How I got here (politically)

In a nutshell this is how I got from Democrat to Independent.

My parents raised me to believe rich people are evil. Especially Republicans. (I know you are reading this Mom, don't deny it.) As I got older I believed all the trash being thrown around about Reagan and the first Bush. As far as I was concerned, they were horrible presidents and bad people. If you had known me then I would have told you this, and argued it all day long. In fact I did argue this with my Platoon Leader many, many times. I was the gunner on his Bradley Fighting Vehicle and we passed a lot of time in the field debating politics. He was a devout Republican.

So as the years passed I voted for Bill Clinton twice and felt pretty good about it. But I was noticing that some of the planks of the Democratic platform didn't quite make sense to me. How can you be for abortion but against the death penalty? (The Republicans have the same problem, in reverse.) And how come when one of our guys gets caught in a scandal it's a fluke, a single bad apple; and when one of their guys gets caught it's an example of widespread corruption in their party? (Ditto, Republicans.)

So I'm starting to doubt the whole party thing when Clinton had his intern affair. What drove me out of the fold, so to speak, was the hypocrisy of the people defending Clinton. That's when I saw that there are no absolutes, no standards, when you are a partisan. Another example: It was perfectly okay for Clinton to dodge the military during Vietnam, but despicable for Bush to get into the National Guard. The same people defending Clinton when he ran were bashing Bush during his run, and vice versa.

Politicians and the people running their campaigns think we are stupid. They think we don't pay attention and we can't remember what was said from one election to the next. And they are right, for the most part. I can think of only two reasons for people to remain members of either political party. One is that you are a single issue voter. Whether it's abortion or the environment or whatever, you have one issue that's important to you so you will stick with the party that is on your side through thick and thin.

I respect this, I think when it comes time to vote this is the only real way to make a decision, because we will never get better than "the lesser of two evils" to choose from. So you have to decide which person is going to do what you want on your most important issue. This is how I ended up voting for Bush twice. My issues were security and the economy.

The other is that it's easier than thinking for yourself. I think a lot of folks fall into this one. "Dancing with the American Idol Survivor Stars" is on, so I don't want to think about hard stuff.

It IS hard. Trying to keep up with everything that's going on, sorting through the bias and spin on the news and in the papers, and it's getting worse.

The bottom line is I have no respect for either party. I don't think they are interested in what's best for the country or the people. They have an agenda and they will push it through no matter whether it makes sense for us or not.

I lean conservative because the liberal agenda defies common sense. And they double-talk too much. The impression I get is that they think we are too stupid to understand the details. Taxes, the economy, security, these are complicated subjects. The Democrats don't ever seem to get into specifics: How does taxing the rich more help the economy? Most low income people pay no taxes already, how does giving them my tax money help them in the long run become higher income? What, exactly, IS your plan to secure America? "I'll do it better" isn't a plan.

I don't feel like the democrats are speaking to me when they go on the Sunday morning shows and such. Until they start answering questions with specifics, I can't get on board. I don't like all the Republican plans, but at least I know what they are and can make a decision based on something concrete.