Michigan's Revenge

"Voting in the cause of taking away certain rights that you enjoy from others who have done you no harm because you don't personally approve of their behavior can in no way be seen as tolerance." - Uncle Ken

Abortion and gay marriage were not rights until the Supreme Court made them rights, so I did not vote to take anybody's rights away, I just voted to not extend new rights to them that they never had before.  People were having abortions long before it became legal, but it was not their right to do so.  People have been gay since forever, but they did not have the right to marry each other until relatively recently.  Some other countries and some other US states had legalized both things, but Michigan had not.  When the people of Michigan were given the option to vote on the issues, they voted them both down.  It was not our state legislatures that voted those issues down, they were both ballot proposals that were voted on directly by the people.  Sometime later, the people of Michigan voted to put Donald Trump in the White House. Coincidence?  I think not!  I would have voted for Trump myself if I had believed that he would actually do all the things he promised to do.  I thought he was just a liar and a blowhard.  Well, Trump actually is a liar and a blowhard, but that's not the point.  It's like what Harry Truman said about some banana republic dictator, "He's a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch."

Trump might not have such an easy time getting his man on the Supreme Court.  I read that there are a couple of Republican senators who are pro abortion, and Trump needs all the Republican votes because McCain is out sick.  What we need to do is get a few more Republicans elected to the senate.  I don't hold any high hopes for one of them coming from Michigan, though.  Our Democratic incumbent is a nice lady and I've never heard anything bad about her.  Nevertheless, the guys running on the Republican ticket in the primary have been trying to out Trump each other, each one claiming to be the only true Trumpist.  It's the same with the governor's race.  I find it interesting that they are not trying to distance themselves from this goofball.  Maybe there was a poll or something that told them that Trump was still popular in Michigan.  Of course polls can be wrong, and getting the Republican nomination does is not a guarantee of getting elected in November.

Be that as it may, just voting to not legalize something does not make me intolerant of the people who are doing it.  If I voted to stone them to death of burn them at the stake, now that would be intolerant.