The big middle. The center. The generally good, caring folk who make up most of the US, who are sick of self-serving politicians and corruption everywhere and also wonder how they are going to survive economically when everything seems to be stacked against them. These are the ones who volunteer at churches and civic centers, who feed the homeless and keep re-sale shops open and stocked for those who need them. They raise money for important causes through labor-intensive means, cake sales and silent auctions, $25 donations from local merchants, generous friends who just want this to be a safe place. They shop carefully, hoping their money lasts through the month, love their kids and take care of their elderly parents, plant gardens and do the laundry.
They are also the ones getting crushed by out-of-control health care costs and the never-ending increase in health insurance premiums (I just heard a prediction that they will go up 20%/year for a while), who are priced out of housing markets, whose student loan debt staggers the mind, who can’t even consider saving for retirement.
I can’t be blind to this, to the fact that the “anybody but Hillary” part of this duo has worked ceaselessly over the years, taking giant risks that most won’t consider, and has made a way for hundreds of people to support themselves before taking a penny out of a company he built. I can’t be blind to the fact that he has made it possible for me to take off my plate my plans to find a way to quietly disappear before my retirement funds totally dried up so I would not become dependent upon others.
The “anybody but Trump” person would have certainly considered voting Republican had a decent, thoughtful candidate come to the front and if the Republican party had actually followed its own advice and modified the increasingly mean and exclusionary platform.
But now , this”anybody but Trump” women joins the crowd of most other highly educated women and says, “Over my dead body will this disgusting, racist, misogynist child/man be President.”
And the “anyone but Hillary” person . . . well, as I said, we’re not talking much about it.
The Republican Convention next week should be interesting.
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