It’s OK to stop this now

By Jim Imholte
Reader Contributor

I grew up in North Idaho. I attended Southside Elementary from 1973 to 1978, where my principal was Jim Stoicheff, who was also an Idaho senator, elected as a “lunchbox” Democrat.  He was a Coast Guard veteran and the most patriotic person I knew. Daily, the entire school would gather around the flagpole, raise the flag, recite the pledge of allegiance and sing, “God Bless America” before returning to our classes. 

My parents were Democrats and middle-class, blue-collar workers who may have been seduced by the words of Ronald Reagan in 1980. By 1984, when I could vote, my party affiliation was essentially decided for me when I asked the wrong person what the FICA tax was on my first real paycheck, back in the day when Reagan popularized the notion of equating laziness to poor people that needed to rely on government assistance and programs like welfare and social security. It made sense to me at the time.

It’s OK. It’s OK to change your mind when your gut tells you something is off, something doesn’t add up, something bad is coming, that maybe the information you have come to trust may not be trustworthy at all. This is how I felt when I left the Republican Party in spirit by voting for Barack Obama in 2012, and left it officially in October 2013 when Mitch McConnell shut the government down in a tantrum regarding the Affordable Care Act. 

I struggled to be OK with my vote for Obama, as I had never voted for a Democrat, but the basic reasoning was simple: He had successfully navigated us out of a recession caused by corporate greed that took advantage of the relaxed and repealed regulations and oversight promised and delivered by previous Republican administrations, beginning with Reagan. 

Also, I just couldn’t get behind Mitt Romney — an ultra-rich corporate raider who kept the bulk of his plunder in offshore accounts. I just didn’t believe this guy had a single clue about how a normal American goes about their daily life. 

I actually liked Romney — as governor of Massachusetts — for instituting a health care plan that, ironically, was the model for the Affordable Care Act. He seemed like a decent guy, and still does. It’s funny now that he’s one of the most hated Republicans in the United States by MAGA Republicans. The term RINO is used as a pejorative, I see it as a badge of honor for those who receive that label.

I feel fortunate that it did not take the rise of Donald Trump to set off the alarms in my head and gut that something sinister was afoot. As the rhetoric of hate of “the other” by the brazen evangelical wing grew louder and prouder, I had fewer reasons to defend what remained of my “right-of-center” fiscal beliefs. The narrative had become hate of immigrants (brown ones that is), hate of alternative lifestyles, hate of those born into poverty, hate of a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions, hate of those who desire common sense gun laws (“a well-regulated militia” seems to be the undiscussed 2A argument), hate of non-Christians (a very un-Christ like stance), hate of public education, the list continues to grow. 

It’s OK to question this; after all, it’s no secret this was the successful strategy used in 1930s Germany prior to the rise of the Nazis.

In the 2016 election cycle, I recall being amused by Republicans feasting on themselves during the primary season. This amusement came to an end when Trump won the nomination. I was not excited that I had to vote for a Clinton of all people (I would have been OK with Gov. John Kasich, now a despised RINO). This tepid support changed to enthusiasm after the second debate, in which Trump lurked creepily behind Clinton while she calmly spoke. This was the same debate where Trump unveiled his future strategy of claiming any loss to be “stolen.”

It’s OK to vote for a candidate you thought you’d never support when the alternative is a self-serving reality show villain.

Trump supporters frequently say they back him because he “tells it like it is” and he “says what he means”, but every time Trump makes statements like, “I will be a dictator on Day 1,” or, “if you vote for me this time, you will never have to vote again,” or professes his love and admiration for brutal dictators, the response from his supporters is, “He didn’t mean it that way.” 

Come on, which is it? 

It’s OK to say, “This is weird,” and vote for normal. It’s OK to admit you were taken in (like so many others) by a career con man. I know that it’s not easy, I know some snobby elite will ask, “What were you thinking?” but we want to be your fellow Americans again. We want to have healthy disagreements, discourse and eventually compromise for the good of all. 

I don’t hear that from the other side. I hear bloodbath, I hear second revolution, I see a handpicked Supreme Court bought and sold by those who desire an oligarchy. I see that, eventually, they will come for you or someone you love. It’s OK to stop this now. It’s OK.