Why Democrats aren't the answer either.
Mar 7, 2025
Growing up in Michigan, my family was not particularly political. I’m not sure who my parents voted for before Bill Clinton.
I recall the sense that as a family, we appreciated his focus on improving the middle class, his more centrist policies, including his pro-business stance, partnership with neighboring countries, welfare reform and positive support for the environment.
While I was too young to understand the implications of his impeachment, that wasn’t enough to sway my parents from voting for Al Gore in 2000, leaving me with the impression that we wanted a continuation of the Democratic Party Policies. And for what it’s worth, this also seemed to align with the humanitarian, compassionate values of the christian church we went to as a family.
While I likely would have voted for Al Gore in 2004 regardless of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, by this time as a 19 year old, I was highly skeptical and concerned about America’s war efforts. I had heard President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, warning of an increasingly powerful “Military Industrial Complex”, and from CNN news coverage, something about our (Republican) leaders’ conviction of weapons of mass destruction felt disconcerting to me.
In college I studied governmental policies, did an honors project on the Civil Rights movement in the United States, proudly voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and even left a dream job at Apple to build new technology for nonprofit organizations around the world. This is all to say that I grew up a Democrat, and championed the party well into my adult life, even during the 2016 election when parts of my family had switched over to “the other side”.
Fast forward to 2025, and I am still not a Republican, and have yet to vote for one (outside some state-level races). But I am not sure I can call myself a Democrat either. Why? How?
First, let’s go back to the nonprofit technology business. Living in San Francisco, I was deeply distressed by the number of people living in squalor on the streets. After watching my cash handouts go directly to alcohol, I worked to support organizations already addressing this issue. Incredible progress was being made through the work of groups like Downtown Streets Team and Community Solutions. While the number of people experiencing homelessness in California steadily decreased from 2007 to 2014, it then started to tick back up. And in New York, the number actually steadily climbed from 2007 to 2018. This is under Democratic leadership across federal and state agencies. What gives?
Then COVID-19 hits, and in both these states my party’s leaders pass laws that remove jail time for anyone stealing as long as it’s under $1,000. Crime skyrockets. At first, I give our leaders a pass as I sense the compassion these changes are seemingly made with. It’s also worth noting that I got my vaccine and was staunchly opposed to Trump’s insinuation that the Chinese government had anything to do with the virus.
Nearly everyone I know got the vaccines. Some were very skeptical of them, and I did my best to try to understand where they came from. I remained skeptical and critical of anyone suggesting that anything other than the vaccines were the solution to COVID-19.
But, thanks to Gavin Newsom dining unmasked with friends at French Laundry, my belief system began to fissure. The push for kids to wear masks was questionable to me. The fact that some people without the vaccine never got the virus, while people with the vaccine did.. The mention of comorbidities that the news I listened to never seemed to investigate. It all started to feel fishy to me. But despite this, I was still pro Democrats overall.
The first major turning point struck when I heard Dean Phillips, the Democratic Congressman from Minnesttota on the All In Podcast. He articulated his viewpoint that despite all he agreed with Joe Biden on, he was concerned that Trump would beat Biden, and that the Democrats needed a better nominee. So he ran against Joe in the democratic primary, and then the Democrats turned on him. This felt completely misguided to me, and not at all what I’d expect the party I had grown up with to do.
My belief system was on alert. Perhaps I was missing something?
Then I heard the full audio of Trump’s comments about the 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia where he called neo-Nazis and white supremacists “very fine people”. Turns out he didn’t say that, yet that had become one of the hallmarks of why one must distrust Trump. So if that’s not true, what else is not true?
I mentioned earlier that I was critical of anyone who didn’t fully support the vaccines, which included RFK Jr. But then I heard him suggesting a solution to homelessness that made a lot of sense to me. It was such a good idea, that requires such deep thought and care for others, that it made me realize perhaps I didn’t fully understand him. He then spoke for hours on the All In Podcast and I realized he had a wealth of knowledge and care, and that like Dean Philips, was also being persecuted by the Democrats for not falling in line.
The major tipping point for me was the insistence that Joe Biden was sharp and the best person to beat Trump (who I had no interest in voting for, and still have never voted for). And then to see him completely dismantle himself in the debate with Trump was the clearest sign possible that we were being gaslit by not only his leadership team, but the press who so clearly parroting or full on lying about his status.
And as this was all unfolding, I began to realize that in retrospect, there were many signs:
The strange investigation and conclusion about Hillary’s emails.
