BBC Russian

I am voting Blue for one final reason: I am a person of faith who also knows that a political party that claims God has their back carries so much danger to the larger good that people of real faith must, absolutely must, fight back.

vote blue

Shortly, I will go to the polls. For the first time in my life, I will vote a straight ticket: Democratic Blue.

Economically, my decision hurts me. In our particular business and general financial situation, we are far better off with the less-regulated Red than the more regulated Blue. But there is more to life than my economics. I believe we must take the larger good into account.

This morning, the President tweeted: “@realDonaldTrump: Republicans will totally protect people with Pre-Existing Conditions, Democrats will not! Vote Republican.”

Yes, he is right. There will be full access to health insurance for those with pre-existing conditions. However, because it will be free-market access and the Affordable Care Act dismantled, insurance companies will do what is necessary to stay profitable.

However much you may object to them making profits, insurance companies are not government agencies but part of the free-market economy. Various individual and institutional stockholders own those companies. They’ve invested money into them and rightly expect a profit. Because those with pre-existing conditions almost invariably use more health services and generally more expensive health services than the fully healthy, it costs a great deal to insure them.

Thus, sure, you can buy anything you want. Mr. Trump is right. However, the premiums could and probably will quickly rise to equal your yearly household income–or more.

That’s why I am voting Blue. We, as a country, need to pay attention to the common good, not just to our self-interest.

Right now, the GOP gives every clue that they want and will legislate for a “survival of the fittest” economy. If you can work, then get a job. Good luck to you and don’t expect anything from us.

If you can’t work, or if you are already sick, well . . . sorry, we will have to leave you behind for a tasty hyena meal. Tough luck.

The survival of the fittest rule excels in cruelty. Only the strong, only the ones in favor with the alpha, survive. It thrives on sucking up and cheating your peers for the few favorite spots–which themselves are always treacherous, subject to the whims of the person currently on top of the heap.

There is no place for the vulnerable, the poor, or, frankly, for Jesus. No longer does compassion occupy a seat at the decision-making table. No longer does a sense of community good find voice. No welcome of the poor and downtrodden unless, of course, you’d like some under-the-radar slave labor.

Instead, its all about ME, ME, ME.

Do we genuinely want to live that way?

I am voting Blue for another reason, and it’s not because I think the Dems will be more ethical. Politics and corruption have always been best friends. But a Blue Congress keeps the precarious balance of democracy alive.

When we go to an only one-party rule, we head down the road to some sort of dictatorship. When there are no real checks and balances–and that certainly seems to be more and more the case with our current set of elected officials–then corruption and greed take over.

Again, I’m not saying the Dems are less corrupted, but at least the corruption will tip another direction for a while. They shouldn’t stay in power indefinitely either.

Right now, these people who claim God has their back have made a decision that erases the existence of a substantial, but generally invisible, segment of the population: those who are born intersexed.

Yes, it’s complicated to deal with those who don’t fit in neat categories. However, since that includes most of us, the logical conclusion: kill everyone who doesn’t look like me.

We cannot have this.

I am voting Blue for the sake of the survival of this nation. I invite you to join me.

Image credit: Christy Thomas

"I do think there is a lot of corruption among the Democrats. Check out the ..."

jekylldoc

Vote Blue: I Chose That Even ..."

"They most certainly do send billions in aid around the world. Aid from almost all ..."

"Has it ever occurred to you that the riches of the U.S. might have come ..."

"The case for a social safety net is stronger than just the need for compassion ..."

Ivan T. Errible

So you don’t think religions should get tax breaks?
Good.
The Mouse Avenger

I am voting Blue for another reason, and it’s not because I think the Dems will be more ethical. Politics and corruption have always been best friends. But a Blue Congress keeps the precarious balance of democracy alive.

When we go to an only one-party rule, we head down the road to some sort of dictatorship. When there are no real checks and balances–and that certainly seems to be more and more the case with our current set of elected officials–then corruption and greed take over.

Again, I’m not saying the Dems are less corrupted, but at least the corruption will tip another direction for a while. They shouldn’t stay in power indefinitely either.

You…(laughs incredulously for a moment)…you really don’t believe that modern-day Democrats are actually corrupt, do you? Or that politics & corruption necessarily go in tandem together? XD

(beat, as it dawns on her)

You do believe those things, don’t you? 🙁 What a shame…
- Linda Coleman Allen
  
  Derision is not the way to answer things that you do not like. Intelligence calls for an educated opinion.
  - celticcoll
    
    And since the educated elite, as the res reviles them, and the academies that teach young people to think, are primarily blue. You have made the argument. Buying into the false claims of the puppet with the megaphone who claimed facts aren’t facts is the epitome of being uneducated.
- jekylldoc
  
  I do think there is a lot of corruption among the Democrats. Check out the race in New Jersey, for example. Currently they do not have nearly as much backing of rich donors seeking favors, so their corruption is much less. It was wonderful to have eight years of a president with integrity and self-respect, and so enjoy near total freedom from the sequence of resignations for pigging out at the public trough that we have learned to expect from the party in power. But it is naive to think that voting for one group of politicians will free us totally from corruption.
Reese

Red is right! There are reasons that most of the world wants to come to America and nearly all of those reasons are based in Red. Capitalism generates the money to pay the bills, expand the base, build for the future AND provide aid and protection to even those outside our borders. Red does require individuals to pitch in, yes, and usually rewards those who contribute more to the progress (inventions, skills, services). Nothing is perfect, and there are risks, but the record is clear: social utopia ideas have failed over centuries, but capitalism and free enterprise continue to provide a great standard of living for those who work at it. Finally, I am amazed at the liberal condemnations of a system that is setting so many records for low unemployment among all groups. I am incredulous over liberals who want to welcome even more unskilled people into our economy to compete with Americans, drawing down wages, or to siphon even more of the money we set aside for those who need help. It makes no sense to me… America First!
- RalfRia Nuptials
  
