Hi, Everyone:
I have lurked on this site since 2004, but I deliberately did not create an account because I already published a (now defunct) political blog (Kentucky Fried Politics) and a blog, Levellers, that dealt with the intersection of progressive religion and progressive politics. I am very active in both local Democratic politics (have phone banked and gone door to door for my Congresscritter, Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY-03), worked on the Kucinich and then Dean campaigns in '04, and phonebanked for Obama in both elections) and in progressive causes, especially around issues of economic justice and peacemaking. So, I was afraid that if I ever created a DKos account, I'd never get any remunerative work done.
It has been difficult to keep from creating an account just to comment from time-to-time, especially on local and Southern matters, but I stoutly resisted.
But I could not resist the challenge to write a diary on Why I am a Democrat. Here goes:
I was born in 1962. My biological father was in the Navy and my mother worked whatever job was handy. I have 5 sisters and brothers. I am the oldest and the firstborn son with all the pressures that brings in a Southern context. Since my biological father (a cheating scumbag) was often at sea, we were largely raised by my mother. Even after her divorce and remarriage to my adopted father, it was my mother's influence that prevailed for most of my life.
My mother LOVED John F. Kennedy. I was only a year old when he was assassinated, and so probably cannot REALLY remember her crying before the TV set, but have been told the story so often that I think I remember it. My mother was a bit player in the Civil Rights Movement.
I DO remember the assassinations of MLK, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy when I was 6. Though we lived in Orlando, then, and I was far more interested in NASA than politics, I could not help but feel the impact of the Civil Rights struggle, the Vietnam War (every night on the news as we ate dinner--with friends' fathers and 2 uncles killed there), and the assassinations. I knew there was a struggle for what kind of nation we would be and the sides were clear: Those for compassion and justice and helping others (things also preached from pulpits every Sunday) and those who were cruel and just out for themselves. I did not at that young age attach political party names to the sides, but I knew which side I was on.
We were Southern white evangelicals in our family: a mix of Methodists and Baptists. But this was before the rise of the Religious Right and the candidacy of Ronald Reagan. We were Southern evangelical Social Gospellers. Our faith had nothing to do with inerrancy or with gay bashing, etc. It was about welcoming strangers, seeking justice for the poor and marginalized, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and peacemaking. Servant leadership was stressed and service to others and defence of the common good. I remember my mother telling us again and again: All people are created in the image of God (whether or not they believe in any god) and are therefore ALL entitled to dignity and equality. That was the basis for our work against racism and sexism, and structural poverty. (Later, when I understood the issues better, it was also the basis for my becoming a straight ally for the LGBT community--the more so after various family members "came out.")
At 10, I saw the Watergate Scandal every night on TV and every day in the papers. Although I knew not all Republicans were Nixon, this was when I identified myself as a Democrat. (My mother and adopted father were also Democrats, but only about half of my siblings have continued the tradition. Those who came of age when Reagan was president, adopted a very different worldview and family gatherings have often been strained because of it.)
I stayed up late to watch Jimmy Carter win the White House in 1976. I loved Carter and still do. He was too cautious on economic matters, but he was strong on the ecology, on peacemaking, education, and energy, and human rights. He told us he'd never lie to us and in my lifetime, he's the only president of either party to keep such a pledge. Carter's version of Baptist faith leading to progressive politics and the struggle for social justice is very similar to my own.
I have to say, I never saw the Reagan Revolution coming. Nor the Religious Right. When Falwell, Robertson, etc. burst on the scene in the late '70s, I was a teen. In my church youth group we thought the idea of televised fundamentalist religion to be hilarious. We had bumper stickers saying "The Moral Majority is Neither." They were so OBVIOUSLY anti-gospel (slick used car salesmen) that we couldn't believe anyone took them seriously. And an out-of-work B movie actor as president? Hilarious. Oh, sure, California had twice elected Reagan as governor, but EVERYONE KNEW Californians were weird. The country as a whole was surely more sane. I didn't read POLLS back then. So, I cast my first vote for Carter in November 1980--and was as shocked by Reagan's landslide victory as any current Fox Noise junkee was last year at Romney's loss. I was in shock for 2 days.
