"Liberal"

I have been thinking a lot lately about my political views. Any person who is my friend knows all about my non-Republican leanings ("leanings" is probably not a strong enough word.) Some would call me a bleeding-heart liberal or worse perhaps even Socialist. I should say that I really don't like labels, and until the election of Barack Obama, was a registered Independent. So, if I am a "Liberal" I must ask myself, how did I come to this point? Is it a correct label?

Spoiler alert: I am one of those people who likes to analyze everything to the most minute of points, so this isn't going to be a post solely about my dislike of the Tea Party or Tom Coburn it's really about the experiences in my life that have made me, really abhor so much that "Conservative" politics has come to mean.

To begin, I was born into a middle class family. Both parents were the first of their kin to go to college. We were your basic, Mid-Western Protestant family, two cars, ranch house etc. That is until my dad was diagnosed with Diabetes, after which, he lost nearly every job he had for health reasons (American Civil Liberties hadn't happened yet.) We moved all over the South and Mid-West, and missed out on the supposed benefits of "Reganomics". When I was 7, my dad died having struggled with his illness, the job market, taking care of his family, etc. In addition to the gaping psychological hole this left in our lives, it also left my mother the sole provider for three kids.

We didn't have a Dickens childhood, but it was a mess. Six years later, after my mom extricated herself from my wretched "stepfather", we ended up in a shelter for abused women and children. So we went from middle-class to poor to homeless all in a relative short time. At the aforementioned shelter, we meet all kinds of people. Of course, there were the much-maligned welfare mothers and drug-addicts, but, there were also a good number of seemingly normal people stuck in absolutely abnormal circumstances.

After the shelter, life fell into a groove. Mom worked, my younger sister and I went to school and worked and my brother went to college and worked.

My brother and I did the college thing, taking out loans, working our way through, getting good grades etc. My sister, well, that is another story for later.

While in college, I came to find God in a different way than I had before and converted to Catholicism. In addition to the beauty and wonder of the Church, it was in line with my Pro-Life views, and had a strong sense of Social Justice. I began to identify with certain conservative points that are non negotiable, mostly having to do with Life issues. Therefore, I began to embrace more and more of the conservative message. I was a message of contrasts, here I am identifying with the conservative, Right while I was a male, music major with a minor in dance at an uber conservative college. It is not an exaggeration to say that I was taunted and felt threatened on a daily basis while walking the halls, returning to my dorm or eating in the café.

Whatever, I made it through and went on to grad school, marriage and parenthood. I self identified as a conservative until sometime after 9/11 when the tactics of G. W. Bush started to make me think.

Here we are in two wars. both ill-conceived and one some might say was illegal. OK, so that didn't feel right.
Next, the tax cuts and spending behavior of the government just seemed irresponsible...
Next, we were dipped into the recession post 9/11 which destroyed the job market and put my wife and I into the forefront of the jobless masses. It just wasn't going well for me and those conservative beliefs.

I absolutely believe in the right to life, but the party that I identify with is strongly in support of the death penalty. They also give lip service to being "pro-life" while the destroy the education and social systems which serve those minorities which are most at risk for pregnancy...

It just kept piling on! Then, it was in 2005 when my sister disappeared from her home in Highland Beach that I began to realize how broken the government was and how the Republican party was not doing anything to fix it. There were so many facets to the story of my sister which, I believe were the catalyst away from so-called "Conservatism." Some of it was social justice, some law enforcement, some just calloused behavior by elected officials (thank you Tom Coburn.)

Since that time it has been steadily downhill for the "conservative" agenda, I mean really? I am the ideal! A hard-working guy, with some intelligence and energy. I am working to do good, paying my way through college and doing my best to take care of my family. Why is it that I can't get ahead? Why am I saddled with a mortgage payment of student loans? Why is simple health care so expensive that I went 3-years without regularly testing by blood sugar? I worked my ass of to be a productive member of society, to get an education, to work and to be responsible. Why is it that the hard work has really just left me with a huge heap of debt and no way to pay it back? Here are some other points:

The trend deregulation (which goes back to Nixon) has allowed normal people to get screwed by all sorts of financial institutions, retail outlets, food providers, auto companies, etc.

Also, the business of health care has gone unchecked for so long that it is literally bankrupting our society. (Don't talk to me about health care unless you have a disease, says the Diabetic boy!)

Furthermore, I don't see how you can be pro-life, without looking at the entirety of life. Not just the birth, but the living and dying as well. Post Kennedy, we have destroyed the workings of Social Justice in favor of wealth. Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems that one of the best ways to stop abortion is to help anyone considering the practice to see the value of their own life.

I could go on forever...

I know that these issues are more nuanced, and that no political party has the answer or can be absolved from blame. That being said, the Republican Party has nothing to offer me and runs counter to most of what I hold dear.

I truly believe in justice and I truly feel that the Republican party really has nothing to advocate for justice or equity at this point.

So, where does that leave me? I guess that I am a Catholic, who believes in a moderate social agenda and moderate-to liberal fiscal policies...

Where do I go in our current political system? I cannot abide a party that serves the likes of Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Coburn, The Koch brother etc.

I cannot serve a party that would destroy the middle class, social security, health care and the like in some absurdist idea of liberty. To those who say that the rich are over taxed, I say that the rich wouldn't be rich if it weren't for the work of those they seek to deny the liberty of education, health and general safety.

So, it seems that I am, by default, now a member of the Democratic party. I desire is that we can find balance in our system or I am afraid we will end in ruins like other empires...

OK, enough for now.