I have to admit that Barack Obama was not my guy last year. I didn't think that he was experienced enough to be president. As a teacher, I was skeptical of his plans for school reform.
I was a Hillary Clinton man. I cheered when she won primaries. I shook my head in disbelief when the junior senator from Illinois outflanked her. I even enjoyed the spectacle of the Clinton speeches at last year's convention.
And when it came time to vote in November, I filled in the circle for Barack Obama and proudly took a picture with my cell phone camera because I knew it was an historic vote.
I did this because I am a Democrat.
I can trace the roots of my Democratic Party identification to two things.
First, I am a union man. My dad was an auto mechanic for his entire working career. He was not a union member himself. But some of my earliest memories of him were times when he shouted at the TV as Ronald Reagan gave speech after speech in favor of busting the unions and selling America to the corporate world. Although it might have been a relatively minor issue to some, my father never forgave Reagan for destroying PATCO, the air traffic controllers union.
My father did a good enough job of raising me that I am now a public school teacher in Michigan. As an MEA member, I am able earn a liveable wage, enjoy a strong and well-managed health care plan and look forward to a solid pension. But these job benefits did not just appear. For decades, my union brothers and sisters went on strike, bargained hard and sacrificed to make the life I lead possible. We will have to fight very hard in the coming days and weeks to maintain this legacy.
And one does not have to look very far in Michigan to see that life can turn on a dime. Workers across the state, both union and non-union, have lost jobs, careers, homes and families. Much of this is because society has been constructed to oppose rather than support their efforts at economic uplift.
And that makes me very sure that we must stand together as Democrats to protect the majority of Americans against the forces of darkness in our society.
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The second reason that I am a Democrat is my Catholic faith. Now, I know that seems a bit strange to say on this board, given the recent abortion vote in the house.
But I grew up during the late 70s and early 80s. My parish priest used to pass out business cards that said only, "Smile. God Loves You." He was a social justice priest and the emphasis was always on helping the poor.
And after studying the scriptures and much Catholic tradition, I can say pretty clearly that if Jesus stood for anything, he stood for helping the poor and the underprivileged. And the party that stands up for the poor and underprivileged is the Democratic Party.
As conservatives have gained power in the institutional church, I have made a conscious decision NOT to leave. I have worked in too many soup kitchens, homeless shelters and service trips to abandon the important social justice functions of the church to politically-motivated conservatives.
And, thankfully, there are many people like me. A majority of Catholics voted for Obama during the last election. And opinion polls still show that the church is essentially evenly divided between liberals and conservatives. I do not begrudge the presence of Republicans in my parish on Sunday. I will give them the same sign of peace that I give to my Democratic friends.
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There is power in community and compromise.
I do not like everything that my union does. Sometimes it protects teachers who do bad things. Sometimes it makes boneheaded political moves. Sometimes my local agrees to contract provisions that are problematic.
But I know that I am far better off because I belong to my union.
I do not like everything that my church does. I absolutely hate the hierarchical power plays. The abuse scandal is an unreformed disgrace. The church's political action in terms of gay marriage and abortion are wrong-headed and obscure Jesus's true message of love and concern for all people, even those castigated by society.
But I believe in the good that the church does. I have seen it with my own eyes. And I am proud to belong to the church.
I do not like everything that my party does. Sometimes it is too liberal for my Midwestern, Catholic tastes. Sometimes, as in the push to implement merit pay and tax the ill-named "Cadillac" health benefits, I have vociferous policy disagreements. Often, I do not think that the Democratic Party does enough to stand up for the worker in society.
But I know in my heart that the Democratic Party is the best chance that we have to build a society that shows concern for the working man and woman, the poor and underprivileged and the values of environment and community.
This does not mean that we should not disagree on the important issues of the day. But at the end of that day, liberal Democrats and conservative Democrats, Blue Dogs and Progressives, Midwesterners and Coastals, university Dems and rural Dems simply have to stick together.
We have to compromise. We have to reelect a Democratic president. We have to find a way to preserve Congressional majorities.
We have to place our Democratic identity first above all the disagreements.