Here's my why I support @PeteButtigieg ...When I was 18 growing up in OK, I didn't really know which party I wanted to belong to, so I chose Independent. Politics doesn't really affect you when you grow up poor and politicians just gloss over and generally ignore your state (1)
We are used to older politicians just doing what they do and not really consulting the actual citizens that their job is to serve. I generally voted with the Dems most times and I have always been promoting women's issues and rights and when a candidate for Governor was (2)
finally on the ticket in OK 12 years ago, I voted in solidarity with her because I thought a woman would be a better leader then all the old men that had held that seat up till then. I was so, so wrong. She turned out to be one of the most corrupt, fiscally irresponsible (3)
Governors OK has ever had. She was GOP, so that was my first realization that it really does matter about the person you want to represent you and it shouldn't matter who they are as long as they share your values and what you believe govt should represent. (4)
I voted for Obama because I felt that ability to bring people together and push the country forward since for so long it has felt stagnant and redundant. I cheered his victory and was elated for the ACA and ready for a new era to begin, but instead the backlash from the right (5)
ruined all the promise that Obama had been offering to a country that desperately needed a leader that could lead all of us. And I also watched the Dems check out and assume everything was good while here in OK nothing had changed and actually a lot got worse. (6)
As a younger Gen X, I have been waiting for the new generations to step up and change the status quo. My daughter getting old enough to question the reasons why the govt worked this way was my first heads up that when school shootings started showing up on her Snapchat feeds (7)
and she asked why can't they just do something about the guns or protect the schools. When I tried to explain that the Reps in charge have to vote on those laws and they refused to do it because of their loyalty to their donors. She say's "then we need to change our leaders" (8)
And that's what led me to Pete...I was dreading the 2020 elections because the prospects looked to be the same old slick politicians, a lot of flash and words but nothing that spoke to m or encouraged me that anything would really change even if they were able to defeat 45 (9)
Then I ran across an interview with a 37 yo mayor from SB Indiana talking about the need to shore up our democracy, making a Medicare like buy in available to everyone, get rid of the horrid Electoral College, wanting to make sure every American is seen and represented (10)
Proposing bold ideas to those of us that live in GOP states, that actually made sense and could actually be doable. Changing my world view about what America was really supposed to represent, that it really mattered who our POTUS was and how they should be that moral leader (11)
that inspires the best in us. So, as jaded as I have been about politics my whole life, I craved that hope that he was inspiring in me to believe that we could really do these things but only if we had the right leader to serve as a true public servant with the energy and (12)
perseverance to carry it out and not back down from true progressive values while lifting up all of us regardless of where you landed on the political spectrum. So I made my 1st political donation ever in March 2019, changed my Voter ID to Dem in April 2019, became part of (13)
#TeamPete twitter to find others like me, and drove to Iowa on Nov 1st 2019 from OK w/my daughter so I could represent my candidate and see the person who has brought back that sense of hope that had been lost in me for so long. That's why I support @PeteButtigieg (end)
