Nik2sha, 56

Progressive/Liberal Democrat I was born into a very liberal blue collar family w/a lot of intellectual stimulation. I was taught to accept people for who they are, regardless as to what they look like, their race, their s----l orientation, etc. My dad was a teacher for 34 yrs. My mom was a secretary, also the president of the secretaries union for around 15 yrs. She did the contract negotiations and arbitration. So I learned to think for myself and that women could be in a position of authority.

Seeing my parents participate in the unions and all the labor disputes they went through every time and the impact that put on our family budget really made me appreciate how important unions are. My parents still have pensions that they don't pay state taxes on because their unions negotiated for that. They also had incredibly low co-pays on their health insurance for decades.

The GOP is also using so many tactics I find repulsive. The main one is needlessly scaring the crap out of people. And if we would all use common sense, we would see right through their tactics. But we don't all use common sense. So there are people out there who are afraid for no darn good reason. Of death panels. And the country going bankrupt. Or social security going bankrupt. Or whatever the new thing is they want to use to scare the crap out of their people. It's said. We're anxious enough about losing our homes, our jobs, our way of life, and you want to make us more anxious. Well, screw you, GOP!!