For 25 years, I was told that I wasn’t a “good Christian,” that I would “go to hell,” that I “supported evil,” if I even thought about voting Democrat. I did my homework by speaking to lifelong Catholic Democrats and speaking to those with LIVED experiences. I also finally joined all other disability practitioners in my field by voting FOR disability funding by voting Democrat instead of voting against the population that I serve by voting Republican who reduces disability funding. I also changed my party affiliation because I believe the right-wing of the Republican party has taken 15 to 20 Bible verses which talk about women being quiet, sexuality, and allowing women to make choices, and they have waged war on the poor and the disenfranchised who are supported and defended by 2,000 Bible verses and Catholic Social Teaching.
As a person who values life, I think it is unconscionable to trade unborn lives for lives outside the womb. I also think it’s insidious to usher in the same policies and ideology over the last 50 years which also ushered in Hitler. This is why I will be voting a straight blue ticket from now on, why I will campaign for the best Democratic candidates who are the only ones who support democracy, and why I had a shirt made four years ago which says, “Catholic and Democrat, because born lives matter too.” I will report any clergyman or lay leader to the IRS who tries to coerce my vote or anyone else’s that I witness.