Why should I vote Democratic?

[bluestate10]

55. My response to each of your points.

1. Guns and self defense - This is pretty much my "single issue voter" bumper sticker. I view the right to self defense (anywhere, not just at my house) as paramount to living in a free society. Why should I have to "flee" if someone is trying to rob or attack me while I'm minding my business out on a date? I say this as someone who has actually pulled (although not fired) his firearm on two attackers late at night. If I did not have my Glock that night, what might have happened? Now the two scumbags are in jail.
-What I see: Democrats support all of the amendments to the Bill of Rights except the 2nd. Why are they all so inherently sacred but the one that protects all of the rest is demonetized? How many cases has the ACLU defended the right to free speech, freedom of religion in? What about the right to bear arms? There is quite a difference. The democrats want to ban assault weapons, but when large scale riots kick off (like they did in my city in 1996) a hunting rifle is not going to protect you like an "assault rifle" will. And lets be serious, who thinks if another assault weapons ban is signed that the gangsters and criminals with them in their possession right now are going to turn them in? I know I'll turn mine in, but I'll never commit a crime with them. And crime rates have gone down, especially with assault weapons, since the bans sunset in 1994 (its all over the internet). Crime rates have also gone down in state's that have implemented shall-issue concealed carry laws. It seems a little odd for "progressives" to go back-wards and undue laws that reduce crime?

There are gun owning members here on DU. There is a forum on this site for discussion of guns and gun issues. I am not a gun owner. I don't care whether people have guns of any caliber as long as they have them registered and report any that are stolen to police, police would appreciate that. I go out at night without fear. If I met someone that wanted to rob me, I would give them money nd a watch if they asked. I avoid problem by paying attention to where I go, I stay away from locations where problems are common and if out late at night, insure that the location that park has cameras and security and is patrolled by cops. On the two instances where you showed a gun or drew a gun on two criminals, you are lucky that they were scumbags instead of killers. A killer would never have given you a chance to show a gun, his finger would have been on his trigger with the safety off - he would have killed or seriously injured you and likely your girlfriend - and he would have likely done that with an illegal gun.

2. Taxes. I don't pay much in taxes, but one day I hope to earn enough where it matters. Why should we punish those who earn more? There should be a flat tax system. Speaking of the fiscal cliff, isn't this just the expiration of the Bush tax cuts? Why are all the Democrats that were opposed to the Bush Tax Cuts now opposed to the tax increases? We're just going back to the days of Clinton (which were good, economically) what's the big deal? Also, forgive me, this may be a little Glenn Beck speaking. (I can't get that point out of my head)

I earn enough to pay as much in taxes as many people earn. I benefited from Pell Grants and low interest student loans. I don't mind paying taxes for several reasons, first I make enough to pay taxes and live well - the more I make the more taxes I pay, but I also live even better. Taxes are a cost effective form of personal protection for me, I pay taxes so that schools can educate the young and cops can deal with the young that fall through the cracks. If I allowed society to become every person for himself or herself, I could not afford to pay for personal protection and also have a good lifestyle. My example may sound silly to you, but stop and think of what happens if there was not a progressive tax system and a person like me paid a flat tax - any flat tax ever proposed would save thousands of dollars for me per year, but I still could not pay for personal protection for anything that a few hours per day, for maybe 6 months of the year - I get left with too much exposure. To use you Glock example, I would have to take a Glock with me for half of each year and for all of each day or most of each day - I will encounter desperate people that will also have guns and want things that I own - I would be lucky to live for one year because I won't be able to outgun everyone that I come upon - Billy The Kid couldn't, why should I expect better luck.

3. Race - Affirmative action seems detrimental to everything the US stands for. Sure, racism still exists. I get that. But the President of the United States is black. Are we really going to say that minorities can't succeed in America without special rules? Maybe its the military in me - but I believe in a meritocracy. Everyone is judged based on ability only. If you can't perform, you don't get the job. It doesn't matter what color you are. When you start setting quotas, you open up an entirely new can of worms. This is just how I see it guys, remember. I'm not instigating anything.

You are probably not a racist. But do you put your foot down hard when you witness discrimination against a woman, a Black, an Hispanic, an Asian? When we don't have racism in society, then we won't need a system to correct for racism. I am intolerant to racism because I consider racist actions to be a drag on efficient use of people's talents, regardless of whether the victims look like me or not. I challenge you to start challenging your friends when they use racist language or short change a person because of their race, when you do that, then we will be one person closer to getting rid of affirmative action laws.

4. Sex - My girlfriend has opened my eyes a little bit to this, wage disparities especially. But I see the Democrats catering to women by giving them special treatment. Free birth control? Doesn't seem that free. The insurance companies are just going to make everyone pay for birth control now with their premium increases. That doesn't seem very fair.

