Originally Posted by armydad
Al, I am a democrat. I have been wanting to ask you why or how you voted for W. twice? With all due respect, were you drunk? Thanks. I enjoy reading your posts.
Simple. In 2000 Bush came to me with something new... "Compassionate Conservatism." I thought he would take the best of the right and left and meld them. And I think he could/would have, except for 911.
In 2004, while I was not enamored with Bush, I disliked Kerry more. He offered nothing except "I'm not Bush." Bush did a good job in getting Part D through in 2003 along with tax cuts, and I thought that while he was a world-class dummy, he had good people working for him and was running the country fairly well. But most of all, I simply didn't trust John Edwards. I didn't know why at the time. Just a gut thing. Of course it turned out my "gut" was right.
The last 3 years of Bush sobered me up and I realized that I' had been duped, just like I was when I voted for Clinton in 1992 as a "New Democrat" which he wasn't. I supported Dole-Kemp in 1996 but I knew it was a lost cause because you can't beat somebody with nobody and Dole was a nobody. (I liked his wife better.)
I didn't support McCain (whom I admire) because of Palin. I also thought John acted badly when he called Obama "That one" in the debate. That showed me a side of the man I didn't like.
I'm an independent and I will give all candidates of all parties a look. The problem with the Reps is that all they say is "No, don't to that, do nothing instead." All they have on their plate is "No this, No that, No everything." I believe that government can be a force of "good" and is the only countervailing power to the corporate multi-national... who does not have me and my family as their best interest. And the Federal government is the only entity I've seen bring about the important social changes in my life. Private schools wouldn't admit blacks until made to. Restaurants wouldn't serve them until made to. You know the rest of the story.
The vast majority of neo-cons see government as a force of evil. In my life the evil that I've seen never came from the Federal government (with the exception of J. Edgar Hoover as well as the imprisonment of the Japanese citizens in WW2). Evil came from corrupt state and local governments as well as a greedy business community. Not much has changed, except that arch-cons can't lynch people like they used to, nor can they expect to get away with a bombing nor not be convicted of murder by an all white jury as when I was a boy.
Neo-cons have never seen the evil that their older brothers and their parents and grandparents have done and were made to stop... by the government that they hate so much. And my guess is that is WHY they hate it so much. It's an authority thing. With arch/neo-cons, the rules apply to everyone but them... because they still believe in white supremacy, or if not that, than some kind of paranoia paradigm that a gay guy will hit on them or that an immigrant might get food stamps to feed their children.
Unlike most here, I don't live in a zero-sum world. I don't believe that if someone else gets something that it means I have to lose something.
One thing is certain. Out of some 12,000+ here, there are not more than twenty or thirty liberal/moderates since very few "came out" in this thread.
I can't really blame them. When you have guys here who brag about walking around with a loaded weapon or others like ins.dave who will unleash a merciless assault of hateful invective and than stalk you through every thread, it probably makes sense for most to just stay in the closet.
I'm in a position to be open and honest here because my financial position is secure, as is my business and my standing in the community (that I've lived in for the past 28 years.) I don't care if I'm not liked by those here who are my polar opposite. Indeed, I wear it as a badge of honor that those whom I've fought against my entire life recognize me as a force to be reckoned with.
If the pistol-packing band of reactionary arch-conservatives in this venue want to bring us back to separate-but-(un)equal, to segregated offices and armed services and neighborhoods, to coat-hanger abortions, to gay bashing, to lynching and cross burning terrorists night-riders, and to the days when cops beat up anyone they wanted, well... they have to get past me first.... and on any day of any week I'm a better writer, a harder working activist, a better organizer, and a better strategist than all of them put together.
Egotistic? Arrogant? A bit... sure... but that's what you have to be when you do political battle. If you don't believe what you believe is better than the other guy... no one else will believe it. Besides, "It's not braggin' if you can do it" and I can do it.
I don't know if that answers your question. If not, I'll try again.
Al
InsuranceSolutions123 Agency
Who is Brave Enough to "out" Themselves As a Liberal?
Linear Mode
