1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

INDEPENDENT VOTER You may be wondering what voters are thinking entering the midterm elections. Perhaps I can provide some perspective. Let me begin with some background. I was a registered Republican for most of my adult life believing in fiscal responsibility, strong family values, support for law enforcement and military. Owning and growing my own business before retiring. Certainly not a social left leaning individual. However I no longer even recognize the Republican Party. Today, I walk into a voting booth and pull the lever for anyone with a “D” behind it and I am by no means a huge supporter of the Democratic Party. Wonder why? Presented below is a list of why. Take these for what it’s worth. They are in no particular order: Heaping admiration and praise onto world dictators. Lack of consistent, full throated support for Ukraine. Attacking our NATO allies. Attacking, belittling and ill-treatment of our neighbors, Mexico and Canada. Illegal massive tariffs with no Congressional oversight. Appointing an unqualified Fox News Anchor to head our military. It is insulting to those who serve. Purging military leadership over political philosophies. Firings without cause of people who dedicated their lives to serving our country. Deplorable. Purging females and minorities from our military. Mass deportation of immigrants, separating families and holding them in for profit prison camps without Congressional oversight. Deporting people into locations other than their countries of their origin. Mistreatment of Dreamers with no criminal records. Masked ICE agents. Not holding agents accountable for their actions. ICE shooting of Americans based upon false accusations of endangerment to law enforcement. Exploding national debt. Disregard towards increasing costs of everyday living expenses. Lack of spending oversight and fiscal responsibility. Wasting of precious time, resources and taxpayer dollars on Trump vanity projects. Disrespecting the “People’s House” by not following submission and approval requirements for renovations. Trump treating the White House and other government assets as if HE owns them. Constant attacking and lack of support for our free press. Banning the press from the Pentagon. Pardoning J6 convicted criminals. Encouraging and supporting the J6 attack on our Capital and even the hanging of the Vice President. Pardoning numerous criminals convicted of serious crimes. Mishandling the Reflecting Pond renovation and then trying to blames others for its failures. Awarding large no-bid government contracts. General lack of accountability and taking responsibility for your own actions. Disrespect of previous Presidents and the childish plaques hanging in OUR White House. Constantly blaming the Biden Administration for your lack of performance. A “do nothing” Congress. Overthrow of the Venezuela government so we can take over their oil fields. Silly threats to take over Greenland. Silly threats to make Canada our 51st State. It is insulting to them and embarrassing to our nation. Embarrassing and juvenile conduct by the President on how he talks and treats other people. Trump routinely supporting conspiracy theories. The needless war with Iran and wasting of American lives, international credibility and billions of taxpayer dollars. Lying that Iran was weeks away from having an operable nuclear weapon. Lack of Congressional oversight for a variety of military actions by the Executive branch. Insider trading for self enrichment. General grifting of the American people. Using Crypto for a pay-to-play system. Trying to steal American tax dollars for J6 reparations. Trump suing the IRS. Trump bestowing immunity onto himself and his family members. Allowing Elon Musk unprecedented access to government data. DOGE mass firings of dedicated government workers without cause and without any resulting reductions government spending. Appointing a crackpot conspiracy theorist as head of DHS. Opening our National Parks to development and corporate exploitation. Inability to accept scientific fact of global warming. Dismantling of solar and wind projects, research and development. Giving up our world leadership of these industries. Renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Make Ontario. A waste of time and resources. Focus on social issues affecting few Americans with lack of focus on major national issues impacting millions. Trump routinely accepting bribes (gifts). Removing millions of Americans from healthcare coverage. No strategy to reduce the high cost and access to childcare. Not strategy to make housing more affordable. Reducing SNAP benefits. The wealthiest country in the world reducing food benefits to the poorest people in the world. Attacking our prestigious universities. Weaponizing the FCC to control free speech. Interfering with the operations of independent institutions such as the Smithsonian Institute. Epstein files cover-up. Appointing his own personal attorney as the US Attorney General. Gross misconduct. Weaponizing the Justice Department for frivolous lawsuits against political enemies. Continuous claims of election fraud while offering absolutely no evidence of fraud. Willful violation of Article One of the Constitution trying to create a federalized voting role so Trump picks which vote gets counted. National effort for redistricting for no other reason than political gain. Passing a massive tax cut to the highest 1% earners exploding our national debt. Allowing Trump, a living President to affix his name and image for vanity on a countless number of government assets including coins, passports, currency, buildings, banners, ships. So if you think gerrymandering a few State voting districts is going to take care of all this, good luck!