Go ahead, be offended.

(I don't know where I got this picture, but thank you to whoever made it.)

I've been trying very hard to be tolerant and ignore the hypocrisy and the hate that's been floating around the internet and even on the news media, but my patience is getting very thin and maybe my skin is thinning a little around the edges too.

I have to speak up or I'm part of the problem. So at the risk of stirring a rancid pot I'm going to tell you what I think. I'm not holding it in any longer. Maybe I'm setting myself up for crucifixion here but I'm tire of being afraid to speak out. I know some of my friends will disagree and maybe even be offended by this, but if they can offend me and think they are righteously justified then maybe they can view this in the same light.

To start off with, this is the meme that got under my thinning skin this morning.

It starts out trying to sound like it's tolerant and caring but then it stabs me in the gut. 

By implication, if I voted for Trump, I'm racist, anti woman, a bully, cruel, disgusting, and someone who would insult a disabled person (my father only had one arm, believe me I would never insult a disabled person). Oh, and because I'm so "deplorable" I don't deserve to be considered a friend anymore. 

I won't even go into how grossly immature this is but I'll move on to the real issues here.

I don't claim that President Elect Trump is a perfect person. Yes, he is sometimes crass, a womanizer, tactless, blunt to the point of offense, and he has a hard time holding in his anger. However, some of those weaknesses are also his strengths. He says what he thinks regardless of what others think, and he says it publicly. In other words, he's totally honest weather you like it or not.

In contrast, Hillary Clinton smiles to your face and appears to be on your side but behind the scenes she has been caught on camera and in emails saying things that are every bit as racial, cruel, anti woman, and in fact far worse than anything Trump ever said, but the media gloss those things over and spin it to make her out to be some sort of worship worthy entity. This doesn't mean she is a better person, only that she is better at keeping it to herself, hidden. In other words, she is a better liar.

You scream about President Elect Trump's attitude towards women. But do you think that he would have stood aside while his spouse had affairs in the white house office and not publicly denounced it? No, he would have kicked the cheater out. What does it say about a woman who sides with a man who not only publicly betrayed her but also diminished the office of president? Is that a woman who respects women? She doesn't even respect herself.

Let me tell you another reason I voted for Trump, and it's a big one. I voted for our next president because he loves this country. He stands up for the good in this country. He's proud to be an American, even with it's faults. I can not say this about President Obama. Obama never loved this country. Even when he tried to sound like he did, in his speeches, it always came out as a backhanded stab. To him this country had to be changed. America had to bend to fit his personal agenda along with whatever popular minority is politically correct today. He did more to undermine the constitution and divide this country than he ever did to build it.

So yes, I voted for the man who loves this country and is willing to work for all the people of this country even when they hate him and stab him in the back. I voted for the man who married a legal immigrant. I voted for the man who hires people from all walks of life and is now appointing the same diversity of people to his cabinet, not because they fit his quota of minorities but because he truly believes they can do the jobs that need to be done to bring our country back to greatness. I voted for a man who's not afraid to say Merry Christmas, who's not so busy trying to be politically correct that he's crippled himself and the entire nation with fear of offense. Yeah, I'm tired of being afraid to be honest.

Okay, now I'm really ranting. You call Trump a racist? What do think a racist is? A racist is someone who puts one group of people above another. A racist is someone who spouts black lives matter but it's okay to kill a policeman, especially if he's white. A racist is someone who wants everyone to kiss their poor offended bum because of something that happened to an ancestor, or maybe just someone who happened to have the same color of skin as their's a hundred years ago.
President Lincoln gave us equality after the civil war. Martin Luther King made it even better. What have you done today to take advantage of that gift? If you want me to treat you as an equal then act like an equal, not a poor put upon victim. Act like an intelligent, law abiding, caring, hard working, responsible citizen and that is how I will treat you. Act like a chip on your shoulder, whiny, I want revenge, malcontent with no regard for others and their property then you deserve to be thrown in jail. HEY, wake up. Some of my ancestors were murdered just because they were Mormons. That doesn't mean I expect the country to kiss my feet and treat me special. I don't care what minority you belong to, color, gender, whatever. I'll treat you with the same respect you treat me.
 And further more - grow up and stop calling me names.

I voted for the man who is going to repeal Obamacare. Obamacare is a disgrace. If you want me to have insurance then make it possible for me to afford real insurance. Don't tax the evil rich so you can give me their money and put me under obligation to pay it back if, by some miracle, I make more money than I predicted I might. I've had more ulcers worrying about Obamacare then I ever did being uninsured. Obamacare literally made me sick. How's that for irony? Don't give my tax money to some greedy insurance company who doubles the rates because they know the government will pay, and then sell me and my family into slavery to pay for it. Yeah, I'm sad to say that our first black president is the man who has sold an entire nation into slavery. He got his revenge.

A vote for Hillary would have been a vote for more of the same. Thank god the reigns have passed into different hands, as imperfect as they are.