What Are They Thinking? Maybe They Aren’t!
Have you ever thought “what are they thinking?” when you see how people in Alabama vote? Maybe that is the problem. Maybe they are not thinking!
I can’t tell you how many times that I have had conversations with people who depend of Social Security to survive, Medicaid and Medicare for healthcare, food stamps to help provide food for their families, rental assistance to pay their rent, and still struggle….and vote for the candidates who are doing their best to take these amenities from them. Does this make any sense? Many of these voters will fight you if you even try to point out to them that they are voting against themselves!
This past week Trump showed up on the University of Alabama campus where he invited himself to speak. He was greeted by cheers from the majority of white people in attendance. Did they not know that Trump’s policies have done a lot of harm to the University of Alabama? His relentless determination to cut Federal funding to schools is going to hurt all Alabama schools.
Here is a President who has done direct harm to the University of Alabama, and to Alabama as a State. He has harmed the auto and agricultural industry and put the economy on the very edge of a recession. He has repeatedly talked about defying the Constitution and attacked the civil rights protections of all of us.
Just recently a mechanical engineering PhD student at the University of Alabama, Alireza Doroudi was detained by ICE and denied bail despite no clarification from the Department of Homeland Security. Why would Trump be welcomed in a State where we have every reason to despise him? Why would the voters embrace a man who has broken every moral law that the majority of Alabamians claim to be against? What part of “convicted felon” do the people in Alabama not understand? You can’t get a job at Walmart or live in public housing if you are a convicted felon. You are not allowed to live near a school if you are a convicted rapist. But, a lot of people in Alabama have ignored these important transgressions committed by Trump and sold their souls to the lies that he continues to feed them.
Can you imagine if President Barack Obama had been found guilty of over thirty felons? The whole white Republican population of Alabama would have been ready to throw a rope over a tree!
Not everyone at the University of Alabama was throwing out the welcoming mat for Trump. The University of Alabama Democrats and other groups connected to the Democratic Party had a great crowd attend their “Tide Against Trump Rally” at the Snow Hinton Park. It is estimated that over a thousand people were there including Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke, former Senator Doug Jones, and Democratic Senate candidate, Kyle Sweetser. Senator Jones reminded the crowd of the day Gov George Wallace stood in the door at the University of Alabama to block Vivian Malone and James Hood from entering the doors. What courage it took for these two young Black students to walk past a jeering crowd and face Wallace’s hateful rebellion to deny them the right to an education just because of the color of their skin. Have the Black people in Alabama forgotten that Trump and his father were sued for discrimination in New York for refusing to rent to Black citizens of New York?
Have the Veterans in Alabama forgotten that Trump had Veterans removed from in front of Trump Towers because he said they were “an eyesore” for his building? Have they forgotten that Trump called them “suckers and losers” and disrespected a Gold Star family? Have they forgotten that he talked trash about a war hero, John McCain? “He isn’t a hero because he was captured. I don’t like people who were captured” said the draft dodger who was playing on Daddy’s money while McCain was being tortured in a POW camp.
Why are the women in Alabama who still vote for Trump even though he has made insulting remarks about women and been accused of sexually violating nineteen women? Have they forgotten that he bragged about “grab them by the p****” and saying that he can do that because he’s rich?
What are the “Christians” thinking who sing his praises in the pulpit as they condone his adultery? President Joe Biden is a dedicated Catholic who attends Mass every morning. He is a faithful husband and family man. The difference is striking yet the Evangelicans support a man who says he never prays because “I never sin.” Trump is a narcissistic sociopathic liar and he is their choice for “the chosen one.” Does this make any sense?
The working men and women in this State have been brainwashed against Unions by the corporate greed that they will not even consider the possibility of how they could better themselves. The difference between “union pay” and “non-union pay” is staggering. According to the Center for American Progress, and the analysis of Federal Reserve and the Bureau of Labor Statistic data, the average annual pay for a household in which the primary earner is someone without a high school diploma is $22,000 per year. But that same household with a union member averages $69,500 per year. For households with a high school diploma, the average salary is $95,400, but with a union member, it’s $181,300. With some college: $128,400 and $338,000. With a college degree: $476,000 and $533,000. Let that sink in! And those figures don’t take into account the massive upgrades in benefits and vacation time offered at union shops. Alabama Republicans, from Gov. Kay Ivey to your local representatives have lined up to paint unions as evil and spread the lies that unions kill jobs. These are the folks who are supposed to be looking out for you. The ones whose salaries you pay. You’d think they’d be thrilled at the prospect of you earning more money. But instead, they’ve been writing op-eds and crafting legislation. Republican Senators Arthur Orr, April Weaver, Jay Hovey, Andrew Jones, Gerald Allen and Dan Roberts have sponsored legislation that would deny state economic incentive benefits to any company that made it easier for workers to unionize. In other words, your tax dollars are being used to incentivize companies to pay you less money! Think about that!
We have an Alabama representative in our House that represents our own District who has made numerous trips overseas to promote the death penalty of homosexuals. The parents of children who are homsexuals vote for this man in spite of his hate for their own children. Their vote is telling their kids, “you are not worthy.”
Let us not leave out Congress. They are enabling Trump and going against the people who elected them. They are supporting the things that they once stood against. Remember the debates when Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio warned the American people what a crook Trump is? Now they are kissing his ring! Why do people elect representatives like Robert Aderholt and Tommy Tubeville who don’t even live in Alabama? It has become partisan politics, and the belief that voting for the candidates from one particular party is more right than voting for your own interests. It makes me wonder how anyone who is paid $174,000 a year can become a millionaire.
And then there are the voters who vote party lines and have no idea what their candidate even stands for. They never keep up with the facts, or check the voting records of their representatives. They believe everything they read on Facebook or see on Fox News or the b.s. that their preachers say. They do not have a clue what they are voting for. I know a few of my Republican friends who support the right to choose, the equality of all, and the right to love and marry whom you choose, yet they vote Republican. I asked one of them recently, “why?” She said “Because I don’t want to be outcast by people.” We have business owners here in Marion County who are strong Democrats, yet they hide it and “pretend” to agree with the Trumpers because they say “If I don’t, I will lose my business.” We have actually come to this and it’s sad.
The voters in Alabama who continue to vote against themselves are bringing self harm to their families and the rest of us who see the damages but do not have the majority to protect ourselves. We Democrats tried our best to get out the message about Project 2025. The responses were “oh they can’t do that”; “they won’t do that”. Take a look at the list and mark off what all the present Administration has already done. We have a billionaire who was not elected that Trump has given access to all of our private information and the key to the Treasury Department. Elon Musk bought himself a president and the people as a whole country has no president. Trump has made it clear that he doesn’t represent anyone who is not loyal to him.
The problem is……..THINK! We live in one of the poorest states in the nation. Compare the red states to the blue states and you will see that the poorest and most repressed states in the nation are red states. We are losing the middle class to poverty. Low paying jobs are not keeping up with the high costs of living. The rural South is a hot mess with busted up roads, decaying bridges, and infrastructure. Many of our schools do not have up to date books or computers. Hospitals have been closing because of Ivey’s decision to refuse the expansion of Medicaid. Republicans want to blame the Democrats when the Democrats have not been in the majority of running this State for years! Who is thinking? It is not the majority of the voters in Alabama who live in denial of their own doing. They just don’t think.