When I argue about politics with certain friends and family members, they will almost always attempt to disparage me by calling me a liberal Democrat. To Republicans, calling someone a liberal is the same as calling them a dirty name.
Actually, in the interest of precise labelling, I'm neither.
I used to be a Democrat, just like I used to be a Dallas Cowboys fan.
In the 1970s, I was a huge Cowboys fan. In those days, the Aggies were stinking up the joint, and like many men, I needed to identify with a winning football team to assert my masculinity and affirm my worthiness as a member of the gender. The Cowboys were on a run of winning seasons, and were loaded with talented players. So I became a Cowboys fan.
Time passed. The Aggies got better, and Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys. Those who know me know that I can't stomach Jerry Jones, but I stuck with the Cowboys through the Barry Switzer tenure. After that, they started losing more than they won, and generally descended into mediocrity. I bailed out on 'em.
I used to be a Democrat. My first vote came in the 1968 presidential election. Being politically ignorant, I asked my buddies how I should cast my vote. Vote for Nixon, I was told, he has a secret plan to end the war. I was watching television the night Nixon told us he had the secret plan. So my first vote was for a Republican.
Two years later, when it was my turn, we were still at war in Vietnam. The secret plan had remained a secret. In 1970, I got my orders to Vietnam. In 1972, my second vote in a presidential election went to George McGovern.
In reality, the 1972 vote was more against Nixon than for McGovern. In fact, most of my presidential votes have been against one candidate, rather than for the other. A notable exception was 1976, when I voted for Jimmy Carter. I believed then, and still do, that Carter was one of the few politicians who wasn't sociopathic. His failure as a president contributed to my belief that political success and sociopathic tendencies go hand in hand.
Anyway, Democrat became my default position politically in 1972, just as the Cowboys had become my favorite team by default a year or so sooner.
That began to change in the 1990s. Bill Clinton disgusted me with his Lewinsky fling. I was less offended by the immorality of the fling than by his carelessness in giving his Republican enemies the tools with which they would attempt to destroy him. What in hell was he thinking ? Within weeks of the 1994 takeover, it was fairly obvious that destruction of Clinton would be the paramount concern of the new Republican congress. Why Clinton, otherwise a fairly intelligent man, would furnish the bullets for his firing squad was beyond me.
It was at that point I began to realize that deep down, Democrats must have some kind of death wish.
The 2000 election rolled around. Having endured banjo boy as governor, I knew putting this hairball in charge of the whole country would be bad news. As noted in an earlier post, I looked to John McCain for salvation, but it wasn't happening. My second choice, Al Gore, got my vote. For all Gore's faults, he should've rolled up a mental and moral defective like banjo boy without breaking a sweat. He couldn't pull it off.
In 2004, the country had already seen nearly four years of banjo boy's act, and the war had started. People who voted for W in 2000 because they liked him as a potential beer-drinkin' buddy would be ready to come to their senses, right ? A competent Democrat should be able to make up a 600-vote deficit in Florida and pull the country out of the ditch.
Never underestimate the power of anti-gay, anti-abortion evangelicals. And never underestimate the Democratic death wish. Kerry, like Gore, blew it.
My movement away from the Democrats that began in 1998 culminated that November day when Kerry conceded defeat. At that point, my identity officially became Anti-Republican. The Cowboys and the Democrats were losers. I needed a winner.
That leaves the liberal part. I'm definitely not a doctrinaire liberal politically. To put it another way, I'm not interested in buying anything Dennis Kucinich is selling. I'm not big on war, but peace at all costs doesn't strike me as being too smart either.
Maybe I'm a dictionary-definition liberal. "In accord with maximum individual freedom of action, personal belief, and expression." That sounds like me, at least the way I see myself. For example, I'm not in favor of government censorship. If a book or movie offends you, don't read or watch, but leave my right to read or watch alone.
"Tolerant, open-minded, not bound by traditional or conventional ideas. Open to new ideas." Again, that fits me, at least the way I want to be. I can be tolerant of just about anybody, as long as they stay out of my face
"Free from prejudice or bigotry." Well, so much for my liberalism. I don't measure up. Bottom line, I'm not a Democrat and apparently not a liberal. You'll have to come up with a new put-down.
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