God, today reminds me why I HATE Democrats. This entire PLEASE VOTE DEMOCRAT NO MATTER WHAT. I have done that my entire life. What has improved because of it? Jack SHIT. Democrats can say republicans are cultish all they want talking about DESTROYING OUR DemoCRaCy while always guilt tripping people into voting the way they feel. What democracy? Oh the democracy that guilt trips you for not wanting to vote for some no name fuck that helped delay polling results, invested in the voting app that failed, and is now mysteriously in the lead.
Between the impeachment, the state of the union, Buttigieg, delaying Iowa I am BEYOND stressed today and on the verge of a meltdown. I want to throw my phone on the GODDAMN CONCRETE.
Even death metal is not helping my absolute anger.
First off, please relax.
Second of all, I can think of innumerable ways that Democratic policies directly affected my life and others. CalGrants saved my brother thousands of dollars when he was in college. My first two years of college were free because of California's generous need based assistance and Newsom just signed a law making the first two years of CC free for everyone.
Strong labor laws in California meant that my dad had a very generous salary as a state worker relative to other states. I didn't appreciate it growing up but we had a very comfortable life.
Teachers here are some of the best paid in the country and, growing up, my education was very good. Being friends with some teachers I often hear about what is and what isn't being taught around the country and I am thankful all the kids in my extended family living here did not have to deal with that. That is what you get when your state values education.
Obama's Medicaid expansion helped a lot of people. I don't have the numbers on hand for the country but in California the number of uninsured
halved between 2013 and 2018.
California Democrats for decades have always led the way in terms of environmental legislation to protect air and water. California has passed a lot of legislation to improve encourage recycling, to reduce the amount of plastic and trash that ends up in the oceans. Nationwide, it is almost entirely blue states that pass aggressive climate change laws like solar and windfarms and green energy subsidies.
It's important to give Democrats credit not only for what they do, but what they don't do. California is a sanctuary state. Its cities have sanctuary city culture. Illegal immigrants and their children have access to programs just like everyone else does. Everyone is treated like a human being.
Nationally, the most liberal democrats do not vote for unnecessary wars, they voted to stop the war in Yemen, they vote for progressive tax increases, they vote for environmental regulations to protect our air and water, they vote for renewable energy research and subsidies, they vote to bring immigrants out of the shadows, and they vote to expand federal college assistance.
What have Democrats ever done for you? I don't know - your most important issues seem to be gun rights and Catholicism - but I know what they did for me.