how (and why) little miss republican became a democrat… (or at least more democrat than republican)

So I don't blog on politics too often... but this is an election year and it's on a lot of hearts and minds, so here I am, tossing in my two cents.  In a year where I feel absolutely nauseous and anxious at the thought of who could end up in the White House, I need an outlet.  Badly.  (I'm driving Justin crazy, I think. Then again, he just registered to vote this year, so I guess I should let him tiptoe into this whole mess).
 
In my last year of high school, my senior soc class did a debate between folks who were for Bob Dole and folks who were for Bill Clinton (this was 1996).  I probably don't have to tell you, I was one of the main debaters for Bob Dole, presenting what I thought to be the Republican view of things.  In my 16-year-old mind, this basically came down to taking a pro-life stance.  What else went into being a Republican, I didn't know, but I did know that was how a Christian should vote.
 
Four years later, at the age of 20, I voted for Bush.  An openly Christian man in the White House -- I couldn't have been more pleased.
 

Then we began an war against Iraq for reasons we later found were known falsehoods (in an admittedly low estimate by the Iraq Body Count project, there have been 89,795 to 94,694 documented civilian/non-combatant deaths from March 2003 to June 2008 -- other estimates place the count closer to at least 150,000.  To give a bit of perspective, this would be a loss of life equivalent to roughly fifty 9/11's.).  In addition to pursuing a war unjustly, we had no effective plans to rebuild the country post-dancing-in-the-streets, making Iraq a hotbed for discontent and terrorism where it wasn't before.  (It wasn't perfect before, granted, but there weren't 100 bodies arriving at the morgue each day.  And yes, Saddam was a big bad guy, but if that was the reason we went to war, why didn't we act immediately when he was gassing Kurds?). 

We're still slugging it out in the desert.  Victory seems as intangible as it is improbable at this point.  (As of today, we have lost 4,152 men and women in the Iraq war).  And in the meantime we've quietly surrendered our civil liberties for "national security" while turning a blind eye to gross human rights abuses that should shame us.  We have not been made more secure.  Just more scared.  Still, we cling to our illusions that because a threat level is given a certain color, we're more safe.

In 2004, I voted for Kerry.  This was more a choice for a lesser evil than anything, but I cried in my Cheerios the morning after Bush was re-elected.  I hadn't thought it possible.  I wrote here on WEW -- "Congratulations, America.  Four more years of the same."  And I believe I've been proven mostly right, though I wish I'd been wrong.  I'm nervous that the same thing could happen with McCain and Palin in the White House (people's proclamations of how amazing she is stun me.  She and her daughter seem to be a walking contradiction of her idea that sex education should be taken out of schools).

I still remember a comment by a fellow intern at a church I was working for at the time: "I don't know how a person can be a Christian and vote for Kerry."  I was amazed at how deeply political conservatism had allied itself with faith, though perhaps I shouldn't have been.

There are a lot of reasons for someone to vote Democrat, as well as a lot of reasons to vote Republican (though "because I'm a Christian and that's how Christians vote" is a poor reason, if you ask me).  All I know is how my own personal convictions line up.

(I have to admit that I haven't found a single candidate that lines up with my views 100%.  For instance, there was only one candidate on the list when this whole campaign season started who was against the death penalty.  You've probably never heard of him, and I can't remember his name.  Although I'm a consistent pro-lifer (i.e. in principle, I'm against abortion and the death penalty) -- I also see that there are other issues intrinsic to valuing human life that should inform my vote).

So here's how I see it -- I'm throwing it out there.  And if I'm thought of as a liberal idealist, well, that's fine with me.  Here's why I'll be voting Democrat come the election (in no particular order):

1. We need a plan to get out of Iraq. I'm not saying it's something to be done tomorrow -- but we need a plan to extricate ourselves from this mess of poor planning and stubbornness. Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to leave on our terms, but staying on in hopes of a victory that eluded us a long time ago is foolish.

2.  I believe we have a responsibity to those in our country who are less fortunate.  I think it's popular to assume that if someone is in dire straits, it is because they got themselves there, and if they'd just take responsibility for themselves, they'd be able to make a better life.  I think a deeper look reveals a much more uncomfortable reality: often people are in dire straits because they were born into them -- and it's hard to get out.  This doesn't mean people aren't responsible for themselves -- but personal responsibility and personal ability are different things.

