Brittany Bartak, CCA

As an outspoken "never Trumper" until 2024, some perspective from an educated, business owning, millenial, pro-choice, woman on what just happened. (Prefaced since I am the ultimate Kamala target.) - There was no democratic primary. - The party shamed a lifelong public service into resignation after humiliating him on a public stage. - The party made a mockery of its own sitting President, lied about his health until it was used to their own advantage, and then has continued to let the nation be seemingly ungoverned in the wake of his withdrawal. - Harris was unable and/or unwilling to do an interview without a script. When interviews were done, they were edited to improve her literacy. - Her policy positions were unclear or bad for anyone who isn't somehow disenfranchised out the gate. Her most concrete position was on capital gains taxes, which threatened the retirement and estate planning of Gen X--which happened to be a key voting demographic. - American's are tired of funding foreign wars, while things aren't great at home. North Carolina's hurricane brought center stage a situation where funding wasn't available for American's --- and yet she blamed Trump era policies. Maybe that was true, but blame shifting when you hold the office isn't a mark of great leadership. - Jobs reports were revised downward by 800k+ jobs. The only growth in jobs was in the government sector. Economic reports don't match economic realities at American kitchen tables. - Open editorials on scrapping the constitution. - Media has been threatening censorship, punishments and company nationalization for any dissenting voices for months, while simultaneously screeching about threats to democracy. - Opposition and hostility to voter ID and election reform. - The party of joy and inclusion, and hope and change, and personal liberties began acting just like the things they claim to hate about Trump. Any dissenting voice is a garbage, facist, nazi, uneducated, hand maiden, misogynist, white supremacist. I mean just because I want my children to inherit my house instead of crushing national debt, does that me a racist, facist? - There is more to voting than abortion! But that is all I heard about. Protect your right to abortion. Civics update: Kamala can't undo the Supreme Court decision. Trump had the opportunity to institute a federal ban and did not. He has repeatedly made it a state issue. - There is more to protecting women than abortion! The thing I hate about republicans is that protecting life ends at birth. Deep red states have the worst childhood outcomes often. They get them born and then complain about "the welfare state" for the rest of the kids life. But for Democrats stance on protecting women this cycling seemingly ended at abortion. "I'm voting for my daughters right to choose" is a morbid, sad, awful strategy. In a day and age where birth control is readily available, yet 75%+ abortions are due to lack of partner/financial support--not rape, not incest---but lack of prior proper planning, abortion as a state funded, birth control strategy is just bad life management. We can and should do better as men and women. - They killed Peanut. Yes, we have bigger things to be upset about. But isn't that the point? A Karen called in a pet squirrel, and in a state known for a rat infestation they confiscated this mans pets and killed them. Should the state not have better things to worry about? Like roads, schools, election integrity, power grids, the water supply, public water processing facilities, you name it. To close this rant, a word from one of our founders, Ben Franklin as a reminder of where we have been and where will go: "For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that whereever others differ from them it is so far error."