FEMSHEP Guest Series: Voice of the Electorate, Part Three

In the week since the Presidential election, tensions and division have been high. As FEMSHEP aims to cultivate peace and understanding in any way possible, this series will feature first-person narratives written by guest writers explaining why they voted how they voted.

Dear readers, please read these unedited* stories from fellow Americans. Please understand the humanity behind the monumental decision we all were presented with on Election Day. Please allow these stories to open a window to peaceful, respectful discussions between you and your friends and neighbors.

*Text is completely the author's words; FEMSHEP may have edited formatting and links ONLY. Sources and data are original to the author of each piece and will be verified, if needed, in subsequent posts.

Voice of the Electorate: Part Three, a Clinton voter
author has asked to remain anonymous

"I didn't vote for Clinton in the primaries. I believed from the onset that, despite whatever accomplishments she's made in her life, she was too controversial a candidate to be selected for the Democratic party. I believed that she created too sharp a reaction in the average American voter's mind, and that reaction was more often than not a negative one. I seethed with what I saw the Democratic National Party's preference of her over Bernie Sanders, who seemed far and wide to be the people's candidate. I loathed Debbie Wasserman Schultz's actions so much that I donated to her rival for her Congressional seat, Tim Canova. Attention was being poured into Secretary Clinton, and I felt powerless to stop the decision that seemed to have already been made, long before delegates had been counted.

When Clinton was selected as the Democrat's candidate for President, I accepted the defeat, mourned the loss of the country I thought we would get under Bernie. I loved the idea of our country having our first Jewish President, and I soured at the thought of a future under Clinton. Although she had been investigated and absolved countless times, I figured, "where there's smoke, there's fire."

I do not consider myself extreme left or extremely liberal. I support the lawful ownership of guns, and every owner of a firearm I know is extremely responsible and proud of their right, and would never do anything to jeopardize the lives of other humans. 

I am in support of cannabis legalization, because I believe that legalization results in tax revenue for local governments, and I believe that giving Americans the legal right to grow their own marijuana would reduce the flow of illegal smuggling of the lower-quality (so I'm told) Mexican marijuana, helping to protect the lives of Border Patrol agents tasked with stopping them. 

I believe those same Border Patrol agents should have more legal rights to detain illegals, but going farther than that, I believe the United States should make investments to improve the governments and quality of lives of the citizens of the countries from which a majority of illegal aliens are coming from - namely, Guatemala. I believe we can build all the walls we want but if people have a desperate enough situation in their home country, they will still find a way under and around.

I believe in investing in the educational system in the United States. An educated population contributes more to innovation and success of the country and, in turn, helps our economy thrive.

I believe in investing in the health of the American population. A healthy populace can also contribute more to the success of the country and drains less resources from American taxpayers. What's that saying? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I believe in equal rights and civil liberties for all who find themselves in the borders of this great country. I believe that "live and let live" should prevail; if you are opposed to, say, gay marriage, then don't marry someone of your same gender. I don't believe anyone has the right to legislate a religious belief or an opinion.

I am pro-choice for many reasons. Making abortion illegal does not, as many would hope, reduce the volume of unwanted pregnancies, it simply makes the women in this position resort to unsafe, unsterile, and undignified procedures in which their lives would be placed in jeopardy. As with many of my positions, I believe that keeping it legal allows for regulation and standards that protect the lives of American women. I think there is so much misinformation about abortion out there, namely that women use it as a form of birth control. I have personally spoken to more families that had to make this awful choice as a result of an "incompatible with life" diagnosis for their much-wanted child, and I have seen the heartbreak and devastation these families have faced. I can't begin to fathom how much worse these situations would have been if these women were legally forced to carry either a dead fetus or a baby with severe genetic abnormalities to term - imagine spending nine months with a growing belly, strangers touching it and congratulating you - knowing your child was doomed. Knowing there would be no cigars in the delivery room, no little knit booties, no nursery, no cooing, no firsts. I wish the segment of the American population who object to abortion on religious grounds would try to empathize with these families.

I believe the United States should implement mandatory conscription for all citizens, male and female. I believe the discipline and exposure to people of all backgrounds that comes from military service would give people a new appreciation for this country and a renewed sense of responsibility for the fate of the United States.