Not having enough money for college, and thinking that the end of the Vietnam War meant the cure of America from military adventurism, I joined the military to pay for college. I don't regret it, but before my term was up, I had become a convinced pacifist and had to get a lawyer for a conscientious objector discharge. I came home from Germany, got a job and went to a local community college so I could pay back the Army for my tuition fund (It had to be paid back since I didn't complete my hitch). I campaigned for Mondale, thought that his choice of running mate (Geraldine Ferarro) would bring out the women and lead to ratification of the ERA--but seeing all the Reagan/Bush stickers on the cars of college students, I was less shocked at the results of the 1984 election.
I finished college and graduate school and got married. When Clinton won, I FINALLY voted for the winner--but spent the next 8 years wondering what I won. YES, I understood that conservatism was still rising and that Third Way maneuvers may be the best that could be accomplished, but I still hated the compromises. EXPANDING the death penalty? I was suspicious of NAFTA from the beginning, but wasn't sure it would be a disaster. It was horrifying to find that, at least on the "giant sucking sound," Ross Perot was right. Welfare "reform" that was like taking a battle axe to the poor? Don't Ask, Don't Tell? DOMA? Neoliberal banking "reform?" During the Reagan and Bush I years, Democrats successfully blocked such crap in Congress. Bill Clinton signed it into law instead of vetoing it. He came out of the '95 shutdown victorious--and then gave away most of what Gingrich wanted!
I didn't vote for Nader in 2000, but I was disgusted with Democrats by then. I campaigned for Bill Bradley. Sure, Al Gore was LIGHTYEARS better than Bush II (Shrub), but I watched in horror as he ran the worst campaign I could imagine. He could've still won by picking Bob Graham (D-FL) as his running mate. I'm from FL (though I've lived in KY since 1986). Bob Graham was one of our most popular governors before being a very popular U. S. Senator. His name on the ticket would've kept FL from being close enough for JEB Bush and Katherine Harris to steal!
The George W. Bush years were so horrible for me that I actually tried to move to Canada, Australia, or the U.K., but, as an academic, I could only get visiting professorships or lecture tours. I kept getting beaten out for full time tenured posts abroad. After '04, I quit trying and resolved that come hell or high water, I was going to restore honor to the USA. I hadn't been trying to leave out of lack of patriotism, but of deep shame. Torture and DEFENDING torture? I was worried about my children growing up and believing that crap. (They haven't. One is a fresher in college enrolled in a Peace Studies program and the other is a fresher in High School active in the school Gay-Straight Alliance.)
I've been deeply frustrated with Obama, but I had lower expectations than many on this site--I remembered the Clinton years. I saw the '10 backlash coming, though it was bigger than I expected.
I am a Democrat because I am a Christian who was taught to believe in justice and compassion for the poor, in care for the earth, and working for peace. The Democratic Party is deeply flawed as it stands, but it is the only viable party that can be a vehicle for those values.
I am not just a Democrat, I am a particular KIND of Democrat. A liberal on social issues and a Left Populist Progressive on issues of structural justice. My idea of a perfect president would have a domestic policy like FDR and LBJ and a foreign policy like Jimmy Carter. I don't see that kind of president on the horizon, but I do see the possibility of getting a centrist president who, with the right kind of Congress AND strong social movements in the streets, can be PUSHED that way. Progressives mistake was not in electing Obama: It was in relaxing in 'o9 instead of staying in the streets, staying confrontational, and staying organized. The Occupy Movement got some of that back--at least succeeding in changing the conversation. This Democrat is prepared always to work with a twofold strategy: Pragmatic "system" politics of getting us the "more and better" Democrats in office--the best we can for particular contexts. While continuing to grow progressive movements in the streets to change the contexts. My friend, Washington D.C. preacher, Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners Magazine, likes to say that politicians are always holding their fingers to the wind: So our job is changing the direction of the wind. Kossacks can help the Democratic Party be a major part of than change in the wind.