(#4540) If you vote republican you are guilty of their agenda by association

      You can stubbornly decry the republican agenda all you want but if you vote for them or even proudly claim to be a republican you are as guilty as all those in Germany who stayed silent about the nazi march to mass murder. By association there is no distinction when all of us can see the agenda. Separating out your historical voting record for republicans from today's version is not possible as an option. You either are today's republican if you vote for republicans or you are not by not voting for republicans. That is the bright red line that cannot be changed. So accept your complicity if you still vote for republicans.
     As for the rest of us who are not republican or vote for republicans we must come to the same conclusion that there is no good republican who votes for republicans. We cannot downplay their guilt just because we like them otherwise or they are our family. Each of us has one vote which requires our principled evaluation and for that we are held to account over it. There is no dispensation for those who are "good folks" who vote for republicans. It takes courage to stand up and claim the moral and ethical authority that is ours under democracy and when we do we are exercising our right. The US is founded on a democratic constitution that requires everyone to be strong and courageous to defend it.
     So putting yourself one the line with respect to your choice for how you envision our society is the least of which defines what it is to pursue happiness. I am not anyone else nor is anyone else me. So my right to define our society within our democracy is protected and as well worth fighting for. I know that too many others hold sway over us in ways that would literally destroy our lives as they currently are if we came out against what they want us to think. Yet to be a patriot to democracy, that is exactly the cost that must be paid for our democracy to continue. I have fought against all the forces that would persuade me otherwise and I have never let them defeat my choices for my future and a better one for EVERYONE else.