Recently, someone close to me asked a question via a text that I felt that more than a return text reply was required because it’s not the first time that question or a similar question has been put to me. Here is the text in it’s entirely.
“I absolutely understand that the GOP stands strong on less taxes, smaller government and their Christian values. I agree. I’m just confused…
“Georgia they hate you. They are anti LGTBQIA!! You are a freak according to them. I despise them for that! You’re a human being. You’re living in your correct body!! You’re authentically you.
How can you support a party that doesn’t see YOU! Doesn’t respect you, doesn’t acknowledge YOU.”
My immediate response is “who is THEY? Apparently, this person is referring to Republicans as a whole. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could be further from the truth. What I have found after years of living in this social environment for nearly 30 years is that as long as I behave like a normal person, which means I don’t expect special treatment, I have experienced only a minimum degree of discrimination. Sure, there are instances when customers suddenly quit communicating with no explanation. Most of those are due to a human reluctance to say no to my proposal. Only rarely have I been aware that one of the people involved indicates a dislike for me by means of demeanor. But to lump every single conservative in that “THEY’ category is on its face absurd.
That, in a nutshell pretty much describes what I would call a single-issue voter, someone who looks at an issue though a tightly focused lense. For some people that lense is focused on abortion rights. For others it may be animal rights or the “green agenda. Whatever their issue is, it always takes precedence over everything else. The better good of the society they live in is totally unimportant.
Why is that?
I’m not certain of the why but I can speculate can’t I. For beginners I think it stems from fear; fear of being wrong. If a person looks at the broad scope of issues faced in our society, and that person finds that broad scope too complicated to be addressed effectively, then the simple solution is to narrow the scope. End result? A single issue voter.
In the above example there was more than just that one issue admitted, but the bottom line was that one single issue carried so much weight in their mind that all the things that affected the entirety of our national security were ignored.
For me, my personal desires are not worthy of the altruistic luxury of considering a single issue when choosing the people and party I cast my vote for. To me that would be an abdication of my responsibilities as a registered voting citizen. Am I ignorant of the segment of conservatism that finds the decisions I’ve made in my life wrong at the least or horribly wrong at worst? Not hardly! But I simply cannot place my personal issues ahead of the greater good, which is what single issue voters do.
The situation that our country is in requires that I look beyond my personal issues to issues that are corroding the very fabric of our society. I look at what has happened in the last 3 years as a result of single-issue voting. The person who I quoted above cast her vote simply because of an attitude toward Donald Trump which is the result of being swayed by hateful rhetoric of the press. For me to cast my vote for any democrat would be for me to abandon my principles which are rooted in the belief of right and wrong. What the democrat party has proven to me is that they have no, I repeat, no moral compass and that oddly enough is what some conservatives accuse people like me of being guilty of.
I’m not going to suggest that I am better than anyone else simply because I choose to buck the majority of my gender community, or any other community for that matter. I am suggesting that I have made my voting decisions based on what I believe is the greater good of our American society, at least the one I grew up in, not necessarily the one I find myself a part of today. It is incomprehensible to me that I could be so totally self-absorbed that I would make such an important decision based on my own personal desires. So, what kind of society do I find myself a part of today as it relates to me and my lifestyle?
It is a society that has been totally preempted by a radical fringe that in my opinion has, by virtue of their behavior and public pronouncements, (case in point is the trans person who bared her prosthetic breast on the lawn of the White House during the Easter festivities a year ago) put a real target on the backs of those of us who simply want to be a part of society as who we are without special treatments or exceptions. The demands for special treatment and exceptions are being made on our behalf by people who are themselves expressing a childish desire for attention.
Personally, I resent those demands being made “on my behalf”. The people creating these demands have made my world unsafe. Before they stuck their noses in where they don’t belong, I was able to go about my life unconcerned for my safety in public, unconcerned about what people might be thinking of me and resenting me for being what they consider a part of a group which is making demands for acceptance that would have come anyway. But they are setting that acceptance back decades.