It is easy to label poor people as lazy and looking for a handout.  I have to admit, I struggled not to do this sometimes when I worked for the plasma center.  I remember one man who kept calling to find out if he was eligible to donate because he needed to know whether or not to accept a job offer.  If he could donate, he would reject the job and continue to live on the combo of his welfare check and his donation money.  

There are undoubtedly people out there like this -- people we think of as "using the system."  We like thinking of this when we think of welfare, because it simplifies things for us and keeps us in a comfy state of judgement over them.  But there are far more who are genuinely fighting to make ends meet, people who can't provide for their families and whose children grow up falling behind and falling through the cracks.  And yet we have people who want to give less, not more, help to these struggling families.  

I also think about the kids I watched while their parents were donating.  One little girl slept in a tiny chair at night while her sisters shared a cot in the family's tiny trailer.  At four, she already had severe social and behavioral problems -- she was an absolute nightmare to care for.  Her mom, trying to feed three kids and keep a home despite her husband's alcoholism, didn't seem to take much notice.  The little girl's hand-me-downs were always holey and falling off her skinny body, and she always came in with matted hair and a dirty face. 

More than once in that playroom, I thought to myself: these kids don't even have a chance. 

I think of Wal-mart employees, who work like crazy even off-the-clock to keep their jobs, who don't make enough to afford health care, and who are encouraged, even instructed, by their managers to sign up for state aid.  (BTW -- If you haven't seen Walmart: the High Cost of Low Price -- I highly encourage you to.  It's eye-opening, for sure).

I don't like that welfare is necessary in my country.  I far prefer the idea that those who work hard can make a life for themselves, that if a person tries real hard, they can rise above their circumstances.  It's true that some people do -- but most don't -- and those folks working for $7.22 an hour often build the empires of those who rise to prominence and wealth.  Those can't make it need to be cared for -- and if that means taxes for me, and higher taxes for the top 2-3 percent of our country's earners (the kind of people who think $5 million a year is rich, and who can't count the number of houses they own), so be it.

(Our economy needs lots of help.  I agree with Obama's stance that the middle classes need tax relief, and that Bush's tax cuts for the very wealthy should be reversed.  Having dealt with the IRS for about ten hours this past year, I also like his plans to simplify tax returns). 

3.  I believe that health care should be available to and affordable for every American.  Health insurance and health care costs are going through the roof (they've risen 4 times faster than wages over the past 6 years), and more and more people are having to choose between paying for health insurance or paying for food.  I work a decent job, but since I work for a small business, health care is not available to me.  If Justin's job didn't have benefits, I'd be out of luck.  And I know what it is to be injured without insurance (the day of my bad wreck in 2002, we found out that my dad's policy had dropped me after changing the maximum age for students).  It is ridiculous to me that we can spend billions -- monthly -- on a war overseas, but we can't figure out a way to provide health care for our citizens.  There's nothing sinister in keeping healthcare affordable and making it available to those who can't pay.

4.  Justin and I are set to be teachers, so putting money into education is important to us.  'Nuff said.

5.  I don't trust environmental policy to people who are reluctant to admit that global warming exists, who have dismissed the research as yet another cog in the liberal media machine.  I also don't trust environmental policy to people who are elected in large part by big oil, and who want even more offshore drilling rather than throwing concerted efforts at developing alternative energy sources. 

I want to have kids someday.  I'd like them to be able to enjoy a planet that's better and cleaner than it is now.

6.  While I understand that people, especially people of faith, are passionate about issues such as abortion, I think it is important to remember that having a pro-life president for the last eight years has not resulted in an overturning of Roe v. Wade.  Nor has it prevented gay marriage, another big issue for many conservative Christians.  I understand that these are moral issues with implications for how a person votes. What's important to me is that people can concede that they are not the only moral issues for a thinking Christian with a conscience.

I think our country would be a better place, and one more open to Jesus' message, if Christians decided to take their moral stand more on loving their neighbors and feeding Christ's sheep than on trying to force the rest of the country to adopt their values via legislation. 

Anyway, that's where I'm at.  Or at least, mostly where I'm at.  I'm often far braver when it comes to sharing other ways I don't fit into the Christian community -- I just finally felt it was important to share my thoughts on this.