I am a little late posting this but I wanted to be careful and thorough. The trite answer of course is that I'm not batshit crazy but I decided to make a list of ten reasons that I felt were the most relevant.
1) I Like Privacy
I don’t think it is anyone’s business what I do in my own home unless I am hurting someone else with my actions. Whether I smoke marijuana, make love with another consenting adult or watch explicit movies or play explicit video games is my business and no one else’s. With whom I email, call or text with is my business and my business alone. Until my actions are a direct threat to someone else’s rights they remain MY actions and everyone else can butt out. Democrats want to help me protect my privacy. Republicans want to invade it.
2) I Think Women Are Pretty Awesome
I respect women. I think they are every bit my equal in intelligence, decision making, capabilities and compassion. I think that they should be paid the same as men, given the same opportunities as men, have the same rights to their bodies as men and have their insurance cover all their prescriptions and medical procedures, just like men. I think that a woman should be able to express their sexuality the same way as a man. Democrats think women are individuals. Republicans think women are appliances that spit out babies.
3) I Am Not Afraid of Gay or Brown People
I have no issue with someone else’s sexual preferences as long as they are with a consenting and non-related adult. I have no issue with two non-related adults being allowed to have the same titles and legal recognitions as any other two people who are in love. I do not think that someone else’s marriage belittles my own and I do not think that any child should be denied the opportunity to be raised by a responsible and loving couple. I think that one of this country’s greatest assets is its diversity and our long history of taking in the tired, hungry and huddled masses of the world who yearn to be free. The melanin content of someone’s skin certainly should not matter. Heck, I wouldn’t mind borrowing some melanin as I sunburn something awful in the summer. Democrats celebrate diversity. Republicans hate it.
4) I Freakin’ Love Science!
Science is just awesome. It is the method that gives us amazing technologies like the device I have in my pocket that allows me to speak to anyone in the world at the touch of a screen and access the accumulated knowledge of our species in seconds. I love that there are these amazing people with amazing educations who are constantly searching and questioning our universe and how it works. I think that more than anything else it is our ability to use our minds to contemplate the “hows” and” what ifs” of the world that makes us different from all the other species on the planet. Most of all I love that science is fundamentally honest. Facts don’t have agendas. Democrats think that listening to experts about the facts is a good idea, regardless of the news. Republicans only like experts who agree with them.
5) I Think Health and Education Are Human Rights
I think every citizen of our nation has the right to the best health care and education available to them. I don’t think money should ever stand in the way of someone receiving medical treatment or access to education. I think that the very ideas of “for profit” health care and education are reprehensible and repugnant. Democrats want people to be healthy and educated. Republicans want them stupid and filling prescriptions so their drug company sponsors can keep their profits high.
6) I Don’t Enjoy Incarcerating or Executing People
We live in a world fraught with injustice and danger and that means that we need laws, cops, courts and prisons. This is a sad fact but a fact nonetheless. That said I do not believe that we do our society any favors by incarcerating or executing our citizens unless absolutely necessary. There is no need for millions of our citizens to be living like animals in cages for possession of small amounts of narcotics. There is no need to murder other people as retribution for crimes. Ridiculously harsh penalties do not reduce crime. It is a rare criminal that commits a crime with the expectation of being caught. Crimes of passion do not take into account consequences. Better education and law enforcement is a far better tool for preventing crime than mandatory minimums and the death penalty can ever be. Democrats think it is better to stop a crime from happening. Republicans think it is better to punish the criminal more severely.
7) I Think We Are Stronger When We Share Success
I have no issue with a cardiologist making more money than a convenience store clerk. I have no issue with the CEO of the company making more than one of the factory workers. I have no issue with a successful stock trader or real estate magnate making more than the custodian or the gardener. What I do have an issue with is the ever growing disparity between the top tier of the company and it’s employees. If the custodian or gardener really makes a living wage as the “job creators” claim, why on earth does the CEO or CFO need to make 500 times that much money? At what point is this a “let them eat cake” argument? Democrats think that the massive growth in income disparity we have seen in the past twenty years is fundamentally bad for our economy as a whole. We all do better when our citizens aren’t poor. Our economy functions better when we aren’t encouraging our citizens to leverage themselves to the hilt on miniscule wages but rather have citizens who can afford the things that they buy. Republicans think that if we massively increase the worth of our top 1% of earners that this will somehow “trickle down” to the adoring masses, thankful for their master’s scraps.
8) I Don’t Have a Fetish for the Military and War
I have great respect for anyone who dons our country’s uniform. They are to be admired and thanked for their service. That being said, I am under no illusions that just because someone is a member of our military that it automatically qualifies them for sainthood. Any organization with hundreds of thousands of members will have its fair share of idiots, liars, criminals and bullies. The idea that just because someone wears the uniform means they are somehow beyond reproach is ridiculous. I also think that there is no need to spend more on our military than the next twenty nations combined, most of whom are allies. We have lots of tanks. We have plenty of fighters and bombers. We do not need to spend countless billions to enrich military contractors at the expense of our elderly and our poor. Democrats want to amend this. Republicans want to increase it.
9) I Don’t Think Private Citizens Need Machine Guns
I know most gun owners are responsible folks who understand that guns are dangerous and need to be handled and stored properly. That said the vast majority of gun owners are quite comfortable with background checks and restrictions on the sale of firearms. I do not think that any private citizen needs a weapon capable of firing hundreds of rounds per minute and I don’t think that weapons with enormous magazines are needed for home defense or target practice. If sensible precautions eliminated even 10% of gun deaths every year it would be worth doing. Democrats would like to ensure that the possession of these dangerous tools is limited to those who have no criminal record, no history of mental illness and that a reasonable waiting period is in place between the purchase of the weapon and the picking up of the weapon to help prevent crimes of passion. Republicans think that it should be easier to purchase a gun than it is to get a driver’s license or register to vote.
10) I Do Not Think That Saying America is Perfect Actually Makes America Perfect
We are not perfect, nor will we ever be. All things must adapt to changing times and realities in order to succeed and grow. We live in a constitutional republic. The framers of our constitution understood that it was impossible to anticipate every possible innovation or change we may experience as a nation and put in place a provision wherein we can amend and adjust our constitution to meet new challenges and realities. We have availed ourselves of this provision on multiple occasions. I feel that this was one of the wisest things our framers did. Democrats understand and celebrate this. Republicans do not.
Most of all I think being a Democrat means being understanding that the world is not a simple place. Republican views tend to apply to the child in us. We all like clearly defined lines and roles. We would love to live in a world wear the bad guys are easily identified by their black hats, where our neighborhoods and kids are safe from drugs and violence and where everyone with a work ethic and some moxy will have 2.2 kids, a white picket fence and two new cars in the driveway. Democrats understand that this isn’t how the world works. We understand that greedy corporate raiders need strong regulation and enforcement to prevent them from hoggish excess. We understand that not everyone can just pull themselves up by their boot straps if they don’t even have boots. We understand that living in a global community requires cooperation and dialogue and not just tanks and threats. More than anything else we understand that we work best when we work together and that means not always agreeing but moving forward anyhow with compromise and forethought.