Roseyland

I’ve been thinking about politics a lot lately. I don’t know why, it must have been something I saw on TV or heard on the radio. Oh wait, that’s right, it the ONLY thing I’ve seen on TV or heard on the radio lately. I love politics though. I once heard John McCain say that politics is a collegiate sport. He was so right. I get the same feeling watching the conventions and debates as I do watching Husker football. This is going to be a messy blog post, because my political identity is a complicated and messy thing. Here is the short version:

I am supporting Barack Obama for President of the Unites States, because to do otherwise would go against every fiber of my being.

That pretty much sums it up. They rest of this blog post is going to be me trying to document the evolution of my political identity over time. I don’t recommend reading any more of this post, it might drive you insane. Still here? Alright, here we go…

Jimmy Carter was the President when I was born. I don’t remember anything about Jimmy Carter, in fact the only real memories I have of Jimmy Carter are from Clinton’s presidency. I do remember Ronald Regan though. Ronald Regan was my hero. I lived in the United States, he was President of the United States, and therefore I loved him. It was weird, because for the first 11 years of my life, Ronald Regan was the only President I had known. I knew there had been other Presidents, but in my mind, Ronald Regan was THE President of the United States.

I don’t remember much about the 1984 elections. I remember that Walter Mondale had chosen a female running mate, but as far as I was concerned, Ronald Regan was the President, and therefore there was no need to have a silly election. I also remember Mary Lou Retton at the 1984 Olympics. In fact, when I think of the 1984 elections, I almost instantly think of Mary Lou Retton. Weird, but true.

I do remember the 1988 elections. What I remember most is that I did not like Michael Dukakis. It was bad enough that Regan wasn’t going to be President anymore. Why on earth would we want anyone other than Regan’s Vice President to be President? I remember that I was on a baseball trip with my Dad, and we were in Boston to see the Red Sox play. As we were walking through Boston, I made the comment “I hope we don’t run in to Dukakis” many times. I seriously thought it was possible that we would run into Dukakis, and he would be all like “Wanna have lunch”, and I would refuse that invitation, because he was not Regan’s Vice President and therefore he was not my friend.

The 1992 elections were the first elections that I really paid any serious attention too. You know, beyond deciding who was my friend and who wasn’t. At first, I was all for George Bush. I remember that my Grandma was mad at George Bush because of the high crime rate in D.C. This seemed utterly rediculous to me, because well, it was utterly rediculous. In response, I took to chanting “Vote for Bush, Vote for Bush” whenever my Grandma was around. Somewhere out there is a VHS videotape of me chanting “Vote for Bush”. If you find it, please destroy it. Not long after this, I started to pay attention to what the candidates were saying, and I decided that Bush wasn’t my man. Okay, here comes one of the most painful and embarrassing things for me to admit: If I could have voted in 1992, I would have voted for Ross Perot. Why? He had pie charts. I f***ing love pie charts. Someday I will write a blog post containing a bunch of charts that I have made throughout my life, and you will love it. Graphical representations of information for the win baby! Woooooo!

Moving on…

I voted for the first time in 1996, and I voted for Bill Clinton. At this point I was a pretty solid democrat. I was in college at the time, and one of my fraternity brothers was a big republican, he was president of the college republicans and I think he even went to the republican national convention that year. It was fun arguing politics with him. Today he is a gay man living in Chicago with his partner. It’s always the conservatives.

In 2000, I voted for Al Gore. George Bush was far too socially conservative for my taste. I also remember being disappointed that the republicans didn’t nominate John McCain. To me, the fact that the republican party nominated someone like George Bush over someone like John McCain speaks volumes about the priorities and mentality of the republican party. At the time I was still okay with George Bush. I knew we didn’t see eye to eye on many issues, but I figured that he would still be a good president. I was totally wrong about that.

The 2004 elections were a little difficult for me. I felt like you had two choices, you could be a Michael Moore democrat or you believed that George Bush was second only to Jesus. I wasn’t feeling either one of these options, but ultimately, I was much more comfortable with John Kerry than I was with George Bush, so I voted for Kerry.

Which brings us to today, 2008, and the election between Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. Who is Palin’s running mate again? Oh yeah, John McCain. I admit that I have great respect for John McCain, and deep down inside, I think we see eye to eye on many issues. Unfortunately, John McCain is on the wrong team, and his pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate makes this abundantly clear. The fact of the matter is, a vote for John McCain isn’t just a vote for John McCain, it is also a vote for the republican party and a vote for Sarah Palin. This is not a vote I am willing to make.

I am a big fan of Barack Obama. I wasn’t completely sold on Obama at first, but he had me with his “A More Perfect Union” speech. After 8 years of Bush, it would be nice to have an articulate President. A President that looks at reality as it is and tries to find the best path forward, rather than a President who adheres to an ideology in spite of reality. So I guess it’s pretty obvious by now, I’m voting for Barack Obama in 2008.

When I started this post, I wanted to try and describe my political identity, but it’s hard. On the surface, I have always voted democrat, but I don’t consider myself a democrat as much as I consider myself a non-republican. When I think of the republicans, this is what I think of:

• The Religious Right
• Irrational Homophobia and Related Policies
• Abstinence Only Sex Education
• Anti Stem Cell Research Policies
• Fear Based Politics
• The Whole Terri Schiavo Thing
• A lot of other stuff that just seems completely nuts to me

I realize that there is a lot more to the republican party than the issues above, but the republicans lack of judgment on social issues makes me question their judgment in every other area. To me, the republicans seem to be a party of ideology first, everything else second. This isn’t to say that the republican ideology is always wrong, it’s just that they never stop to think about whether or not it is right or wrong.

Regardless of what I just said about the republicans, I don’t feel liberal. On social issues, I am fairly liberal, but in other areas there are times when a conservative approach is better, and there are times when a liberal approach is better. I like balance. There are many issues that I disagree with the democrats on, but ultimately the democratic party is a more balanced and rational party than the republican party, and until that changes, I will be voting democrat.