I don't get it... I just don't

[Mother Of Four]

My husband just went to bed, he had the range today and was bone tired. He really wanted to stay up for results but couldn't do it. We took our family, plus our grown kids friends to go vote. We got three more to vote this time then last, so that's a good thing.

Even with that good thing, when we got home hub and I had a talk and I just don't get it. If we were to vote for only our own benefit instead of the country's, then we would have gone red. We are all blue. Why are we blue? We're blue because we give a damn about our friends and neighbors, we give a damn about our future grand kids. We CARE about what happens to the people without health insurance. We fricken CARE about more than ourselves. We want safe schools, good roads, healthy people. We don't want to see even one more child die because of guns. We want living wages, womens rights that we have already kept intact, and those threatened beaten down with a stick (reproductive rights). We want equal pay for equal work because it's good for ALL OF US.

It was a progression for us to go blue, slow but steady. It was a progression that was right, and it's really the only moral way we can see.

I want to shake people and yell at them "If we can't stand together we ALL fall. ALL of us."

I don't understand. I really don't. I get like this every election, I get sick and sad. Normally I try to paste on good vibes but for some reason this time is hitting me super hard. Thanks for letting me vent.

[barbtries]

1. i am also a mother of 4

and once explained to one of my children that i am a democrat because i care about everybody. it's a big difference. just seems that people are getting meaner and compassion and empathy are considered weaknesses by certain segments of the population and yeah, it makes me sick too. and i don't get it either.

[Lifelong Protester]

2. I am with you. I cannot believe

the voting against one's own best interests.

All I can say is that it hasn't gotten bad enough for some, to wake them the hell up.

[grntuscarora]

3. mother of three here

and your post struck a chord.

[logosoco]

4. Here's a hug {} and a pat pat pat...

I am a mom to three grown children and two grand kids. I know very well how you are feeling now.
Just keep caring! It may not look good on paper right now, but the only way to over come bad is with good. Those good vibes will come back to you!!!

[BlueJazz]

5. Think of Sociopaths. I've met several in my life (from my job) and they-just-don't-care

It's all about them.
Or..if I may say so...the opposite of you.

[Corruption Inc]

6. We're a criminal nation if we don't put criminals in jail

That's why criminal repubs win, the people who vote for them don't give a rats ass about public causes. If this country ever decides to enact justice and law as a way of conducting the government rather than the 2-tiered justice system we have now then, people would easily see the benefit in caring about the big picture rather than just focusing on their own selfish causes.

Until we put criminals in jail, we're a corrupt country with corrupt citizens who are just playing the corruption game.

[renate]

7. "if we were to vote only for our own benefit... we would have gone red"

And there you have it. I really think that's the essential difference. I think many Republicans care about other people if they're like them, but you and I and the people here care about EVERYBODY and that's the difference between Democrats and Republicans.

[uponit7771]

8. I get it ... dems don't reach out to minorities and young during mid terms so they don't vote

[Skidmore]

9. And how, pray tell, did the Republicans do in that department?

Were they reaching out to minorities and youth? That is utter claptrap.

[theHandpuppet]

10. Actually, I don't think it's utter claptrap at all

Republicans don't have to depend on minorities and the young; it's never been their demographic. They simply win when that critical portion of the democratic vote stays home.

[uponit7771]

12. The avg midterm voter this time was 50... that tells you EVERYTHING

[AZ Progressive]

11. You live in a country of which its culture is largely influenced by Calvinism

Calvinism, a branch of Protestantism, taught the idea of predestination, which morphed into the idea that wealth was a sign of salvation and poverty a sign of damnation. It was initially used by the Puritans and revived in the 19th century as a reaction towards Irish Catholic Immigration, and it has been stuck with american culture ever since.

American Culture is just very hostile to the idea of "we are all in this together", we had a temporary socialist run with FDR (who influenced a whole generation to be more socialist), but that wave dissipated with the Reagan Revolution.

[lame54]

13. are you a millionaire...

if not how is voting red ever in your own interest