Being on Facebook I've had a chance to network with some wonderful people.  Its always nice to be surrounded (even virtually) by people who share the same values, beliefs of how people should be treated in this country, in this world.   The majority of the people I network with are people who vote for democrats, however, I have found people who don't.  These people are not republicans, they are people who believe both parties are corrupt, I must admit, for the majority of my life I have felt that way.  So I continued to read  their views and their postings about the democratic party, about President Obama and I decided to do some research on my own. 

 I started reviewing how democrats voted on issues that are important to the majority of us, and what I found was quite disturbing.  I found  40  voted for the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 33   voted to extend them in 2011. 39 voted against the health care bill, 3 voted to repeal it. 10 voted to defund Plan Parenthood, 64 voted for the Stupak Amendment, 5 voted against the Dream Act, 65 voted for the re-authorization of the Patriot Act, 3 voted to continue the oil subsidies, 11 voted against the extension of unemployment benefits and 81 voted for the last budget deal.  After reviewing how the democrats voted, I then reviewed where they get their money and those facts are very disturbing as well.  Plenty of democrats in the senate and house are getting a lot of corporate, special interest money, you can review at http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/index.php.  After reviewing this I had to start questioning if these people really reflect my values.

I continued my research by reading many articles, watching videos, listening to other people's points of views, reviewing the facts and I really had to start thinking if I was being conned.  We make fun of the right and their ignorance, we all know that they are being conned, but then I had to stop and wonder the same of us, are we being conned?  If the right is bought by corporations, could the left be?  Why wouldnt' they be, they get their money from the same people who give to the right.  I often wonder why democrats appear to be so spineless and such horrible negotiators when dealing with the right, maybe they can't stand up. These people know that in order to keep the job they have, they will have to raise a lot of money and whose got the money? Of course there are democrats that do not fall into this category, but there is one too many that do.

  

Lets say that's true, then what?  We all know that the majority of Americans do not follow the news, let alone politics.  When these people vote, they don't vote out of knowledge, they vote out of ideology most of them just vote how their parents voted.  By a person having the democratic label, that's all it takes for many people to vote for them, so the issue comes to play for the people who do follow politics.  We know if we don't vote for that democrat we split the vote, which may allow the republican candidate to get in, so what do we do?  If your like me, you vote reluctantly for that democrat and rationalize it in your head, at least it's the lesser of two evils, however, I'm not sure i want to do that anymore.  So the only way out is to try to get someone on the ballot that actually does represent our values, and stop settling for the lesser of two evils.  If we allow many of the democrats that are in office today to keep their jobs I am convinced  we are going to continue to lose.  The republicans in office today are so extreme, and the democrats do not or refuse to stand up to them.  The democrats as a whole are negotiating our social programs, education, and many other things away, they are not negotiating to better us. 

Politically I don't feel any hope or any great changes coming our way, I feel like I'm dating someone where I can see potential, and I hope and I pray that they will meet that potential, but they never do.  Now, if I was dating someone like this, that person would not last long in my life, as I would never sit around living on hopes and dreams. I would tell myself  that no matter how much I like, or love someone I can't compromise myself waiting for someone to be the person I want them to be.  I would remind myself that I can't change people, face reality, and say goodbye so I could move on to find the right person for me.  So I have decided to use that logic in how I vote in the future.  Unless that democrat has already proven themselves worthy of my vote by being a liberal, progressive, and fights for us they will no longer get my vote, I will no longer compromise my values and vote for the lesser of the two evils.  I do realize what it could mean, which is the republican candidate gets in and I prepared to sacrifice the seat for a few years, in order to move us forward.  Being I can't get progressive democrats/independents in office, I will help remove the democrats that don't belong in office in hopes that the next election we will find a more progressive/liberal democrats.  We are stuck in limbo, I see the democrats moving right because the republicans have moved so far right they feel they have to just to negotiate with them.  I don't want the democrats to be where the republicans once stood, I want us to move left not further right.