Bill Clinton meeting with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch on her plane.
More to come..
The press component is important here. I started to realize it’s not just a party at play, but a network, which included major news companies. The same news companies that lambasted anyone suggesting COVID-19 might have come from a lab, which we now know is the most likely case. Not to mention the fact that it’s likely a lab that we supported with United States taxpayer dollars. Oh and let’s not forget that we knew for a while that masking was a “best guess” of what to do - so why demonize people who aren’t sure they want to wear one?
So now you are caught up on what’s caused me to lose my allegiance to the Democrats, I want to reaffirm my support of America the country. We are not a perfect country, something I researched deeply as a student, and continued to encounter as an adult. But we are definitely getting better. I’ve been fortunate to live in three states, and travel to many more. Most Americans are solid people. And for those who have problems, it’s now become clear to me that it’s usually something they were born into, and failed to address as an adult. Or did they?
A few years ago I read a book called The Body Keeps The Score. To me it has two main points: First, it’s not just soldiers who can get PTSD, we can all get the same type of trauma for a variety of reasons, again, often because of what we had to deal with as kids with our caretakers (who themselves likely had to deal with issues as kids, repeating generational patterns). Second, there is a massive amount of money to be made selling people drugs for these problems, which at best somewhat mask the issues. Yet we know now that we can address these issues at the core - but the pharmaceutical industry is very wrapped up with the groups that “regulate” it, a phenomenon called Regulatory Capture.
And it’s not just mental health, our obesity and chronic disease rates have been increasing year after year, despite technological advancements. Something is broken.
Our education outcomes are terrible, and have been for a while, regardless of what party is in power.
Boomers Once Led the World in Education. What Happened?By Patrick Kiger, June 19, 2013
Our Federal budget is getting out of control. Some of the smartest people I know think this is an issue, and neither the Republicans nor Democrats seem to care or have the ability to rein it in.
Back to the military, Ukraine. We know America was misguided going into Iraq. We also know we were involved in an overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected leader in 2014. The war we/Europe/Ukraine are in with Russia could have been avoided.
I want the best for America: great healthcare outcomes, happiness, safety, security, and prosperity. I believe this is possible, but I have lost trust in both the democrats and republicans.
So what to do?
Growing up in Michigan, my family was not particularly political. I’m not sure who my parents voted for before Bill Clinton.
I recall the sense that as a family, we appreciated his focus on improving the middle class, his more centrist policies, including his pro-business stance, partnership with neighboring countries, welfare reform and positive support for the environment.
While I was too young to understand the implications of his impeachment, that wasn’t enough to sway my parents from voting for Al Gore in 2000, leaving me with the impression that we wanted a continuation of the Democratic Party Policies. And for what it’s worth, this also seemed to align with the humanitarian, compassionate values of the christian church we went to as a family.
While I likely would have voted for Al Gore in 2004 regardless of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, by this time as a 19 year old, I was highly skeptical and concerned about America’s war efforts. I had heard President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, warning of an increasingly powerful “Military Industrial Complex”, and from CNN news coverage, something about our (Republican) leaders’ conviction of weapons of mass destruction felt disconcerting to me.
In college I studied governmental policies, did an honors project on the Civil Rights movement in the United States, proudly voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and even left a dream job at Apple to build new technology for nonprofit organizations around the world. This is all to say that I grew up a Democrat, and championed the party well into my adult life, even during the 2016 election when parts of my family had switched over to “the other side”.
Fast forward to 2025, and I am still not a Republican, and have yet to vote for one (outside some state-level races). But I am not sure I can call myself a Democrat either. Why? How?
First, let’s go back to the nonprofit technology business. Living in San Francisco, I was deeply distressed by the number of people living in squalor on the streets. After watching my cash handouts go directly to alcohol, I worked to support organizations already addressing this issue. Incredible progress was being made through the work of groups like Downtown Streets Team and Community Solutions. While the number of people experiencing homelessness in California steadily decreased from 2007 to 2014, it then started to tick back up. And in New York, the number actually steadily climbed from 2007 to 2018. This is under Democratic leadership across federal and state agencies. What gives?
Then COVID-19 hits, and in both these states my party’s leaders pass laws that remove jail time for anyone stealing as long as it’s under $1,000. Crime skyrockets. At first, I give our leaders a pass as I sense the compassion these changes are seemingly made with. It’s also worth noting that I got my vaccine and was staunchly opposed to Trump’s insinuation that the Chinese government had anything to do with the virus.
