Edited on Sun Feb-15-09 09:45 AM by The Doctor.
A whole slew of folks here know that I was raised Republican in a Republican family. We're WASPs to be more specific... although my siblings and I had our teeth separated when we were young.
As some know, I've been posting here as a registered Republican for the last several years, sometimes a little apologetically.
It all started with Bush*, of course.
It was during the 2000 debates when I made up my mind that Al Gore, despite his woodenness, was a far better choice for President than the dopey fellow from Texas. I had been slowly turned off from the Republican message during the Clinton administration. It just made no sense to me whatsoever to go after a sitting President for fooling around with an intern. If ever there was a waste of national resources, time, and attention, it was the Clenis hunt. What I couldn't get over was the sheer vitriol, the incessant, vile, and blind outrage over something that couldn’t
possibly harm the nation… unless, of course, a good percent of the country threw an embarrassing tantrum over it. :eyes:
Sure, there were real issues worthy of criticism, but it was very clear from ‘Conservative’ behavior that the goal was outrage rather than constructive improvement.
So, after years of puzzling over some of the ludicrous behavior of the ‘right’, I went into 2000 hoping things would get better.
Little did we all know.
So I’m watching the debate, and a question about spending came up. I listened to Gore answer cogently and directly. He expressed proportions and limits, and generally made sense… to those who were following. Then, in a stroke of political cunning, and perhaps because he too didn’t quite follow Gore’s numbers, Bush recognized that millions of people heard Gore and were scratching their heads and called Gore’s summary ‘Fuzzy Math’.
At that moment, I knew what he did and why it portended bad things. He realized that there were many, many people that were barely cognizant. Instead of giving his own cogent response, he
harnessed that mass ignorance, and in one fell swing, he gained their approval by excusing their lack of understanding. He basically told several million people that it ‘wasn’t their fault’ because Gore’s numbers were ‘fuzzy’. I knew that someone who harnessed ignorance to his benefit was wrong for the country. Even then I had no idea how right I was.
So, for the next few years I felt I was through the looking glass. My country had seemingly gone insane and so few people even noticed. I understood that few people wanted to be bothered with ‘boring politics’, but it was like trying to tell everyone that we were sailing into an iceberg and no one cared.
Then, I found something online; it was a loud screed about an ‘anti-American’ site that promoted ‘criminal acts’
http://www.democraticunderground.com/mail/hatemail_22.html ">Against Wal-mart. I followed the links, and here, on DU, I finally found sanity.
Major props to Skinner, Elad, and EarlG for having the foresight to build this island of sanity in the midst of our great national nightmare. Even they could not have known just how bad things would get.
So here I was, feeling for a while like I only barely belonged because I still had an ‘R’ on my registration card. I really
didn’t want to change my registration because the Republican party actually had decent values at some point. My parents were Eisenhower Republicans too, but while I recognized that the party had strayed into insanity, they, like so many others, believed that the name was the thing, not the actions. I stubbornly kept my registration because I truly believed that it was
everyone else that was going insane, and I refused to stop ‘being’ a Republican just because they abandoned the values Republicans were
supposed to stand for.
I used to make small distinctions between my own personal philosophy and the 'Liberal' philosophy on issues like gun rights and the death penalty, but even upon examining those, there’s really not much about ‘liberalism’ I can disagree with.
After years of DU, and consequential research, no one can believe that the ‘Right’ has any claim to legitimacy any more.
What I’ve found among the Liberal community are values that no one on the ‘Right’ can lay claim to;
- A healthy respect for reasoned discourse, facts, logic, and rational debate.
That’s me.
- Real respect for justice and the rule of law over any issues of consequence.
Me again.
- An unwavering dedication to the rights of the underprivileged and the working class in pursuit of a strong economy and stable society.
Right here!
- The fight against corporate greed and the corruption of our government by those inhuman corporations.
Where do I sign?
- Belief in a future of prosperity for all.
That’s the ticket!
- Fighting for the preservation of the environment that
provides for all of us now, and for future generations on what we believe will become a well-managed planet Earth.
I am SO there!
…. And the list goes on.
After knowing all of this, and understanding, in demonstrable fashion, that the ‘Right’ is on a crusade to take us
backwards rather than into a peaceful and prosperous future, there’s no possible way I could identify with today’s ‘conservatives’ any more than an eagle could confuse itself with a warthog.
So from up here in the DU aerie, even though it’s not always clean or solemn, I’m happy to take a fresh breath, feel the breeze on my shoulders, and say with pride that I am, indeed and in spirit, an honest-to-greatness
Liberal.
Thank you again Skinner, Elad, and EarlG. You’ve done a great thing here not just for those of us seeking sanity in this harrowing world, but potentially for the future of America and even humanity itself… even if in some small way.
Now… what should I change my registration to when next I renew my license… :think:
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