  Regulated capitalism and social democracy have performed considerably better than American capitalism over the past three decades. Every Scandinavian country has a considerably better per-capita income than the US.
  - Reese
    
    Yes, and they do not protect the world from tyranny, explore space, or feed and educate significant under-classes within their borders.
    - Linda Coleman Allen
      
      A very slanted view.
    - celticcoll
      
      They also don’t use a majority of the world’s recourses and produce a majority of the world’s pollution. If you are on a computer or cellphone consider where those rare elements going into them come from, and how those people inn the countries mining them are living vs. you. Just because you can be imperialistic, esp. on a site like this, doesn’t mean you get to relish in people being down-trodden to make your life comfortable. Maybe you should consider that we owe those we have used to get where we are and what are costing the planet by our consumption — yes, some of us do care arbut responsibility and ethics and not just about our own material good.
      - Linda Coleman Allen
        
        Amen.
    - John Purssey
      
      How does a tyrant protect the world from tyranny?
    - jekylldoc
      
      They most certainly do send billions in aid around the world. Aid from almost all European countries is much higher as a share of GDP than the U.S. And of course this aid helps enormously to protect the world from tyranny. They have contributed their share to keeping the sea lanes open as well. Considering that we now have a leader who thinks tyranny is admirable and wants to support the leading exporter of tyranny, Putin, I would question whether we are really doing what you say we are doing.
  - Alonzo
    
    Evidence please??? You are wrong!!!
- Linda Coleman Allen
  
  The Bible does not teach what you are saying. It teaches what Christy is saying. You can be hard and greedy, or you can be a merciful Christian. Jesus says that you are not to worship money. What will you do?
  - Reese
    
    My generosity, which has been pretty good over my working life through my church, Salvation Army and similar, has only been allowed by my hard work in capitalism and the resulting income. Poor people don’t share much. Middle-class people like me do because we have something to share. Similarly, the USA shares more than any country on the planet, likely more than the whole UN combined. We can because we have it to share. Others do not. We are more capitalist than most and so we have more to share.
    - jekylldoc
      
      Has it ever occurred to you that the riches of the U.S. might have come from some sources besides just hard work? Like the best patch of farmland on the planet, available in one big seizure (from the hunter-gatherers who were here first) as an opportunity for unprecedented economic expansion? Like natural resources the equal of anywhere else on the planet? Like a slave economy with assets equal to the value of the physical capital of the nation at the time? Like Europe’s mutual self-destruction in the World Wars?
      
      I’m all for recognizing the value of hard work, and giving some back with generosity. But the self-congratulation that you include with it is kind of pitiful, especially if you are a follower of the one who said not to parade your good works.
Alonzo

Throwing away self-interest? No you are not!! You are voting your self-interest whether you want to admit it or not while raising one political straw man after another, beating each one up and stomping on them. Roll the drum for these straw men:

1. “Right now, the GOP gives every clue that they want and will legislate for a “survival of the fittest” economy.”
2. “The survival of the fittest rule excels in cruelty. Only the strong, only the ones in favor with the alpha, survive. It thrives on sucking up and cheating your peers for the few favorite spots–which themselves are always treacherous, subject to the whims of the person currently on top of the heap.”
3. “There is no place for the vulnerable, the poor, or, frankly, for Jesus. No longer does compassion occupy a seat at the decision-making table.”
4. “Instead, its all about ME, ME, ME.”
5. “When we go to an only one-party rule, we head down the road to some sort of dictatorship.” ARE YOU FORGETTING THE OBAMA REGIME? ROOSEVELT? WILSON? and so many others?
6 “I am a person of faith who also knows that a political party that claims God has their back carries so much danger to the larger good that people of real faith must, absolutely must, fight back.”

I could go on and list more straw man arguments, but would it change the author’s mind? NO. This article is totally irrational and political.
Tom Borromeo

a patently CONfusing BLUE DAMNyou’b S.P.I.N. [Self-Peeled Internalised Nada]

enough of such double-entendres, … you get the point.
:/

Here is the basic issue, “Common Good,” says this person.
Questions:
“PRO-CHOICE, PRO-ABORTION, Female Reproductive Rights,” … FREEDOMs ???
@ the expense of the DNA unique individual human being living inside the womb of it’s Mum ?
SubCON(vis)ciously, CONvenient, SELF-Filled, SELFish, DAMNgerous,
50+ MILLIONS of babies KILLED since ’73 in Roe vs. Wade, w/the majority of them being
African-American, … that’s DEM’d pretty COMMON !!!
Slippery slope, if you can kill our own baby, then you can kill your own father/mother/granddad/grandma,
‘for your Common Good.’
🙁

This is the basic issue, “LIFE,” because without ‘Life’ … what else can be so important ?

“Choice” w/o “LIFE” is nothing, ABSURD.

THINK, … & then ADVOCATE THE TRUTH.
- Larry Longua
  
  Amen.
- Illithid
  
  It cheers me immeasurably to see such coherence in my political and philosophical opponents. Please keep up the good work.
jekylldoc

The case for a social safety net is stronger than just the need for compassion (which only matters to our souls, not our pocketbooks.) Darwinian policy would not support public schools. The foolishness of such a change is usually recognizable to even the most ardent Tiny Government types. People need support and empowerment, not just incentives. Getting the balance right is not easy or obvious. That’s why there are two parties. But the lies about protection for pre-existing conditions tell me just how corrupt the intransigent right has become.

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Vote Blue: I Chose That Even Against My Self-Interest