Wordsmoker

There are very few things that I hate more than admitting that I am wrong about something and I’m not quite sure that I’m doing that now. It has been over a year since I found all of you on the site that shall not be named and about ten months since I’ve been trading shots with some of you here on Wordsmoker.

It has always been difficult for me to reconcile the immense respect that I have for some of the more liberal author/commenters like Mediahohoho, LawyerGay and Baroness (to name just a few) with my more conservative beliefs. Prior to coming here it was easy for me to dismiss liberal pundits as wrong-thinking or just plain ignorant.

However, when you give proper respect and listen to someone of an opposing viewpoint, you are faced with the choice of trying to intelligently defend your position or agreeing with the opposition. At least for me that’s the way it works.

About a month or so ago, I decided to try to take a step back and re-evaluate my already shaken belief system. No one probably noticed that although I’ve only made a few half-hearted feints, the last time that I really tried to pitch a political storm in here was on February 17, when I wrote my stimulus package piece. I think that even Virus may have been disappointed when I rolled over on Wordsmoker Anthropology – Your Thoughts On This Health-Care Thing and just made a few lame jokes in the comments.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I still don’t believe that the stimulus package has done anything significant for the economy and I think that this healthcare bill was too small in some ways and too large in others. However, the political party with which I have associated for a quarter of a century did nothing to improve either situation. If I combine those facts with the two endless wars that were started during the previous administration, the handling of the post-Katrina disaster in New Orleans, the current obstructionism in Congress and the Republican support for the Tea Party movement, I am left with little choice. As soon as practical, I am changing my voter’s registration to reflect that I’m a member of the Democratic Party.

While I still believe there are some major flaws with the Democrats, I have always considered myself an advocate of these tenets:

• Free Speech
• Equal Rights (including Gay Marriage and the repeal of DADT)
• Conservation and the Reduction of Greenhouse Gases
• A Woman’s Right to Choose Safe and Legal Abortions
• Ending Poverty
• A Successful Conclusion to the Two Foreign Wars

There are probably a few more, but you get the idea.

Today (yesterday when you read this) President Obama showed himself to be a true leader when he decided to expand offshore drilling. While I don’t believe that he is in favor of feeding the US oil addiction, I believe that he saw this measure as a necessary evil while the country awaits greener energy sources to come on line. The ability to make tough calls is the mark of a true leader and it made a distinct impression on me.

By way of a “joining the Democratic Party dowry,” I intend to do the following:

• Work on Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s re-election campaign. I have already joined her Facebook fan page. If you don’t know Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, she is actually a shining star of the Democratic Party and if I had a daughter I would want her to emulate this woman. She really isn’t in any danger of losing her seat, but I still intend to volunteer.
• In 2012, barring some sort of meltdown in his performance, I will work on the Barack Obama re-election campaign. My friend “Scotch” is pretty well connected with the campaign and will guide me to where I can be of the most assistance.
• Work on securing the support of the Fraternal Order of Police for the above candidates. It is a 300,000-person union with a powerful lobby. FOP has supported candidates for each party in the past and I believe that it will be an easy sell given the Democrats pro-union stance.
• Make a sizable ($25 for now. More to come later) donation to ACORN. My research indicates that they have gone a long way to clean up the process that lead to a few unfortunate but isolated incidents.

I hope that I’m not coming off like the newly converted here. I’ve never smoked a day in my life, but I still find former smokers to be annoying when they talk about their old habit. I’m still not sold on the idea that either of the party has all of the answers, but this feels right for now.

Thank you all for your insight over the past 14 months.

(This was actually tougher to write than to make the decision to switch parties. Thanks for reading.)