I grew up in a part of Ohio that is overwhelmingly Republican. My first political memory is voting in my elementary school's mock presidential election. I remember voting for everybody's favorite Viagra salesperson, Bob Dole. I also remember feeling vindicated during the Monica Lewinski scandal. Luckily, as I grew up I was able to escape the Republican party's stranglehold on the suburbs.
Two recent incidents in suburbia have made me wonder what exactly it means to be a Democrat. First, I summoned all of the courage I had and decided to go door-to-door in my neighborhood to get the signatures necessary to get progressive candidate Jennifer Brunner on the ballot. Her campaign gave me a list of the Democrats in my neighborhood, and I was shocked. The McCain/Palin yard signs in my neighborhood in 2008 had led me to believe that there very few, if any, Democrats in my neighborhood, but the list of registered Democrats was substantial. In the conversations I had with them, there were two things I heard the most: "Geez, you're brave to go door-to-door in this neighborhood," and "I'll sign the petition, but please don't tell any of the neighbors I'm a Democrat."
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