I don't mean any disrespect but if those things were important to you before trump then why were you voting republican then? What was it that drew you to that party?
No offense taken whatsoever.
I’ve thought a lot about this over the years.
It all boils down to being ignorant, a follower, and not building/examining my personal worldview.
I’ve never been the smartest guy, but I’ve always been very driven and open to change.
There have been multiple things over the years that have helped to direct my life, my beliefs, and the issues I support.
In my mid 20’s I recall reading an article that fully agreed with my opinion, at the time, regarding climate change. I brought up that article in a discussion and others in the discussion provided me information and evidence that the article was incorrect. I was honestly embarrassed, and it made me realize that I could not accept anything at face value. I had to read and make an effort to ensure that the information I trusted was sound and factual. I became more of a skeptic and less accepting without proof.
Then there was the realization that I needed to better myself to be successful. I needed more education to be more competitive in the workplace and make more money. So, I went back to college and earned my bachelor's in computer science. Writing papers on welfare for a political science class and other research for my humanities classes helped me to continue to grow in my beliefs and opinions of others. It helped me begin to understand the lies I was accepting about welfare, socialism, and the whole self-sufficiency mythology.
I was never a racist or homophobe, but I wasn’t anti-racism or anti-homophobe either. The biggest challenge to my life and my worldview came from working with my daughter through her years of struggles. That’s a bigger discussion for another day, but the one thing that is forever burned into my being is the realization that even though I was not homophobic, I didn’t make my beliefs known to my children. This is a regret I will carry forever as it was an integral part of my daughter’s issues. During discussions and counseling she told me and my wife that she knew she was gay and because of the constant messaging she was receiving from the church and our Christian friends, she felt that there was something wrong with her to make her gay. She assumed, since I had never voiced my beliefs, that my beliefs were in line with those of the church and our friends. What she didn’t know was that my beliefs were not in align with the bigoted homophobic beliefs of the church and it was my fault that I was too much of a follower to tell my children my beliefs regarding this subject. In addition, during this period, there was such an outpouring of grace, compassion, and support for my family. I had never experienced such support in my life. It further influenced my views about self-sufficiency and helped me to continue to grow in being more empathetic toward people in need and more understanding of people who are different than I am.
These things all worked together over the years to change my worldview and to show me that I couldn’t simply sit back and be neutral in regard to subjects of acceptance, personal freedoms, and discrimination. I had to, at a minimum, express my opinion and support people’s right to be themselves.
I was growing weary of the positions of the right, but when trump became the candidate for the 2016 presidential race, I knew I could not vote for him. Him personally, at this point it wasn’t policy, it was that I knew he was a piece of shit and had always been a piece of shit. But history and roots are strong and hard to overcome. Even with growth in so many areas, I still wasn’t able to vote for Hillary. I voted for a third party. My wife, who is normally ahead of me, voted for Hillary that year.
Over the next few years, the constant actions of trump, the belittling or people, the negativity toward marginalized groups and the acceptance of trump by so many I knew, who had previously claimed to be accepting but now demonstrated that they were just suppressing their racism, bigotry, and homophobia pushed me to be even more open about my positions. I was very vocal about wanting trump out in the 2020 election and open about my support for issues of marginalized groups and their fight for equality.
My daughter continued to help me grow and understand. I could see there is no agenda, that she and other LBGTQ people are pursuing, rather they simply want the same opportunity to pursue their best life and love and share love just as any other adult would. Without labels our artificial boundaries or the constraint of what others see as “Normal”.
As life goes on, I still work to tear down the barriers of ignorance that I have and to understand that I have been so fortunate to have the opportunities that I have had.