Nearly everyone I know got the vaccines. Some were very skeptical of them, and I did my best to try to understand where they came from. I remained skeptical and critical of anyone suggesting that anything other than the vaccines were the solution to COVID-19.
But, thanks to Gavin Newsom dining unmasked with friends at French Laundry, my belief system began to fissure. The push for kids to wear masks was questionable to me. The fact that some people without the vaccine never got the virus, while people with the vaccine did.. The mention of comorbidities that the news I listened to never seemed to investigate. It all started to feel fishy to me. But despite this, I was still pro Democrats overall.
The first major turning point struck when I heard Dean Phillips, the Democratic Congressman from Minnesttota on the All In Podcast. He articulated his viewpoint that despite all he agreed with Joe Biden on, he was concerned that Trump would beat Biden, and that the Democrats needed a better nominee. So he ran against Joe in the democratic primary, and then the Democrats turned on him. This felt completely misguided to me, and not at all what I’d expect the party I had grown up with to do.
My belief system was on alert. Perhaps I was missing something?
Then I heard the full audio of Trump’s comments about the 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia where he called neo-Nazis and white supremacists “very fine people”. Turns out he didn’t say that, yet that had become one of the hallmarks of why one must distrust Trump. So if that’s not true, what else is not true?
I mentioned earlier that I was critical of anyone who didn’t fully support the vaccines, which included RFK Jr. But then I heard him suggesting a solution to homelessness that made a lot of sense to me. It was such a good idea, that requires such deep thought and care for others, that it made me realize perhaps I didn’t fully understand him. He then spoke for hours on the All In Podcast and I realized he had a wealth of knowledge and care, and that like Dean Philips, was also being persecuted by the Democrats for not falling in line.
The major tipping point for me was the insistence that Joe Biden was sharp and the best person to beat Trump (who I had no interest in voting for, and still have never voted for). And then to see him completely dismantle himself in the debate with Trump was the clearest sign possible that we were being gaslit by not only his leadership team, but the press who so clearly parroting or full on lying about his status.
And as this was all unfolding, I began to realize that in retrospect, there were many signs:
The strange investigation and conclusion about Hillary’s emails.
Bill Clinton meeting with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch on her plane.
More to come..
The press component is important here. I started to realize it’s not just a party at play, but a network, which included major news companies. The same news companies that lambasted anyone suggesting COVID-19 might have come from a lab, which we now know is the most likely case. Not to mention the fact that it’s likely a lab that we supported with United States taxpayer dollars. Oh and let’s not forget that we knew for a while that masking was a “best guess” of what to do - so why demonize people who aren’t sure they want to wear one?
So now you are caught up on what’s caused me to lose my allegiance to the Democrats, I want to reaffirm my support of America the country. We are not a perfect country, something I researched deeply as a student, and continued to encounter as an adult. But we are definitely getting better. I’ve been fortunate to live in three states, and travel to many more. Most Americans are solid people. And for those who have problems, it’s now become clear to me that it’s usually something they were born into, and failed to address as an adult. Or did they?
A few years ago I read a book called The Body Keeps The Score. To me it has two main points: First, it’s not just soldiers who can get PTSD, we can all get the same type of trauma for a variety of reasons, again, often because of what we had to deal with as kids with our caretakers (who themselves likely had to deal with issues as kids, repeating generational patterns). Second, there is a massive amount of money to be made selling people drugs for these problems, which at best somewhat mask the issues. Yet we know now that we can address these issues at the core - but the pharmaceutical industry is very wrapped up with the groups that “regulate” it, a phenomenon called Regulatory Capture.
And it’s not just mental health, our obesity and chronic disease rates have been increasing year after year, despite technological advancements. Something is broken.
Our education outcomes are terrible, and have been for a while, regardless of what party is in power.
Boomers Once Led the World in Education. What Happened?By Patrick Kiger, June 19, 2013
Our Federal budget is getting out of control. Some of the smartest people I know think this is an issue, and neither the Republicans nor Democrats seem to care or have the ability to rein it in.
Back to the military, Ukraine. We know America was misguided going into Iraq. We also know we were involved in an overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected leader in 2014. The war we/Europe/Ukraine are in with Russia could have been avoided.
I want the best for America: great healthcare outcomes, happiness, safety, security, and prosperity. I believe this is possible, but I have lost trust in both the democrats and republicans.
So what to do?