- Awards
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It's funny to me how people who've read my posts for years have come to the conclusion that I'm only interested in criticizing Hillary. Before the forum crash when I went by Sid Fairgate, I primarily bashed Republicans. I was one of the biggest critics of Bush during his administration, and I was a huge champion of Barack Obama during his presidential campaign in 2008. My values have not changed between that time and now, although opinions of me have. What also changed was my outlook of the Democratic Party.
When I say liberals were asleep during Bill Clinton and Barack Obama's presidencies, I have to include myself in that group. It wasn't until Bernie Sanders ran against Hillary Clinton that I began to see the Democratic Party was built on lies. They claimed to be the party of peace, workers, education, healthcare, humane immigration policies, and the environment, but their record reflected a far different reality. They were pro war, pro warrantless surveillance, shafted workers in favor of rich elites, weren't for free college or healthcare, had staunch anti-immigration policies, and supported fracking. Once the the mask was removed, it couldn't be put back on. The majority of Democrats had clearly shifted to the right.
Dems claimed Russia was a threat to our democracy as they meddled in primaries and used the court system to get away with it. They sued journalists who exposed their corruption. They helped tear apart families, and are now condemning Trump for doing the same thing. At one time, I was on excellent terms with the few members that still post here. We agreed on almost everything. That's why I originally thought everybody would see through the smoke and mirrors and come to the same conclusion I have, which is that both parties represent corrupt right wing interests to varying degrees. Instead, I've been told I criticize Hillary too much, and therefore don't care about Trump. I've been called a troll, a misogynist, tone deaf, told my priorities are messed up, told I was an embarrassment and a Putin tool for voting third party, etc.
I have to admit I was astonished initially. This wasn't coming from the typically vitriolic right wing members. Instead, it was coming from liberals I had considered friends for at least a decade. It became clear that a bias had formed against me for going after the Democrats (particularly Hillary) so hard, even though my opinion of Republicans hadn't changed. Some liberals believed my criticisms of Hillary and the Dems were unfair and unfounded, even though I've always provided facts to back them up. The other one is interested in proportion, and believes an imbalance means I don't care about Trump. Often times, Hillary or some so-called "resistance" Dem criticizes Trump. My response is usually to point out that Trump's position is disgusting, but the people criticizing him are guilty of the same thing. There's a lot of hypocrisy going on, and I get chastised for pointing it out.
Of course, it not just the Democrats. I also pointed out Laura Bush being heart broken over families being separated, even though this huge crackdown on immigrants began under her husband's administration. Not that it matters. Any time I criticize a Republican, it's either met with a sarcastic/facetious reply, or I get told that I'm making "concessions through gritted teeth." It's quite a silly notion when you consider I only criticized Republicans prior to the 2016 election. But nobody cares about what I posted for 15 years. All that matters now is that I hold both sides accountable, rather than pretending Trump and Republicans are the only cruel monsters to hold elected office. And that's really what it comes down to.
I don't tow the establishment line. I don't claim that Hillary's loss can be pinned exclusively on Russia, Comey, and sexists. I don't think war mongers, corporatists, and Wall Street puppets are acceptable as long as they're Democrats. I don't think separating families is an acceptable practice under Democratic presidents. As such, I've become an outsider and a punching bag. As I said before, it hurt initially because it came from people I considered my friends. I even created this new identity of Frank to try to start fresh, but that failed because I couldn't keep the charade up. But after two years of this, I no longer feel like I'm the problem. Just as I realized what the Democratic Party was all about, I've also realized what the political forum on Soapchat is all about. The few members remaining obviously see it as an echo chamber for establishment politics, which means only criticizing Trump. I've known this for some time, but the time felt right to finally get this off my chest. It doesn't mean I'm going to stop posting here, but at least I know who I'm really dealing with.
When I say liberals were asleep during Bill Clinton and Barack Obama's presidencies, I have to include myself in that group. It wasn't until Bernie Sanders ran against Hillary Clinton that I began to see the Democratic Party was built on lies. They claimed to be the party of peace, workers, education, healthcare, humane immigration policies, and the environment, but their record reflected a far different reality. They were pro war, pro warrantless surveillance, shafted workers in favor of rich elites, weren't for free college or healthcare, had staunch anti-immigration policies, and supported fracking. Once the the mask was removed, it couldn't be put back on. The majority of Democrats had clearly shifted to the right.
Dems claimed Russia was a threat to our democracy as they meddled in primaries and used the court system to get away with it. They sued journalists who exposed their corruption. They helped tear apart families, and are now condemning Trump for doing the same thing. At one time, I was on excellent terms with the few members that still post here. We agreed on almost everything. That's why I originally thought everybody would see through the smoke and mirrors and come to the same conclusion I have, which is that both parties represent corrupt right wing interests to varying degrees. Instead, I've been told I criticize Hillary too much, and therefore don't care about Trump. I've been called a troll, a misogynist, tone deaf, told my priorities are messed up, told I was an embarrassment and a Putin tool for voting third party, etc.
I have to admit I was astonished initially. This wasn't coming from the typically vitriolic right wing members. Instead, it was coming from liberals I had considered friends for at least a decade. It became clear that a bias had formed against me for going after the Democrats (particularly Hillary) so hard, even though my opinion of Republicans hadn't changed. Some liberals believed my criticisms of Hillary and the Dems were unfair and unfounded, even though I've always provided facts to back them up. The other one is interested in proportion, and believes an imbalance means I don't care about Trump. Often times, Hillary or some so-called "resistance" Dem criticizes Trump. My response is usually to point out that Trump's position is disgusting, but the people criticizing him are guilty of the same thing. There's a lot of hypocrisy going on, and I get chastised for pointing it out.
Of course, it not just the Democrats. I also pointed out Laura Bush being heart broken over families being separated, even though this huge crackdown on immigrants began under her husband's administration. Not that it matters. Any time I criticize a Republican, it's either met with a sarcastic/facetious reply, or I get told that I'm making "concessions through gritted teeth." It's quite a silly notion when you consider I only criticized Republicans prior to the 2016 election. But nobody cares about what I posted for 15 years. All that matters now is that I hold both sides accountable, rather than pretending Trump and Republicans are the only cruel monsters to hold elected office. And that's really what it comes down to.
I don't tow the establishment line. I don't claim that Hillary's loss can be pinned exclusively on Russia, Comey, and sexists. I don't think war mongers, corporatists, and Wall Street puppets are acceptable as long as they're Democrats. I don't think separating families is an acceptable practice under Democratic presidents. As such, I've become an outsider and a punching bag. As I said before, it hurt initially because it came from people I considered my friends. I even created this new identity of Frank to try to start fresh, but that failed because I couldn't keep the charade up. But after two years of this, I no longer feel like I'm the problem. Just as I realized what the Democratic Party was all about, I've also realized what the political forum on Soapchat is all about. The few members remaining obviously see it as an echo chamber for establishment politics, which means only criticizing Trump. I've known this for some time, but the time felt right to finally get this off my chest. It doesn't mean I'm going to stop posting here, but at least I know who I'm really dealing with.
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