My Political Exodus
Tue Jul 17, 2007 at 04:54:01 PM PDT
This morning, there was a diary on the recommended list by a right winger, followed by a diary condemning said right-winger's diary. There were comments in the second diary along these lines:
why do you trust the good intentions of any conservative or Republican alive today? They will always fuck you over for their political gain.
If I had seen or heard these types of things 8 years ago, I would not be the progressive democrat I am today. If I had seen people (rightfully) making fun of the hypocricy in right-wing hate mail and then seen the same types of things said against the right wingers elsewhere on the site, I would not be the progressive democrat I am today.
I have to admit, I was a Bushie in 2000. Follow me below the fold for the story of my exodus.
I am thankful that I was not old enough to vote in 2000... I turned 18 a year later. I am proud to say, therefore, that I have no votes that I regret.
I was only minorly interested in politics when I was in high school. I am the daughter of a (religious) conservative democrat and a disenchanted, apathetic moderate. I took the evangelical religious side of my beliefs, and that was the foundation for everything I did and believed in every other area of my life. I also watched my mom go through three bad relationships.
I remember watching the impeachment hearings against Bill Clinton. I was in my grandfather's living room, watching the vote counts. I watched the arguments, but I don't remember them. I just remember getting excited every time another "yea" came through. I literally jumped up and down cheering when they said that he had been impeached. The immoral bastard, he had cheated on his wife for Christ's sake!
When the Supreme court handed the presidency to George Bush, I was cheering again. I mean, if Al Gore were president, abortions would be happening left and right, and we can't have that! George Bush is a strong, moral, Christian man... he's the perfect leader for our country!
Then 9-11 happened. I was sure that Bush would get us through that time of crisis. He was so strong, so steady.. I just knew he would get the bastards that had done this to our country. I was 100% behind the invasion of Afghanistan.
Then came 2002. With 2002 came the announcement that we were going into Iraq. I was stunned. I was confused. I thought, wait a minute. We haven't caught Bin Laden yet. And even if he was really itching to invade another country, weren't most of the hijackers Saudis? Why were we bothering with Iraq right now? That was also the beginning of my intense interest in national politics.
Along with this coincided a very tumultuous time in my personal life, in which I began to doubt a lot of things. I won't go into the events that triggered this, but I will say that for a while, I gave up Christianity. I decided that there couldn't be a God, because if there were, bad things wouldn't be happening, to me or in the rest of the world. I came out the other side of all of this a very different person.
I came back to Christianity, but as a very liberal one. I now identify myself as a Social Democrat.
But if I had seen some of the things that I have seen today from the "tolerant, rational" democratic party, I never would have become a Democrat. Or, at least, not at that time... not nearly as soon as I did.
I guess what I am trying to say is that, yes, people can change. As long as they are being rational and respectful, as our right-wing guest was today, then we should welcome them, engage them in debate, get them thinking. If all we do is ignore them and/or turn them away, we will never gain any ground. Let's be truly tolerant. Many members of the right-wing are simply mis-guided and uninformed, just as I was. Let's make efforts to inform them when they make the effort to listen. Will we change their minds? Maybe, maybe not. But we'll never know unless we try.
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