by: Michelle
Let me start this off by saying straight off the bat that I do not have a degree in political science, nor have I studied it. I do not consider myself to be a politician. A while ago, I came to a place in my life where I realized vying for everyone’s approval is not a way that I wanted to live my life. But I can tell you that I have a strong calling to help others, and it is for that reason that I have considered running for an office.
As some of you know, I grew up in a very conservative household. As with many other households, I fell into the tendency to see things the way my parents did. At some point, I feel it was my late teens, as I became more aware of the world around me, I began to question if I truly believed these things. I realized that part of me had always felt a bit hesitant to quickly pass judgement on things in such a binary fashion. When I allowed these questions to fuel my search for what I believed, I came upon an extraordinary realization. I am a Democrat. My want to help others aligned more with the party of the blue collar workers. I was for a very long time a moderate or centralist Democrat. I voted for both sides, trying hard to keep what I thought was an equal balance between the parties. But what I failed to see was that that here within our state, one party has led a super majority for years driving our state to the bottom rung in the majority of categories.
At some point, the center moved. I still held my same beliefs that I always had, but now those views were considered to be further left than in the middle. So okay then, I took it in stride. I was still fighting for the same things it didn’t matter to me where the middle fell. So now I am considered a progressive liberal. I’m okay with that. To me it means that I do exactly as I hope others will do. I dream big and view everything as a possible we just have to find the solution to make it happen.
Do I want to see massive change from where we currently are as a nation? Yes. This current administration has undone decades of progressive work and thrown us onto a dangerous course that jeopardizes our very survival. Do I wish for a progressive candidate to be elected who will jump in and work to fix the damage that’s been done with progressive solutions? Yes, of course I do. Do I want a leader in place that has been selected by the will of the people? Yes, I do. Am I willing to not vote or attack others because they don’t want to vote for the candidate I decide to pick? Absolutely not.
For one, keep in mind that I am a progressive liberal female. Do you think my first choice was the only progressive liberal candidate left in the field? Was gender my leading factor? Nope. It sure wasn’t. I was eyeing many candidates on the field and felt strongly about supporting a couple of them that have both now left the race. I would like a grassroots progressive movement to go far. And when I hear that’s not what the majority of the people want, I feel like that isn’t true. I feel there is a strong support for making health care a right, for protecting our planet from our own destruction, for equality, gun reform and so very much more. But sometimes it’s not the ideals, it’s the leader. You need to have someone that can make the message resonate with everyone not just with some. I, myself, am all for the movement but don’t like the way it’s being done. I don’t like that attacking of those within your same party as if they were the enemy. There has been much denial that this is happening. My job requires me to be neutral when I am doing it. I am required to treat each candidate equally. No matter how neutral or equal I am within that work space, there are constant attacks from those who say they support the progressive candidate or bust. When as a liberal progressive posting neutral and informative posts, I continuously find myself getting attacked only by those who claim to be supporters of the progressive movement THERE IS AN ISSUE and it needs to be addressed.
I am old enough now to realize the change we want doesn’t always happen as quickly or the way we want it to. I also am wise enough to realize that even if the candidate doesn’t agree with everything you want doesn’t mean the opportunity to change their mind is nonexistent. There will always be opportunities to so if you have common ground to approach it. I realize that either candidate is immensely better than the choice on the other side. I wasn’t certain which one I would vote for myself. Both candidates have things I like and dislike about them. One candidate has worked hard to unite. While I see the other and part of their followers work to create division and that is a trait that I so detest from the conservative side. So while I’m not sure where my primary vote will go to, I can say with absolute certainty that my November vote will go to whichever one wins. I won’t allow my voice to be silent. I won’t allow my right to vote that was fought so hard for by the women before me, go to waste. I refuse to sit out of the most important election of our LIVES. This is soooo much bigger than upset feelings because your candidate wasn’t voted as the nominee.
As I close, I will charge you with the one task. VOTE. Do you want a movement? VOTE. Do you want people to act on climate? VOTE. Do you want equality? VOTE. Do you want everyone to have access to healthcare? VOTE. Do you want to end children from being in cages? VOTE Do you want to see gun reform? VOTE. Do you want to stop Trump from having four more years? VOTE. Do not sit it out as some sort of defiance, that is part of what put us here. VOTE.
