I am now a Democrat!

[FourScore]

Mon May 14, 2012 at 08:04 PM PDT
I am now a Democrat!
by sjburnman

...I first registered to vote in 1980 and I registered as an independent, just like my Dad. I had always told people that I would vote for whichever candidate I thought was best, "regardless of their party"...

..."Regardless of their party", I always said. Well, I remained a registered independent all those years but to this day I have never voted for anyone other than a Democrat. Carter, absolutely!, Mondale, you bet! Dukakis, yes I did. Clinton, Clinton, Gore, Kerry and of course Obama. I voted for local Dems, State office Dems, Dems for Congress and Dems for the Senate. I have been unable to justify voting for anybody who wasn't a Democrat for 32 years. So why did I hang on to that independent/no political affiliation registration for so long?

It was my Dad. I thought of him as someone who judged candidates by who they were, not what party they belonged to, and in his day I think it was actually possible to put a Republican in office and not have that necessarily be a bad choice. He was a Kansas boy, my Dad, a career military man who had a great deal of respect for fellow Kansan, Dwight D. Eisenhower who was perhaps the last decent Republican president we will ever see.

Now however, especially now, Eisenhower Republicans are an extinct species. The religious and neoconservative extremism that is controlling that party is completely out of control! Democrats aren't perfect but there is absolutely no degree of equivalence here, none whatsoever.

With all due respect to my Father who has been gone now for over six years, I went on line today and I changed my political affiliation to Democrat, and I am proud to finally call myself one. I really had been one all along, I just didn't know it. I'm sure my Dad would understand my decision. I lost my Mom a few years after my Dad, she was a life long Democrat. Happy (belated) Mother's Day, Mom and Happy (early) Father's Day, Dad...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/14/1091712/-I-am-now-a-Democrat-

[Jamaal510]

1. The GOP is losing voters like flies, aren't they?

This isn't the only person I've seen who is a recovering Republican.

[Grown2Hate]

3. Well, according to the OP he never once voted for a Republican...

but still, it's nice to have another officially in our fold.

[SunSeeker]

2. K&R

[xtraxritical]

4. Now go out there and VOTE A STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC BALLOT

and give President Obama a Congress that can get something done for average Americans. Thanks for the wonderful post too!

[Kablooie]

5. I also use to think it worthwhile to consider Republican ideas.

I was always liberal but if a conservative had reasoned arguments for another point of view I thought it worthwhile to consider them.
At times some of their arguments even made sense and I adjusted my opinion accordingly.

Those days are long gone. I don't hear a single logical argument on anything from the right today. I wish they would. Sometimes I don't agree with Democratic party opinions and wish I had input from more angles to help round out my knowledge.

But as we all know, nothing comes from the right today but hysterical inane parroting of idiocy. Some Fox News wonk makes some fallacious statement and suddenly it's gospel truth for the right and no amount of evidence to the contrary will ever change their minds.

It sounds more and more like Mao's Great Leap Forward which was also based on immutable doctrine conceived by tiny, ignorant minds. It made the use of intelligence and initiative capitol offenses against the nation. The right is headed in the exact same direction.

[eridani]

6. My parents both considered themselves independents as well

Dad was raised as an FDR Democrat, and mom as a Margaret Chase Smith Republican. I think I first identified as a Democrat over Adlai Stevenson, who got crap for being an "intellectual," which was what happened to four-eyed geeky me in grade school. They always said it was OK to vote for all Democrats, but never mark the straight ticked box--put individual marks by each candidate's name.

As an adult, I didn't have a lot of use for parties, and voted third party when reasonable options were available. I eventually noticed that minor parties rarely nominated anything resembling a full slate, and that all the rest of my choices were Democrats. Funny, that.

[progressoid]

7. Heh. I did that for a while too.

Didn't take long to figure out that I never voted for a R in that time.