Ch-Ch-Changes!

For years, I've considered myself to be a libertarian, with a conservative leaning. Why? Because frankly, I found liberals to be much less tolerant and accepting than the conservatives. The conservatives welcomed me (for the most part. There was always a wacko or two) and either turned a blind eye to or were accepting of my socially liberal viewpoints.

A lot has changed in 8 years....

If you had told me 8 years ago that I'd find myself on the more liberal side, I would have told you that you were lying. If you had told me that the liberals were the more tolerant and accepting group, I would have thought you were crazy.

Yet here we are...

I didn't vote for Trump and I don't especially like him. No, that doesn't mean I voted for Hillary or would have preferred her. I think we got absolutely screwed in our Presidential choices and the two remaining ones were abysmal. And no, I didn't let the "fake news" lie to me about Trump. My decision came from watching his embarrassing and classless performance in the debates. In short, a President should be a leader who conducts himself in a professional manner while respecting his fellow candidates. Trump, in my opinion, didn't fit that definition. His demeanor towards others and his ego cost him a vote from me. Plain and simple.

Well, my conservative buddies weren't happy about that. I "wasted my vote" or I "wanted Hillary to win" --- blah, blah scare tactics and insults. If he was that great, you could win me over talking about his merits. But since he has none, his supporters need to bully people into voting for him (I'm getting Deja Vu. Romney Derangement Syndrome, anyone?). After he won, the tone darkened. Poor winners were screaming about the poor losers. Drunk on power, some even went so far to say that this was "Trump Country" now and the non-supporters needed to get out. A conservative friend said this to me. Yeah, really.

And that was the day I dropped the "conservative" label. These people no longer represented me. I'm disheartened by their actions and crushed by their "it's our turn now, get over it" attitudes. They hated it when Obama's supporters did that, so I have no idea why they would want to do it back to other people.

The America I know and love has a long standing tradition of free speech and the right to vote however you choose. If we start ousting people just because they didn't vote the "right" way, then we've lost everything this country was founded on. That isn't the United States I know or ever want to know.

Since then, I've found myself finding more comfort with my more liberal friends. Will I take on that label next? No, I think I'm done with labels.  Our country needs less labels. We fight over the ones were already have, and they cause too many problems as is. I'm still me.

It's getting harder and harder to wade through all of the muck in the media and the drivel from Trump's mouth. I had an idea that we need a media station that is staffed by people from all different parties and present the news from differing sources/viewpoints, so you get a more well-rounded view of what's going on. So why not here and on the fb page? We need more hard facts about what's going on, and less alternative ones.

If lying and passing executive orders is wrong for Obama, then it's wrong for Trump, too. I'll do my very best to be as impartial as I can be. Trump isn't the son of Satan he's portrayed as in the media, however, he doesn't do himself any favors either.

I'll still rant and I'm sure I'll still call the jokers up in Washington cute little nicknames. However, for the most part, I'm changing the format over to scrubbing the internet clean of the lies as much as I can. As always, many different sources will be referenced, and I'll display them side by side. I'll give my own opinion, of course, and will just provide you with the tools to come up with your own.

Cheers!