Tomorrow is the big day. Election time a-go.

When people get angry about how others vote or who they specifically support or where their politics lie, it’s a direct insult to the democratic process. The best part of this country is that any of us can vote however the hell we want, and that’s our individual right.

That’s amazing!

Yes, we want people to vote specific ways to help our ideologies move forward, but honestly, Americans are resilient. We’ve been through a lot.

What has kept us going, kept us alive and well, is that we’ve stuck together through some rough patches and the good times. But the division in this country right now is driving me nuts.

I myself am not a huge fan of Trump, but I also don’t think he’s the damn devil.

I’m looking at the democratic candidates for the presidential election and I gotta shake my head. Biden was a pretty good vice President. He worked well under Obama. But he doesn’t have the charm and charisma that Obama did. A lot of us were easily won over by him because he presented himself as a servant of the people.

I have never identified as democrat or republican because I would rather vote for who I believe is the best candidate. I don’t care which “side” they’re on. I want to know what they stand for and what they plan to do in clear well-defined terms.

I voted for Obama because he was the first politician that I knew of who built his entire career off of community service. He had worked in poor communities helping the people. That was so inspiring. I thought that was so cool. Here was a man who knew my neighborhood and people like the ones I grew up with who were struggling to make ends meet.

In the aftermath I’m less dazzled. Hindsight sucks, but he did alright. No better or worse than most presidents. Just kinda, eh.

He never closed Guantanamo or lessened the surveillance state that is closing in around us and that terrifies me, but whatever, we’re not allowed to talk about that, are we?

I don’t care how much I did or didn’t like the last democratic president, that doesn’t mean I’m just going to vote for whoever that party throws up again.

The primary right now is a joke.

I liked Bernie Sanders the last time around, but I know how this works. I’m a pattern thinker. If you look closely enough you can see what will happen to his ideas.

Anytime a democrat campaigns on taxing the wealthy and gets into office, it doesn’t pass, and to “compromise” congress agrees to tax the middle class. Sometimes (just for fun) they redefine what “middle class” is and stretch the criteria to such low income levels that people who were just barely scraping by lose everything and carry the burden of the nation’s debt.

That’s the truth of it.

So no, I’m not buying into the tax the wealthy game again. I’ve seen that played out for my entire life and never, not one time, has it actually been properly established and carried out.

It’s a joke.

A wise person once said, “I wish I could vote for someone instead of against them.”

Nothing has been truer of my sentiment toward tomorrow’s election. Either I have to vote against Trump, or against whomever the democrats decide is best to tell me what to do with my life and my money…

I need a middle ground. I am the libertarian that just wants a balanced budget AND to care about others too. But you know, all libertarians are “crazy.”

It sounds insane to those who don’t care about digging deep into issues, but balancing what’s best for all people AND your wallet is sometimes conflicting. People should always come before money, but when it comes to my earnings and my household I need government policies that are held to the same rules and standards that I am. I also expect that people should pull their own weight. If I look at my neighbor and they’re throwing their money away on a bunch of junk and then come knocking on my door asking for a loan, I’m gonna lock my funds away. Sure I’ll offer help on budgeting or direct them to a class on finances, but you don’t lend money to squanderers.

I’m not rich by any means. Writers are not millionaires. The Stephen Kings and J.K. Rowlings are lottery winners.

Instead of crying about what I don’t have, I work my ass off to budget for what we need and cut out what we don’t. It’s work. It takes dedication and motivation, but my bills are paid. If I can help someone else cut their spending and live off of what they have, I would rather do that than be bled by a government that wastes taxes and can’t even agree on basic bipartisan issues.

But education only goes so far. Those being taught will only get out of their lessons, what they put into them and not everyone is willing or able to put in the work. That’s the problem. We are created equal, but we all do not live equally.

