I was raised in a Republican household. At eighteen years old I voted for George H. W. Bush. I supported the Gulf War while in college. I happily voted for George W. Bush and supported his Desert Storm initiative (although I concede that didn’t exactly work out as I thought). I hesitantly voted for McCain and by the time Romney came around I was starting to feel uncomfortable with the Republican party — what exactly did it stand for? The anti-immigrant talk was a turn off and the overt nods to a national religion made me itchy. I watched Obama’s acceptance speech in Chicago and wept. I couldn’t help but be moved by it and hoped that perhaps this would “wake up” the Republican party. Alas, eight years later and Trump was the Republican nominee. I was horrified. This man was not one of character or honor or anything that stood for small government or hawkish defense or any of the things that I grew up understanding of the Republican party. It was too much. From that point forward I have considered myself an Independent.
And now as I face this next election, I can’t help but notice that one party is speaking to the issues that matter to me and the other is trying desperately to legislate a national religion and play the culture wars game.
Healthcare
The Republican party proposes to repeal The Affordable Care Act and return to “private insurance”. Except I live in Texas, and I know what it is like firsthand to not have the ability to apply for The Affordable Care Act insurance and seek out “private insurance” on your own.
Private insurance means the government feels that business should oversee providing you with healthcare coverage. In other words, your insurance is tied to your employment. But Republicans are also against unions and support “at will” employment policies which means your employer can fire you at any time with no reason. Having experienced this situation first-hand my husband and I have applied for “private insurance”, and we were denied. Why? Because I was treated for chronic indigestion while pregnant and he had bronchitis once. Not exaggerating — those were the reasons we were given. You see, private insurers can also deny coverage for any reason, and they frequently do.
And if you have never lived without health insurance you have no idea how scary that is. I have stood at the pharmacy counter and told a pharmacist to put back a medication that my doctor prescribed because it was too much money, and my husband was out of work. I’ve looked at my husband one early morning when he had a kidney stone and said, “I really hope you can pass that on your own because a trip to the ER would bankrupt us”. And don’t get me started on the cost of mental health care where the average psychiatrist visit is $150 and the average therapist visit can be $125.
My family of five pays $750 a month in health insurance coverage. On top of that we have deductibles that need to be met and copays and still most medical procedures cost something. It is a major financial burden and the idea of making “American Great Again” by returning to private insurance ONLY, sounds like a nightmare. The Democrats plan may not be perfect but at least they have one and I’m willing to try anything different than what we have right now.
College Tuition
The next biggest expense in my life is college tuition. My husband and I saved for our kid’s college. We listened to those who did it before us and figured we would pay as we go, and we would augment with what we saved. What we saved lasted exactly one year. At $27K a year for a state school it is impossible to pay for college “as you go”. We’ve had to make the unfortunate decision of taking out student loans and that is only for our FIRST child. We have two more to send and if you are any good at math that is going to cost us roughly $350,000.
The Republican plan for college tuition is that you shouldn’t go if you can’t afford it. And from the sound of the rhetoric, they think nobody should go to college because the university is a bastion of liberal ideology that is just brainwashing your child to learn useless information that won’t lead them to a job. Unfortunately, the science doesn’t support this and in fact life-time earnings is markedly higher for those who go to college.
The Democrats are proposing a restructuring of the student loan program. A decrease in interest rates (which sits between 6–8% for student loans), a rule that after ten years of payments the remaining loan is forgiven, and interest free loans for degrees in fields we need more people and yet the jobs pay little in salary — nurses, teachers, therapists. Perhaps the plan is not perfect (few are) but they have a plan and I’m desperate for help.
School Shootings/Gun Safety
As I said earlier, I live in Texas which has experienced more school shootings than any other state. I am also a gun owner. I grew up with guns in my house and took riflery in college. I grew up in Michigan which is a state that celebrates the first day of hunting season like a national holiday. I believe people should own guns. HOWEVER, I think much like getting a driver’s license it is not a birthright. Because I was formally trained in gun handling, I understand the importance of being trained on how to handle a weapon. I believe in gun storage, gun safety, and if you commit a crime or harm somebody in your family you lose the right to have a weapon. And lastly, my kids have experienced first-person shooter drills, and I, as a professor, have now experienced three bomb threats.
The Democrats (and several Republicans) support Red Flag laws, gun storage laws and holding parents responsible for when their child harms somebody with their gun. These are reasonable proposals. This is common sense gun legislation. The Republican party just thinks everybody should have guns, whenever and whomever. The Republican party thinks it is a mental health issue, but they also don’t want to fund mental health insurance, access, treatment or counselors in school. They are willing to ban kids from wearing black to school because apparently black clothing makes you depressed *insert eyeroll*.
Culture Wars
I’m not going to even bother addressing each of these individually (book bans, drag queens, LGBTQ+ issues, trans rights, ten commandments in schools, teaching the bible, et al). Legislating religion has NEVER worked for any religion or any government, history teaches us that. If you must legislate your faith or shove it down somebody’s throat you have lost the battle. People should be inspired to believe, elated to believe, not scared to death that they will get beaten up, bullied or thrown in jail if they don’t.
And for the rest of the culture wars stuff, I will quote the Coach here, mind your damn business. Don’t tell me what medical procedure I can or cannot have, don’t tell me what I can or cannot read, and don’t tell me what I can or cannot believe. We are a country of freedoms, stop legislating mine. You don’t like drag shows? Don’t go. You don’t like books that talk about two dads, don’t read it. You want your kid to believe in a faith, then take them to church/temple. You want them to learn about that faith at school? Send them to a private school — but stop involving me. You don’t have the right to tell me how I SHOULD feel about my relationship, my body, my faith, my marriage or my kids.
The issues that are driving me to the polls might very well not be the same issues that concern you. At the end of the day most voters will “vote their pocketbook” and right now healthcare and college tuition are bleeding me dry. If the Republicans have a plan to fix these things I’m ready to listen but so far all I hear from that side of the aisle is a lot of screaming about the past.
