Why should I vote Democratic?

[HonEur12]

62. To start...

Guns - No one here really changed my mind about guns. I'm a law abiding gun owner who spent years getting paid to learn how to feel comfortable behind a trigger. Not many "thugs" robbing someone on the street can outshoot me (as mentioned in the most recent reply to this thread) and none of the weapons in my home have ever harmed anyone. I don't go out looking for a fight and I view carrying a Glock the sameway some of you look at carrying a fire extinguisher...but then again I never expected my views to change on that and in fact I learned many people even here on DU are gun guys...or at least realists. There just is no way to eliminate guns from society effectively, it'd be nice if there was.

Taxes - Lots of good points in here, namley that they are dues we require to live in the society we have. No taxes mean no road workers, no traffic signals, no law enforcement, no firefighters, etc. I mean, I understood all that but mainly it took some posts in here to understand that while a business might do better (and thus the economy) with lower taxes, we will ALL suffer (including those businesses) if there is rampant crime, no fire protection, and roads are destroying vehicles from lack of maitenance.

Affirmative action - Still, I'm not seeing how potential for racism equals the need for federal laws mandating quotas for minorities. However, I learned in this thread that "quotas" are not really quotas at all and are in fact a violation of Federal Law. Seems Rush's "they're giving your white man jobs away to minorities with no experience just to fill quotas" nonsense is...well, just that. Nonsense.

Birth control is a huge eye opener. This whole time I thought "Wow, women sold out for Obama because he offered them free birth control" when it should have been "Wow, Republicans practically outlaw abortion and then they want to take away a woman's ability to use her health insurance to procure birth control." I never viewed BC as "preventative care" until now. I always thought of it as something completely unrelated to healthcare. (Thanks Glenn Beck)