So we’re sitting on the edge of this big presidential election, which in 20 years will probably just be a faint memory, if that. So many people want to act as if the world is ending, but it’s not. Politics is politics. It’s more involved right now because we have the internet and social media updating us every millisecond. We have a news media that loves to run around screaming, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”

If you veer away from the flashy click bait headlines, you fine the real meat. The honest stories and the real truths. In reality, the economy is doing pretty well. It was booming until everyone started panicking over the Chinese flu. Plus there are more jobs and opportunities for minorities than ever. That’s amazing!

And for once Trump has finally committed to an environmental policy that doesn’t make me want to vomit. He’s joined the initiative to planting one million trees.

To me, that seems pretty smart.

We can’t get everyone to agree on the Green New Deal or limiting policies that ban everything. We live in America. It’s a FREE country (for now). We don’t like banning things. Not on the long-term scale.

Planting trees is a great plan to clean up the air. Of course running around publicizing CO2 emissions and air pollution does nothing to address mountains of plastic in our waterways or chemical runoff.

But I’m getting caught up here. Clearly this is one issue that matters a lot to me.

And that’s the problem. People who militantly get on one side of politics, the MAGAs and the “snowflakes,” are so extreme it’s comical. Some of these people get so mad that they scream like they’re dying, and they’re “literally shaking!”

I have too much of a sense of humor to let that kind of useless anger take over-and I’m a hot head with an Irish Temper. But that burns out fast because you can’t always live like that.

If you get flaming mad and scream like a child all the time, no one on the other side or even in between will listen to you, and you’re just preaching to a choir filled with other people screaming and crying and yelling themselves horse.

It’s exhausting.

I’m undecided right now.

If you want to talk politics with me, get me to vote this way or that, you need to engage with me respectfully. Smile, laugh; tell me your point of view but be lighthearted about it. Get personal but be cool.

No one wants to join the party of hatred.

Right now the democrats and the republicans are both representing hatred and division. How can we stand united under that?

Flip sides of the same coin.

Biden and Bernie are really all the democrats have to offer?

I know, some of you are going to chime in with, “What about Warren?”

To which I think, “What about her?”

Yes, I want a woman president. But it has to be the RIGHT woman president. I’m not just going to vote for any old vagina out there. I need someone to represent feminine dignity and poise without lowering herself to party politics. I need her to stand for single mothers, working mothers, stay-at-home mothers, and women who do not wish to be mothers at all. I need her to stand up for masculinity and its importance to us as well and gracefully balance the male and female aspects of power plays. I need her to have the charisma of Obama and the know how/audacity of John Adams.

Hillary Clinton meant nothing to me. She always pushed for a nanny state. I don’t believe in the nanny state, I like taking care of my damn self.

I have more Native American heritage that Elizabeth Warren and it highly pisses me off that she got into college on a POC ticket. Those programs were not meant for her. She wasn’t raised on a reservation. She was raised with all the privilege she denounces and her demeanor is sickening.

I actually liked Tulsi Gabbard. I don’t know if she was a shill or a “Russian Spy.” Anytime the democrats start screaming Russian Spy, I think of Hollywood and Dolf Lundgren. It’s a joke.

Let’s blame the Russians for everything.

Or bots.

Yes bots, and fake news. Nothing is real. You’re not even here reading this.

It’s so hard to know what to believe or not believe. The headlines are all mangled and twisted. Journalism in this country is dead. It died over a decade ago and its corpse is dancing for everyone.

I specifically liked Tulsi because she seemed to be the most moderate (and I use that word loosely since the dems have become so extreme) candidate, and she did have dignity and poise. Plus she has the military experience.

Having a military veteran as the commander in chief, the person who runs our military, that’s something we haven’t had in a long time and usually when we have a president who knows the military inside and out they are stronger and make us stronger as well. They understand the weight of war and that it is sometimes a necessity, sometimes.

People on the extremist end who scream about whatever the internet tells them to were running around saying, “She’s basically a republican!”

