GOP/Republican Party has fallen victim to a psychopathic slew of legislators and corporate overlords whose greed knows no bounds and whose concern for most Americans mirror Trumps: “I don’t care about you. I just care about your vote.” (Exact, direct quote.) Melania Trump even wore a jacket to the southern border that proclaimed, “I really don’t care. Do you?”)
FACTS: The GOP wants to force pregnant women to give birth; in 32 GOP-run states, a rapist can gain access to the children that the rape produced (leaving the violated woman to deal with repeated traumatic memories and the knowledge that a rapist has access to the children her body produced without mutual consent); it wants to gerrymander and remove voting rights from people of color; it fights policies that protect consumers, and more. And if the GOP gets back into power, it can decide on two more extreme right Supreme Court justices.
Note: Third party candidates cannot succeed under the present conditions, so a vote for any of them takes a vote away from Biden or Trump. (Most likely Trump if it’s RFK Jr. and Biden if it’s anyone else, which could tip the scale for Trump/GOP again. HORRORS!) (RFK Jr.s campaign is being funded largely by Timothy Mellon, who also just sent millions to Trump’s campaign when he was convicted on 34 felony accounts, so we know his political calculations clearly enough.)
The Biden administration is working hard right now to wrest back control so the American people can get back on an even keel. And it is already listed by historians as the 14th best ever, based on its almost unparallelled successes to date. (Trump is dead last on the same list.) The Biden administration will continue to lift itself higher if it is given another four years to do what it’s doing to help us all out. And that’s up to those of us who want to see America remain a democracy, which I presume is the vast majority of us. SO REGISTER TO VOTE IF YOU AREN’T ALREADY AND TO VOTE DEM UP AND DOWN THE BALLOT IN NOVEMBER.
Let’s give it that opportunity. Read about Project 2025 (you can get the entire project online if you want to read the 900+-page policy plan) to see what Trump and his minions have planned for you. The contrast could not be more stark … or ominous.
P.S. If what lies below is true, I have just wasted 1117 words and your precious time so I hope Heinlein was wrong about this. (You can prove him wrong!):