Lastly, I support the American Constitution. I support the First Amendment which gives Americans the freedom to worship however they want, the freedom to say what they'd like (with "reasonable time, place, or manner restrictions on speech"), the right to peaceably assemble, and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. I believe each of these components is absolutely critical to ensuring the freedom of our beautiful republic, even when it's hard to stomach views and opinions that conflict with my own. We may disagree, but I will forever defend our right to do so.

I support our Second Amendment, and these days more than ever I support that right, as our country is at a precipice which may well end in an eventual civil war. Our government is becoming more and more divided; cooperation is declining in favor of party loyalties above the needs of the American people. As ever, I believe a safeguard against tyranny is the right of each American to lawfully and responsibly own a firearm. I believe to this day that the Assault Weapons Ban was nonsense created by people who may never have fired a gun in their lives. Yes, I am a Democrat who believes this.

I support our Fourth Amendment, the safeguard against unreasonable searches and seizures. I believe the Patriot Act, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and National Security Agency (NSA) all violate this Amendment and impose unnecessary and unconstitutional impositions on the American people. No, this does not make me a terrorist sympathizer. This makes me a proud and pragmatic American. If information needs to be obtained, then I believe in the legal process of obtaining a justified warrant to obtain it.

I wholeheartedly support a reform of the American prison system, for both human rights reasons and for economic reasons. I believe rehabilitation should be the priority as opposed to simple incarceration, which results in a high rate of recidivism. Again, my wish is to maximize the volume of productive, healthy Americans in the population.

The stereotype of Democrats is either rich, educated snobs, or minorities. I am not rich, I am not a minority (though my DNA results show that I'm 6.9% Middle Eastern, 0.4% Sub-Saharan African, and 0.2% East Asian). I am educated, which has only furthered my belief that all Americans should have access to secondary education, for the sole reason that it has taught me how to think critically - the most important skill a person could possibly learn, I believe.

So, why did I vote for Hillary? For a few reasons.

First, Donald Trump disqualified himself in my eyes the second he started talking about disregarding my beloved Constitution. His comments on establishing a Muslim registry and shutting down mosques is in direct violation of the First Amendment's protections of freedom of religion. His comments on the press is, again, in direct violation of our First Amendment protections of freedom of the press - the Amendment that was designed to provide the Americans with news that reflected a reality rather than party propaganda. His comments on torture are in direct violation of the Eighth Amendment, the amendment that protects Americans against "cruel and unusual punishment." I have heard people say, "well the people being tortured deserve it." I'm not one to dish out a ruling on who deserves what, but I believe that precedents are a dangerous thing when it comes to torture, knowing what many of my fellow brothers-in-arms have been subjected throughout history at the hands of foreign militaries. Once you condone torture on anyone, anyone can condone torture on you. He has repeatedly made comments that suggest support violating the Fourteenth Amendment, the amendment that grants Americans equal protection under the law. For these reasons, I could not justify casting a vote for someone who couldn't in good conscience take the Oath of Office which requires the President-elect to swear an Oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America."

Secondly, I knew she was, at the very least, qualified to do the job. Her tenure as Secretary of State provided her with, what I believe, to be an understanding of the growing need for interdependence between countries. Her knowledge of diplomacy would perhaps have resulted in diplomatic solutions for conflicts that could easily have escalated to military intervention.

Third, referencing my above comment "where there's smoke, there's fire," I decided to look into Secretary Clinton's involvement with Benghazi and this whole email fiasco. Multiple Republican-led investigations into both absolved Clinton of criminal wrongdoing. Had it been a Democrat-led coalition doing the absolution, I would have taken the news with a grain of salt, but knowing how obstructionist the Republicans in Washington have been, I knew that if there was even the tiniest reason to bring up criminal charges against her, they would have pounced. They didn't.

I was not happy at all with the pool of candidates this election cycle, and I feel that the RNC and DNC leadership demonstrated their complete disconnect from the American people. The increase in radicalization and decrease in cooperation between the two parties does not represent the America I have come to know so well, in which most people have something in common rather than being diametrically opposed to each other.

I am fearful of the next four years under President-elect Trump because I value my Constitution as much as I do, and because I took my own oath many years ago to support and defend that Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. I believe we are, again, at a precipice, and that things can get very, very bad (the connections being made to post-WW2 Germany are not as absurd as the media would have you believe), or things can get very, very good, in which Democrats, Republicans, Conservatives, Liberals, Moderates, all come together and implement the change that this country desperately needs."