She was “basically a republican” because she wanted to end regime change wars (that cost us greatly), and she believes in moderate gun control instead of full on bans?

In what world is that far right?

Hmmmm…

All gun control, or no gun control

Those are the extremes

The middle ground would be…bear with me… some?

Who knew?

She was a moderate. And people tore her down.

Why?

Because she was beautiful and knowledgeable and presidential. She bit back without making herself look bad. She stood as the definition of the “strong female lead” we all so often talk about in the world of literature, but we tore her down because she was too good to be true?

She couldn’t possibly have been sincere. She wasn’t a millionaire or a loud mouth. Yep, had to be spy…

She was a POC with clear policy ideas.

But no, we had to life up Warren instead. The Pale face rich woman who pretends to care because her party so desperately needed more “Hillary-like” women to run. That worked sooooooo well last time.

They didn’t care about the right woman, they wanted the loudest most well-funded woman because that’s what wins elections?

It worked for Trump.

He’s a mega billionaire loud mouth. But fighting fire with fire just burns us all. And here we are again…

Old rich white guys telling US what WE should do with OUR money.

Sounds legit.

How stunning and brave we are to narrow things down after fighting each other so well. These fat cats don’t need to win to control us. We’ve made it so easy by forgetting our sense of unity.

I might as well just write in Snoopy and Woodstock, or Garfield and Odie on my ballot.

I want a president who doesn’t exist. Honest, loyal, a true leader. Anybody who deserves the office at this point in time doesn’t want it and anyone who wants it doesn’t deserve it.

National elections are so populated and over-inflated that my single vote will be drowned out anyway. Yes that’s cynicism talking and I will always exercise my right to vote because I realize what a gift that is.

Our votes hold the most weight in local elections. In the small local elections where only 300 people make it to the polls in each county because no big ticket seats are up for grabs. Those elections that are closer to home and focus on community based issues are the ones where you voice matters. That’s where it really comes out strong.

If you want to make real changes, to actually get involved and make a positive political impact, you need to vote in more than just the big National elections.

I don’t believe anyone ever throws their vote away.

Your vote it YOURS. It was given to you in the name of personal choice and freedom.

Some people get mad when I vote independent. They blame me for everything. “You caused this! You did this to us!” Yet, they’re still sipping their Starbucks and watching Disney movies.

So how bad can it really be?

You can get mad at others for not being you, or you can respect the process.

We don’t have to worry about armed men holding guns to our backs pressuring us to vote a certain way. We don’t have to worry about land mines or car bombs on our way to the polls. These are things that happen in other countries.

We need to appreciate that we have a free country with a public education system (yes it needs help) where anyone can learn. Girls, poor people, minorities, anybody can get enrolled and have access to libraries and classes.

We are the first of our kind.

Some people think this country is dying.

Some people want it to die.

That makes me sad because the core foundations of this country are beautiful and brilliant. We can redefine that. We can start small and come together once more. We need to be brave instead of acting out in anger and fear.

We need to stand together and not be afraid to love somebody even if they disagree with us, even if their political ideologies clash with ours. Clashing ideologies is diversity.

Diversity of thought is the most important element of knowledge and wisdom. If you support “diversity” but only when it is a skin color, that’s very superficial. What people look like on the outside is not deep enough. Respecting diversity of thought leads to true open mindedness, not this pretend “I’m open minded, if you’re like ME.”

We all have that issue that really gets to us and makes us want to scream at somebody, but screaming never does anything. Nobody listens to the kid screaming and throwing things. Nobody cares about your soap box because there are 25 million other people on theirs shouting different things.

Do we want to connect with people and create a movement, be a part of a movement? Then be a part of the movement of love. Be a part of the movement of unity, connection. Understanding. Education.

Those are good movements that will lead us forward no matter how we vote. They bring us together and make us stronger despite whoever’s in office trying to crook us out of our money and our time and our rights.