Voting edition of “When an ‘anyone but Hillary’ is married to an ‘anyone but Donald'”

We have both voted. My husband did his early voting at the local fire station. I sent in my ballot by mail.

He voted straight Republican.

As for me . . . I have never in my life voted a straight ticket. I have long been an issues voter and do not think one party fully represents my thinking on any subject related to politics and governance in the US.

But today, for the first time and I hope the last time, I voted a straight Democratic ticket. I did it first because I think that Hilary will make a good POTUS–she’s a lot more centrist and pragmatic than the Democratic platform in general.

But more, I did it because I am totally disgusted with the GOP party. I am sending my own message to them in my tiny little way.

Republican leaders have known for a long time that they needed to shed themselves of the deep craziness that permeates the Tea Party/Ted Cruz/Sarah Palin edge and instead focus on a legitimate conservatism. They’ve known that they are representing essentially only white men now. They’ve known that that must pay more attention to important social issues and stop obsessing about the sex lives of Americans.

Truly, it is just pitiful what has happened to the “Grand” Old Party.

My husband has acknowledged what most of the world has figured out: Donald will probably lose and may lose “bigly.”  The two of us have had conversations about what kind of president Hilary will make.

I have acknowledged the huge favor that the Republican candidate has done for us as a nation: he and his “deplorables” (and let me state this clearly: not all Donald supporters are “deplorable” but the majority of the “deplorables” are Donald supporters) have surfaced the extraordinary subtext of racism, sexism and fear that poison the waters way too many US citizens swim in.

We need to know this.

We need to know what this reporter experienced at the hands of Donald’s true believers:

I saw images of my daughter’s face in gas chambers, with a smiling Trump in a Nazi uniform preparing to press a button and kill her. I saw her face photo-shopped into images of slaves. She was called a “niglet” and a “dindu.” The alt-right unleashed on my wife, Nancy, claiming that she had slept with black men while I was deployed to Iraq, and that I loved to watch while she had sex with “black bucks.” People sent her pornographic images of black men having sex with white women, with someone photoshopped to look like me, watching.

We need to know how a sexual abuse survivor has experienced this election and the kind of sexual rhetoric that has permeated it.

It’s hard to describe the effect 2016 has had on sexual abuse survivors. I believed the men in my party when they shrugged off the constant liberal accusations of being anti-woman.

But Pope John Paul II’s words ring true: “Christ … assigns the dignity of every woman as a task to every man.” If that’s right, the men in my party, in my church, in my life have failed; they ask me to participate in overlooking the offense.

We need to know what it really means to be “pro-life” and that is far, far more than being anti-abortion. This link will take you to an extremely graphic piece written by a woman who had a late-term abortion. I include it because I think all of us who value life need to see the nuances in our stances–there is nothing black and white about these excruciatingly difficult decisions.

But here’s the thing: viability varies. Fetuses, you might be surprised to know, grow at different rates and are impacted by different things so “viability” is fluid and is not a one-size-fits-all determination of the likelihood of the baby surviving outside the womb. And sometimes babies are so sick they won’t survive—even in the ninth month of pregnancy. Even so, those babies are DELIVERED, not “ripped out”, you f****** a****** [astericks mine].

As a nation, we must find a way to engage in civil discourse again.

As a church woman, I say we who profess Christianity need to find a way to actually model and practice a wider grace and a deeper morality, one that does not leave too much of humankind devoid of dignity.

As church people, we need a greater understanding of economic realities that leave too many people desperately hopeless and legitimately fearful. We must discern and practice ways to actively help reduce suffering in the long-run, not with short-term and often destructive quick hand-outs.

We all need healing after this hurtful and nasty election cycle. We’re all going to have to work together to find it.

May God have mercy upon us all.

This is a series of the ongoing saga of a newly married couple with radically different political views. Part one is here. Part two is here. Part three is here. Part four is here. Part five is here. Part six is here. Part seven is here. Part eight is here. Part nine is here. Part ten is here.