Here is my response to the challenge presented by AlyoshaKaramazov to talk about what we believe in as Democrats, and why we are Democrats.
The thoughts were originally posted on Views on Brews/Travels of McMammah - Part I.
It is a story of how a child from middle-class Northeastern Republicans made the journey to becoming a Democrat.
By the way "McMammah" is my acronym for "middle-class, middle-aged male, mad as hell".
Join me over the orange cliff jumping off point to see another journey to being a Democrat.
Where to begin? How about at the present.
I am middle-aged. How much middle and how much aged I'll leave to your imaginations.
I am a white male born in the late 1950's to professional white collar parents. My father worked as an actuary at insurance companies. My mother was a registered nurse who stayed at home and raised four children. She returned to work part-time once the youngest child (not me, I'm number two in birth order though the oldest male child) was older and college tuition payments for the eldest child, my sister, drew closer.
Despite living on one income for most of the time the children were growing we always lived in a single family home in a decent neighborhood, went to decent neighborhood schools, had at least one car, and took family vacations. Oh the vacations. Some time remind me to tell you about the three week family trip to Europe, or the five to six week trip out West. Try taking those vacations today and see if you have a job to come back to.
My parents were Republicans. Northeastern United States Republicans. They supported Rockefeller. They voted for Goldwater even though they felt he was a little too far "out there". My mother despised FDR. Yet if asked my mother would label herself a liberal rather than conservative. She defined liberal as someone who was willing to change what was being done if it didn't seem to be working while a conservative would be more resistant to change.
So as I grew older and started hitting the age where I could at least follow what was going on in the world I thought of myself as a Republican. That was "our side". That was who we were and so that's who I wanted to win. I also was interested in the drama and horse race side of politics. Beginning with 1968 I would stay up and watch the national party conventions. I stayed up as late as the news coverage would go in those pre-cable days.
1968 is where the drift began.
Ah 1968 and the sweet smells of rebellion and cannabis are in the air. Not that I was soaking up any cannabis mind you. I was still too young for that.
But the counterculture was in full swing. My heroes were Hendrix, Clapton, Stills, The Who. And the War. Vietnam. We all talked about it. The draft. Even though our 18th birthdays were years in the future the boys paid attention. We talked about it. Every year when they did the draft lottery you checked the paper to see where your birth date had fallen that year. One year if I had been 18 my birthday would have been #4. The choice would have been Vietnam or flee to Canada. Or hope for the student deferment like so many Republican chicken hawks obtained.
One year in 6th grade the teacher asked and all but one or two of the boys said if they were called up for the draft they would go to Canada. Easy to say when you're in sixth grade. But it shows how aware we already were about the war and its potential impact on us.
And this is where the move began. My Republican parents did instill a sense of morality and fairness and justice to their children. Well they tried anyway. So we were prone to being sympathetic to the meek and mild, the poor, the disadvantaged, the downtrodden.
I looked around at the world. The war. The civil rights movement. The environmental movement. Women's Lib. All of these causes resonated with me and a sense of justice. And on all the issues there was one political group that seemed to be on what I considered to be the correct side. Liberal Democrats. JFK. RFK. McGovern. McCarthy (Gene). These were the people fighting against the war, even though it was "institutional" Democrats like LBJ and Humphrey that were in power and administering the war. And while civil rights and the environment had strong bipartisan followings in that time, again liberal Democrats were in the forefront.
And so my allegiance began to move.
I'll admit on the civil rights issue at one point my young mind was puzzled. How could blacks and so many civil rights leaders seem to be going with Democrats? Why did so many blacks vote Democratic? After all the GOP was the party of Lincoln. The Democrats were the party of Jefferson Davis and Stephen Douglas. It didn't make sense to an immature mind. But the modern parties did seem to be switching roles.
And so by 1968 I found myself backing Democratic candidates for national office. Which I'm sure came as great comfort to them and great discomfort to the Republicans that they had lost this young pre-pubescent male.
First it was Eugene McCarthy as he was the first to announce and take on the leader of his party, Lyndon Baines Johnson. After his strong showings forced LBJ to announce he would not seek reelection Bobby Kennedy entered the fray. I stayed with McCarthy out of my sense of young fairness. After all he had been there first and jumped in when it was riskier to do so.
This led to one of my most cherished moments with my Grandfather (on my father's side). He was an arch conservative, fan of Nixon and Goldwater. He was grilling steaks on the grill at his house on Cape Cod. We were visiting. It happened that I was alone with him out back at the grill. He asked me who I supported in the election. I responded "McCarthy".
He roared. "McCarthy? McCarthy supporters get hot dogs. Everyone else gets the steaks!"
I then responded, "that's alright Grandpa, I like hot dogs."
He shot back with finger extended toward me, "good for you! Stick to your guns! Always stand up for what you believe!"
Looking back with adult hindsight I wish I had backed RFK. He went beyond just being anti-war. I believe he may have been a transformational political leader. He could appeal to blacks, working class whites, anti-war youth, in a way other candidates could not. How different America would have looked after a Bobby Kennedy presidency instead of Nixon and his Southern Strategy and Watergate. Bobby appealing to our better angels, Tricky Dick playing on fear and suspicion. Our world and nation would look very different today I believe and in a very positive way.
So by 1968 my transformation was underway. Through the 1970 and 1972 election cycles it was complete. My first political experience was working at the local Democratic headquarters making calls to out of town students for absentee ballots and dropping campaign literature at selected houses. I even wrote a letter to the editor on behalf of George McGovern. "George Will Do It" is the title the local paper put over the letter. Judging by the returns few, if any, found its arguments persuasive.
If my move to the Democratic Party had not been complete, Nixon and Watergate insured it was.
I sat riveted during the Senate committee hearings and later the House Judiciary committee hearings. Nixon was trying to steal and undermine our democracy and had to be stopped. Again who was leading the charge? Liberal Democrats. Heroes were made such as Barbara Jordan. A few brave Republican souls put country before party - but most of them ended up paying a political price and being punished for such audacity.
And so after my 18th birthday, as I went to the high school library to register at a special school registration event, I proudly told the registrar I would register as a Democrat.