In My Opinion…

America’s greatest strength has always been the courage to forgive and move forward together. This seems the time to remind ourselves of this, as this division seems to be getting wider by the day. The beauty of living in a free country is the right to have our own opinions, even if it’s not the popular attitude of the majority. Lord knows I have been the only one in my lane many times, but I never felt alone.

Politics is not the playground you want to play in if you are a sensitive person. It’s often a dirty business filled with lies, deceit, and crooked surprises from those whom you may least expect it. One thing I learned a long time ago as a political journalist is that if I stepped on toes, I better be ready for those big feet to come back to kick me in the teeth.

We may belong to the same political party, but that doesn’t mean that we are all going to agree on issues or candidates. What you may see as a vital candidate who speaks for you doesn’t mean that I am going to see that same thing. That doesn’t mean that I have a right to attack you personally to embarrass you or throw shade on you to influence others. Let’s save that for those who really are trying to hurt us.

I have my own opinions of certain candidates of whom I have formed my own opinions based on my conversations with them. A lot can be said about body language. When I approach a candidate and say, “I have some questions and I don’t mean to offend you by what I have to say, but ……” and I should be prepared for the rebuttal of their response.  When someone is standing in front of me with their face flushed purple and their jawline twitching, then I know that I have hit a nerve where they didn’t want to go.  No candidate likes the “got’ch” question, but isn’t that the one we need to be asking if they want our money and our vote?

What I may have seen was the real truth coming out instead of the prepared dialogue that we hear repeated over and over. When I was asked, “I guess I can’t depend on your vote,” I replied, “Why should I vote for you when you have never voted for me?”   How can I trust someone to go to Washington and protect my rights as a woman when they have already voted to take those rights from me?  This is the way I am looking at it, where many of you see something totally different.  When a person with an intelligent ability to reason can hear and see what Donald Trump has said and done and still remain loyal to him is not only riding on his bus but paying for his ticket.

What has to happen to convince a Republican that they are better off with the Democrats than continuing to aid and advocate the GOP agenda to destroy our democracy? It wasn’t bragging about sexually assaulting women. It wasn’t mocking a disabled man. It wasn’t the insulting nicknames that he gave women or the insults that he hurled at a Gold Star Family. It wasn’t saying that a POW was not a hero because he was captured. It wasn’t calling our military suckers and losers. It wasn’t getting cozy with a Russian dictator against our CIA. It wasn’t all the lies that he spewed out of his mouth over and over. If January 6th didn’t show who this pitiful excuse of a human being is, then nothing will. But, look at how many millions of them paid no attention to all of his bile and voted for him again…and again … and again. So I asked, “What was that ONE thing that turned you off when none of this ever did?”  Tariffs. The threats of cutting Social Security to the elderly and taking free school lunches from poor kids, and cutting funding to the CDC during a pandemic when thousands were dying with Covid, and kicking over 20 million Americans off their healthcare didn’t rattle their good conscience, but tariffs did.  What does that say? As we have always heard, “Follow the Money.”

Oh, everyone can change their mind….right?  Right. If that change were genuine, they still wouldn’t be playing in the hen house with the wolves.

I keep hearing that we need Republicans in Alabama to win elections. I think Republicans have been winning elections in Alabama.  We need Democrats in Alabama to vote if we want to win elections.

I personally do not endorse candidates before the primary because, as a County Chair, it’s not fair to their opposing nominees. It’s our job to set the example for the members of our charter to be uplifting and encouraging to our candidates. As a leader, we are abusing our power and position to publicly favor a candidate.

Yes, challenge me if you will; however, do not attack my integrity when I have a proven record of devoted service to the Democratic Party. The video of Lisa Ward that was posted on social media with “What is this all about?” was a malicious intent to discredit Lisa. Why not directly contact Lisa privately and ask HER that question? Lisa Ward is not only a personal friend of mine, but also a colleague with wise experience. No, she and I do not always agree; however, we can disagree without getting mad and talking smack about each other to our mutual friends. There is no place in this Party for any more of the division and “taking sides”.

It’s okay with me if you do not like me. I have no problem with someone disagreeing with me. What I do have a problem with is the “alpha-dog” personalities who think it’s acceptable to intentionally embarrass another person to put themselves in the limelight. That says more about them than it does about the person whom they are trashing.

My Daddy always said that “if it runs through Lynda Ann’s brain, it comes out of her mouth,” and he was right to a great extent. I have tried to exercise more self-discipline in my political leadership so as to not only be a better leader but a better person. I am the first one to say that I have often failed miserably. I have no stones to throw because I have fallen short of taking my own advice many times.

Having said this, I will close by adding that we all need to be more accepting of the diversity that we claim to stand for. We are facing serious issues in this country right now that threaten our democracy to a level of destroying everything that freedom means. We have to stand united and strong together, or Donald Trump will succeed in his game plan to rip our Constitution into tiny pieces.  He is doing it every single day. We have a Congress who are refusing to swear in an elected member of our government because she is a Democrat. Our own military is being used to attack Americans on our own soil because we do not follow the dictator in the White House. There is a mental genocide of the American youth that is far-reaching to the vulnerable thinking generation that has picked up on Charlie Kirk’s sociopathic dialogue. People are being jerked into cars and driven to undisclosed places who are legally in our county. Universities are being denied Federal grants because they refused to follow the unlawful acts of a convicted felon president. American cities are being policed by armed military.

The president told our country, “I hate Democrats,” and has encouraged violence against his own citizens. When does this madness stop? As dramatic as this may sound, the very survival of our democracy depends on the Democratic Party.

Yes, we may be outnumbered and out moneyed but we still have one thing on our side that they do not.  The Truth.  This means nothing if we degrade each other and fight among ourselves. We are playing right into the hands of breaking that bond of protection to defend our Constitution. We cannot afford to blink.

Lynda Kirkpatrick