No seriously… This is not some sort of joke or some manipulative political plot to get back at you because you voted for Trump. Just give me a chance to explain!
Last week I watched a video of CNN interviewing a few coal miners who suffer from Black Lung Disease and say that regret their vote for Trump because they’ll lose their health insurance if he repeals the Affordable Care Act. I shared it on my facebook wall with the caption “I have no sympathy for them” and to be honest, I don’t. But here’s the thing – when you suffer, we all suffer.
We all know what he promised you – he told you he’d bring back the coal jobs but now those very same people are in fear of losing their healthcare, he said he’d drain the swamp and instead he’s filling it with campaign donors. He said that he’d be good to gays and he’s since proven he’s not. Most of his campaign was centered around a wall. He swore that it’d be big and beautiful, span the entire border, and that he’d make Mexico pay for it – yet another promise that he’s already begun to walk back.
While I’m certainly not going to help you “lock her up”, roll back access to abortion, build the wall, deport millions of undocumented immigrants, undo marriage equality, legalize discrimination against LGBT people, enact or enforce a muslim registry, or pass any religious freedom bills, there are a few areas where I’d be more than happy to join causes and fight together:
- If you’re worried about losing your healthcare, I’ll help you fight to keep it – and make it better by amending the Affordable Care Act to force lower premiums, deductibles, prescription drug costs, and out of pocket expenses.
- If you don’t like these lousy trade deals, neither do I! In fact, this is one area where I hope Trump succeeds at following through with what he’s promised. Let’s join together to block the TPP, and any other bad trade deals that congress has in mind. Trade deals should benefit all countries equally and should incentivize bringing jobs back home, not shipping them overseas.
- If you don’t want cuts to your social security or medicare, neither do I! Let’s fight together to not only save them, but make them viable for many decades to come by lifting the cap applied to income over $250,000.
- Trump told you he’d drain the swamp and instead he’s filling it with campaign donors! I’ll join you in working to drain the swamp – I hate political cronies, crooked politicians, and the corrupt congress to lobby pipeline just as much as you! Let’s fight it, and let’s get it done.
- Instead of trying to bring back the dying coal industry, why not instead retrain those miners to do jobs in cleaner, renewable energy – like installing solar panels, wind farms, or other new and innovative green energy technologies? Let’s fight together and ask congress to chip in and make investments in clean energy public-private partnerships so we can get those miners back to work.
- Don’t want to install solar panels… What about rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, and other infrastructure? Trump promised a massive infrastructure investment – let’s get it done!
As you can see, I’m not here to alienate you, I’m not going to call you names, and this is not some kind of political trickery. I’m inviting you into my cause – because I know that when you fall, we all fall – and I truly believe there are a lot of areas where we agree. If we fight together on those issues, we all win – and in turn we’ll have more opportunities to exchange opposing view points on issues where we disagree.