Why I hate presidential election years!

This blog, while generally focuses on my and other authors writing and comics, is still going to be “off topic” for while. The following is just my view point.

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I love to vote. I am proud to live in a country that has mostly free elections. When I turned 18, my mom and I went to the county seat in Port Orchard to register to vote. Then we went out to lunch at one of our favorite Italian restaurants. Sure, we could have just done it anywhere, but the truth was that I became an adult and my mom was trying to make it as special as possible. I don’t believe I have ever missed an election–though I admit in those 18 years (I am 36) I might have missed one of the small special elections.

However bigoted hate-filled talk about “the other” side annoys me. And by the way– I am not talking about one side or the other. I hate it when I hear it from conservatives and liberals, from Republicans and Democrats. I hate it when it comes from my family and friends. Don’t you realize that in this age, fact checking has become so easy that exaggeration or worse flat out lying is stupid? Both sides do this!

Even so, I know I am not going to change your views…. and you are not going to change me. Sorry, but no post of Facebook ever made me think any differently than I do right now.

I do believe in the freedoms of all individuals, I am never going to vote for a candidate that does not believe in a woman’s right to choose. I care about “entitlement” programs such as medicare, maternity and paternity leave, and social security.  I do care about the environment, but I also care about the need for a strong work force.

Right now, I hear many people are screaming about the “War against Women.” Does it make me a bad person, because I laugh every time someone says crazy things and try to pass insane laws? You want to know why I laugh? Because while it gets the person/group airtime, it will also turn any moderate away from their cause. I don’t believe in conspiracies: I do believe that people are afraid and so they are trying to clamp down on something they think they can control. Unfortunately, they are wrong: birth control is no longer the domain of men for the majority of Americans.

In my opinion, the best case, all men and women have freedom of their own person and any decision would be a joint decision between the couple in need of birth control. No matter how much we try to hide it, sex is part of being a grownup and adults in relationships should be able to talk to each other as adults. However, if there is no couple, cases of cohesion or rape or if they don’t agree, then the woman needs to make the decision because its her body. Prochoice simply means : the freedom to make an informed decision about whether to keep and raise the child, put him or her up for adoption or she can choose abortion. Remember what I just said… the right to their own person. I was not alive then, but I do not look back at any time or place where a woman did not have right to her body with nostalgia. There was no simpler time.

Another issue, I find just as frustrating is Immigration. I do not believe immigrant work forces, “are a betrayal to young people”  because I live in a state that relies on an immigrant work force in the agricultural sector, picking apples, peaches, cherries etc. These people aren’t taking jobs from Americans, they are doing a job Americans don’t want to do. In fact for the past two years as its gotten harder for immigrants to work legally, farmers in my state have had trouble finding people to work during the harvest season. Americans who try it tend to walk off the job after a single day! Of course, that’s in my state, perhaps yours is different.

There now you have an idea of who I am and what I believe in, I respect your right to disagree with me. I respect your right to blog about your ideas and I value intelligent discourse, however lately it has seemed like only hysterical discourse gets through.  Oh by the way, an internet meme is not intelligent discourse.