Scan my blog posts and you’ll see I’m not one to discuss politics [on here], especially when it comes to promoting or protesting individual candidates. I assure you I’m not writing this now to try to win people over to my point of view. I actually don’t yet know which candidate I’ll vote for in the Primary here in Texas. But I wanted to share some observations and thoughts I have on the subject because maybe you are curious.
I have watched at least half of the debates (both Republican and Democrat) and a few of those town hall meetings. I have watched many of the candidates being interviewed by late night talk show hosts. I have watched the results of primaries unfolding on live TV for hours at a time, much to the annoyance of my husband. To not post about politics more than I do, I certainly pay attention to it.
I like to see events as they unfold. But I have read tens to hundreds of news articles the following days and wondered if those reporters watched the same thing I did. With both Republicans and Democrats, the headlines mislead and the content is cherry-picked. I’m not here to solve the whys. I’m sure there are many possible reasons: click-bait, bias, assumptions about the readers, manipulations, money, or aliens. Whatever the reason, the articles still remain misleading.
I will vote Democrat in Texas. My mother is a Republican in Tennessee. Neither of us know which candidate will get our vote on March 1st. I have many friends who are Democrat. My mom surrounds herself with Republicans. Most of my friends plan to vote for Bernie Sanders. Some are undecided, but lean toward Bernie. Most of my Mom’s Republican friends are undecided. Some of them plan to vote for Trump but don’t really like him. My mom wants a candidate who is a good person at heart. One of her Republican friends said, “Cruz would throw his own mother under a train if it would help him.” Mom doesn’t know what to do and I don’t know if it helps her much to talk to me, her Democrat daughter. But we do see eye-to-eye on the issue of decency. The person elected to be president should be a decent human being who sees real people, not just an ideology. (Actually, those were my words and Mom seemed to agree with me when I spoke them.)
As it is now, Hillary and Bernie haven’t attacked each other outside of policy. I hope they continue to run their campaigns this way. Sometimes one of their supporters will post a negative meme on Twitter about the other and it causes the opposite of its intended effect. I see the poster’s candidate, not the person they’re attacking, in a less positive light. Nasty behavior by supporters looks bad on their candidate, even if maybe I shouldn’t see it that way.
If Hillary wins the Primary, she is going to need these Bernie voters to win the election. The same goes for Bernie and Hillary’s voters. It will really upset me if either of them sacrifice the long-term goal for a personal victory by playing dirty. Their supporters need to get on board with fighting above the belt.
Which is what worries my mom about the Republicans. She sees the way the top ranking candidates behave and shakes her head. She has been a Republican her whole life, except for admitting to secretly liking JFK, though that doesn’t meant she actually voted for him. My mom is a woman who hangs a photo of George W. Bush on her fridge and was interviewed by the NY Times in 1984 for saying a woman couldn’t be president. My mom religiously watches Bill O’Reilly, claiming not to believe *everything* he says, but I don’t know. She has worn the Republican badge with pride for decades and fought in the trenches wherever they needed her. But now she just doesn’t know what to do. She wants a candidate she can be proud to support, perhaps Kasich. But is that just “throwing her vote away” if he can’t possibly win the Nomination?
As I see it, the parties each have many undecideds, but for opposite reasons. Lifelong Democrats (mostly) like both candidates. Lifelong Republicans (mostly) are torn between imperfect choices to represent them. Moderate candidates can’t raise enough money to even matter.
The media gives a lot of attention to Trump. It’s hard not to when he’s fighting with the Pope, calling Cruz a “p*ssy”, and insulting every demographic not white, cisgender male. It’s click-bait. I don’t like it, but I understand it.
What I don’t understand is the way Bernie Sanders is so often portrayed as the loser, or his accomplishments downplayed in the media. For days I have seen listed in my “Top News Stories”, one article about Hillary winning Nevada and one article about Charles Koch “agreeing” with Bernie Sanders. Few news stories seriously consider that Hillary beat Obama in the Nevada Primaries by a slightly larger margin, yet Obama won in the end. Instead, Hillary is projected to be the overall winner, as she has been projected to be every time there is debate and every time she doesn’t outright lose a primary. Maybe she isn’t to blame that news agencies cover the Primaries in this way, but I have to admit it turns me off to voting for her. I see the coverage as unfair and manipulative.
I don’t know which candidate will win the Democratic primary, but I do know that most of my Democrat friends are voting for Bernie. One of my relatives is voting for the first time in his life next week. He is over 40 years old and has never voted in any election, but he’s going to vote in the Primary for Bernie Sanders. Of my friends voting for Hillary, most have wanted her to be President for decades. I wish I could vote for both. I think if Hillary was more believably dedicated to campaign finance reform I would not hesitate to vote for her. I just don’t know how we’ll continue on this path without self-destructing if we allow so much power to be had by the wealthy. But I value Hillary’s experience on the world’s political stage. I think she’s a strong woman and I admire that in a candidate. I wish they could combine the things I love about each of them.
I want my nominee to be a good person. I want my nominee to see the heart of all different people, not just the idea of them or the idea of a nation. I want my nominee to have empathy and compassion and knowledge to understand what to do to make things right. I want my nominee to win. I want big money out of politics so such persons stand a chance at all levels of government.
So if you were curious about my take on the election so far, now you know. As Mom has said, “It’s a mess.”
I welcome new readers and followers, just know that this is not my usual subject matter. Also, I’m a real person. If you comment, do so as if you recognize me as such.
Julie Roberts Towe 