Birth control IS NOT FREE. Get that out of your head. Ask your girlfriend and you female friends that use birth control how much they pay for their pills. Insurance is a way of leveraging needs of one class of the insured. For example, a person that has a history of heart disease in his or her family leverage to likelihood that he or she will need expensive treatment against the probability that a person with no family history of heart disease won't need expensive treatment and will thus, in a collective, help pay for the insured that does need expensive treatment. I am a youngish man in a health-care plan that covers families and lots of elderly people, my use of the plan seldom go past a physical each year, some of the families spend a lot more as does some of the elderly, I am ok with those dynamics because having any of those people struggling reduces my humanity - also, my having insurance protects me against serious injury, which could happen to any of us at any time. Back to birth control - a woman that gets BC pills at reduced rates actually saves society money by taking those pills - the cost of childbirth and childcare is enormous, if a woman can't afford those costs, the rest of society WILL pay them, either through social welfare, of jailing angry children that become criminals BC pills are incredibly cost effective relative to any other option.

5. Environmental protection - I think I agree with many democrats that the EPA has done good things for America. I couldn't even imagine what this country would look like without regulations on big businesses and laws against chemical spills. But it seems that some Democrats want to take that even further, like they want us to live in the jungle in wooden huts or something where the only thing burning is weed while we sit around and share communal food. I think capitalism has a vested interest in keeping the forests stocked with trees, because if we used all the trees for lumber then the sellers wouldn't be able to make anymore money. Am I wrong here? (Please, by all means, if I am tell me)

Some people on the Left go over the top on some environmental issues. I am a capitalist, but you give capitalists too much credit. One capitalist that wants cleared land often does not care about protecting trees because that gets in the way of making money. My sense is that the EPA and state environmental agencies have actually been favorable to capitalist activity - in some cases, those agencies had just the right policy, in some cases, policy was not strong enough, in some cases, policy was mis-targeted and too heavy handed.

6. Health care - I heard this girl at school the other day say "Everyone has the right to health-care". I would love everyone to have affordable health care for sure, but how can one have the "right" to anything that depends on the hard work and expense of others? Rights, in my view, are things that can never ever be taken away from you. Things like self defense, free speech, freedom of thought, etc. If all of the doctors refuse to give you treatment, or you're ill and there are no health care facilities around...how do you still have that right?

I think the term right in regard to health-care is often misused by the right and the left. The fact is, if a person has a heart attack, doctors will attempt to save that person regardless of whether the person can pay. The same dynamic exists for a person that has cancer or a variety of other deadly ailments. I am a member of a private, proactive health care plan. My plan places a premium on preventative care because that is a lot less costly the chronic care. My plan works to keep me well and push me to work with it. Health care reform is focuses on making the balance from chronic care to preventative care, that transition is a dollars and cents advantage for governments and private insurers, it simply costs a lot less to prevent a heart attack, or treat cancer early than it costs to treat a person who walks in to an emergency room in a chronic condition. The fact of the matter is, you pay NOW for other people's care when they can't pay, health care reform will have you paying LESS because of the size of bills. I live in the only state in the Union that has a mandatory health insurance requirement, I declare my insured status every year at tax time. My state has 95% or adults and 99% of children insured - my state also is one of the healthiest in the nation and has the lowest health care costs for state residents. I live in a state with excellent medical schools and health facilities, we have people from all over the world and the country coming here for chronic care - if one looked at average bills there is some distortion because of the fact that I just gave, but for state residents, we have among the lowest health care premiums in the country and those premiums are declining.

7. Fast and Furious - Seems to me the idea was to stir up cries for gun laws due to southern states being affected by Mexican drug cartels but it backfired when they lost track of all the guns. This is what Rush told me, anyway. (30 hours a week of Beck and Limbaugh, cut me some slack please!)

Do you really understand what happened in Fast and Furious, or are you just repeating what Hannity or Beck spewed out? What happened in Arizona is that state has a law that says a person can buy as many guns as they want WITHOUT a background and officials can only intervene IF they witness those people exchanging the guns, ie, giving them to criminals. The ATF was powerless to intervene in Arizona, so guns walked from gun shops to criminals - the FEDs DIDN'T sell guns to criminals, they simply were in a situation where they had NO choice but to let guns walk in the hope of finding them before they were used in a crime. Arizona's gun laws caused the border agent to get killed. What is needed is a stronger hand to Federal agents to stop people that purchase lots of guns, or require that states like Arizona do background checks on people that are buying guns.


Welcome to DU. Hopefully you will stay around long enough so that we can help your girlfriend beat some sense into your head.


I can go on, but these are a few issues off of the top of my head. I just don't know what the reaction to this post is going to be and I don't want to spend hours and hours on it if its going to be deleted within minutes.

I really hope this thread isn't locked/deleted as "trolling". I'm spending a good amount of time on it and really trying to reiterate that I'm not here to stir up trouble. I just want to know what the Democratic party has to offer me. I see the Democrats making gestures to all of these groups, but nothing that really benefits me. I'm not saying the Republicans benefit me either. But they seem more gun-friendly than the Democrats, so thats how I make my decision.

As far as the 2012 election went, I was a bit perplexed. There was only one man on the ballot who had signed assault weapons legislation, and he had an (R) next to his name; one man had signed pro-gun legislation and he had a (D) next to his name. What kind of twist is that?

Edit: There's a ton of more issues I'll be posting here as I think of them. After reading here, the issue of

8: Drug use - Legalize everything. Why is it that they were able to figure out Prohibition didn't work in <20 years, but we've had drugs outlawed for over a century and no progress is made whatsoever? I say this as someone who has never, ever used and illegal drug, and despises them (I grew up with them, and know what they do to someone)