To anyone who says both parties are the same: Fuck. You.

[Plucketeer]

43. Well, first off....

I grew up lower middle class. My dad worked his ass off making automobile paint for cars which he couldn't afford to own until they'd found their way to a used car lot - the back row "Specials" offerings. I never thought much about what I didn't have. I had clothes ( that someone else had kindly "broken in" for me). I had food when I wanted it (lots 'n lots of peanut butter sanwiches and milk toast). I had my own tiny little bedroom (in a tar-papered shack - well, it was a bit fancy with it's wooden floors and centrally situated oil stove for heating) with an old 1930s Zenith floor model radio that came out of a neighbor's basement and was headed for the trash before I intercepted it and brought it back to life. I was also lucky enough to have parents who encouraged my interests in nature and technology. And while I don't know what their political leanings were, since my dad belonged to a union, he may well have voted GOP - since the GOP WAS the party of the working man when I was ignorant of politics.
As regards the part of my brain that deals with rationality, mine seems to be in working order. I drive a 20-year old 4 cylinder car because I like it's performance (economy) and I can fix anything on it that needs attention - usually for less outlay than one months car payment on a new one. Your allusions as to how I might have voted in 2016 are just illusions. The wife and I voted for Clinton. Both she and the Donald denied us rational choices. We had to vote by the "Duck 'n Cover" way of thinking. Decipher that as you will with your rational mind.

To all the other replies my post generated - Having hung out here since '07 or so, I've gotten to where there's a mental list of acceptable excuses and rhetorical blow back that's predictable when one doesn't fall to their knees at the altar and dares alter the chapter and verse of the book of CYAWCD.
Not to pick on this nice senator, but she supposedly represents me (and many others in this blue state) while sending me a copy of a coverall letter with a robo (or some staffer's) signature on it that offers no definitive answers other than how she's still able to walk the fence rail between know-nothing, peon me and her corporate suitors. And I'm just using her as an example. There's many who could fill in her blank.

And I didn't choose that link because I'm a faithful of the Humanist Report (I've actually never watched before ) - I just chose a link that demonstrated how a Dem senator can demonstrate allegiance to some entity besides her constituents. It's just an example. But if I bitch about it here, oh how quickly I get reminded (or alerted) for not having my blinders tight enough. At 72 and aging, I've come to realize that the American populace at large is for either THIS or THAT. No room for objective rationalization. And we wonder why our governments are gridlocked!
"Hey! My brudder can read. An he even reads that opinion page thingy - and he tells me that smart people vote Republican - it said so in a letter to the editor the other day. So I'm votin' for _______ so's I kin be a smart as my brudder!"