Why I’m Not a Democrat
[This was due for Bill C’s request on the 25th, I hope it’s not late but… er, my dog ate my post]
I once had a theory, back when I was about 10, that everything in stores should be free, as that would eliminate poverty. In my theoretical world everyone would only take what they needed and poverty would end. My folks had emigrated from Hungary in 1956, immigrants to the U.S shortly thereafter (legally, as was the practice at the time) and told me that my theory was basically communism. Hey, I was only 10, what excuse did Marx have?
While in High School back in the 70’s of California I fancied myself an independent thinker so when I turned 18 I registered to vote as non-partisan since neither party reflected my political viewpoint. Even by then I started questioning the left. My first year at Berkeley I saw a booth run by Iranians against the Ayatollah. I asked them what was so bad about the Shah and why they kicked him out just a few years back. Their reply was that they were politically naïve at the time. Hmmm, sounds familiar.
Jimmy Carter was President at the time and although he was making a mess of our foreign and domestic policies I decided I’d vote for him for a second term. I figured he deserved it for no real good reason, but heck, we were living in dangerous times and who else had the experience of running the nation when we had the hostage situation in Iran. At least he tried to rescue them.
Now this was my first time voting and it was a Presidential election, on the Right was former Governor of California Ronald Reagan, and the Independent Hart. The only thing I knew about Reagan was that as Governor he closed down a lot of mental health institutions (read “insane asylumsâ€) and let’s just say the quality of street people went way down. That, and he starred in “Bed-Time for Bonzo†among other forgettable films.
On election day I was driving home from school to go vote and the radio announced that Carter had withdrawn from the election. He quit! California still had hours to vote and he just gave up because he was pissed that people weren’t voting for him. It was a cold slap in the face for the left coast and the one thing I can’t understand is how he got even one, single vote after that. I voted for the Independent Hart and that was that.
Later, I heard speeches by Reagan and saw how the hostages were freed and slowly but surely I regretted my vote in my first Presidential election. At first I thought it was just an act, but later it sank in: this guy is for real and he speaks to my heart and to my logic. He made sense when everyone else didn’t. I’m proud to say I voted for his second term in spite of the Ray-Gun propaganda that permeated the California electorate.
I guess those years taught me the true meaning of conservativism, and the true meaning of the Democrats’ goal of the Nanny State taking charge of every aspect of our lives. That, and gun control. I grew up with guns so when I finally registered for a party, my choice was obvious. As for hiding that fact, I never backed down. I’m a proud Republican that will admit when my party is wrong e.g. immigration and rampant spending, but I’ll never deny it. To twist a liberal slogan that was popular back in my day, “The Republican Party, Love it or Change itâ€.
| More from Pete
Stumble It!
July 3rd, 2006 at 5:59 pm
[...] At BlogWonks (dedicated to “Demolishing the Matriarchy One Teradactyl at a Time”), Pete pens (types?) a great essay about his conversion from liberal thinker to conservative. His post really struck home for me because it describes so accurately my own thinking at the end of the 1970s, including that now embarrassing vote for Carter. [...]
July 5th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
This sounds a lot like a therapy group with all of us admitting that we’ve been “democrat free” for X days.
As Reagan said: People who are young and conservative have no heart while those who are old and liberal have no brains. This applied to himself.
For me, the realization that leftism was not the philosophy for me came about the moment I spotted the sophistric and intellectually dishonest tactics they used and the lack of consideration for my own issues as a white male.
I can understand most people for wanting to be democrats as part of the “gimme” party: Get special rights or victim privileges because you belong to a special interest group. It’s like watching smash-and-grab rioting during Katrina: You may condemn them but you understand them. At least what they’re doing makes sense.
What was bizarre to me was the self-hatred and loathing of the white guilt upper and middle class white male leftist and even for that matter, their wives. Women, to their credit, are slowly realizing that leftism is taking more away from them than it gives. Men also realize this but it took them about the same period of time which is incredible. Isn’t this a no brainer?
So we really need to analyze what makes men buy into white guilt and hyper chivalry combined with the notion of sexism being wrong. Is it driven by insecurity to get laid and accepted? I have noticed that working class men don’t feel a need to buy into such nonsense maybe because they don’t worry that they won’t get invited to an embassy party because of it. Is it to feel intellectually smug and superior to “mean spirited” right wingers? I know a lot of men like this and this appears to drive them.
July 5th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
PK writes: Is it to feel intellectually smug and superior to “mean spirited†right wingers?
Hits it on the head. I read an excellent post at Ace of Spades that expounds on this; that it’s easier to agree with the left e.g. Noam Chompsky PHD, and get the equivalent of a degree in humanities or whatever, than to actually go through the rigors of earning the degree itself. You could add “mouth breathing, knuckle dragging, bible humping right wingnuts” to PK’s “Mean spirited” to get the complete picture. Common sense has absolutely no meaning to these people.
July 5th, 2006 at 8:12 pm
And by the way PK, although I liked the feed-back, comments like, “This sounds a lot like a therapy group with all of us admitting that we’ve been “democrat free†for X days:
Have. No. Merit.
I was politely asked to write about a topic. I did. No group therapy was involved. If a topic interests me I’ll write if I have the time. I’ve had to go to group therapy in the course of a wrongfully adjudicated child abuse decision and it’s not like this post. Not even close.
July 6th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Hello Pete,
I was poking a bit of fun at ourselves and at the same time acknowledging that we can admit, like adults, when we were mistaken in our youth and grow up and learn from the experience. I think that takes a lot of honesty and courage.
July 8th, 2006 at 10:16 am
I had to write to PK after my little tantrum:
…I apologize for that last comment, I had realized I mistook it and wish I hadn’t posted it, but it was late and it just rubbed me the wrong way. Next time I’ll count to ten. I really appreciated the comment and should have taken it for it’s intent, instead of interpreting it in a way that I could be offended by it. That’s a trick used by victim groups all the time and here I did it myself. No offense was intended and I read offense into the message. Jeff Goldstein at protein wisdom has written more eloquently about this topic in the past in case you are interested in an excellent perspective of the PC phenomenon. He’s a former professor of linguistics and now a full time blogger/stay at home dad.
Please keep on posting comments without regard to offending, I thought my skin was a bit thicker.