In the Balance: Introduction to Daily Kos

After lurking in the shadows for more than a year, I've thought it was time to come out and try to make a difference, since 2006 is the tipping point, a make-or-break time for us and our enemies. And what better way to get in than to introduce myself?

I've read, lurked, and made a couple comments in the past year. Most of the that time I'd been bogged down with other responsibilities, such as school and I've had a general aversion to blogging for lots of reasons. Now I think it's time to make a difference.

I'm from a pretty purple state--it's soaked to the gills with increasingly fundamental Christianity, yet its state legislature is heavily Democratic. Both of its senators to Washington are Democrats. Unfortunately, it voted for Bush in both cycles.

I must confess--I'm an ex-conservative, reformed since age 11. My parents are conservative, especially my mother, and I remember watching Rush in the mornings before school, thinking that homosexuality was a sin, believing that taxes were wholly evil and thinking that Bush I was great and that Clinton was some upstart rogue. I don't know what it was that changed me to the liberal side, maybe it was adolescent brain development, my childhood environmentalism, growing up watching unhealthy amounts of Comedy Central standup or realizing that President Clinton was doing great things for the nation. It goes to show that conservatism really is an immature ideology, if a kid could see that it's phony.

In any case, I'm a committed liberal as well as a libertarian Democrat dedicated to keeping church and state separate and supporting my gay friends in their fight for rights, as well as equality for everyone (including our enemies across the aisle). I hope the Daily Kos community welcomes me into the fold.