Heeding Alyoshakaramazov's call to action, I offer this missive.
I am perhaps an unlikely Democrat. I grew up as a white male of privilege, as did many Dems, so maybe not all that unlikely. My formative years were unusual, however, and I think may partially account for my democratic/progressive/socialist fervor.
My Mom was a Nixon acolyte, partly because of his diplomatic efforts with China (where she lived for her first five years as the daughter of a Chicago church lay missionary dentist), but even well before that she defended the Viet Nam war vehemently - with three draft age sons.
My Dad was .... quieter, an upper level GE exec who lived through those chapters about Argentina in the "Shock Doctrine", at least the early parts where labor organizers were being murdered. How much he knew about all that, I have no idea. I was there as well, as a teen, and I certainly was rather clueless even throughout the kidnapping of a friend's father. Good times...
more below the squiggle
A life of privilege gives you all the options. Certainly I toyed with the infantile worldviews of people like Ayn Rand, and I recall very vividly advocating for a flat tax back in the early eighties.
So why am I a Democrat?
1) I'm an engineer, and hence my livelihood is necessarily based on science and the scientific method. The policies of the right deny science as a useful tool for forming policy. I can't.
2) I've seen how a large part of the world lives, not that most of that isn't also a fact of life somewhere within our country, it's just more apparent when your penthouse apartment on the beach in Rio looks out on a hillside favela. The policies of the right will never, ever address such injustice. I want to.
3) Sure, I might be a Green or otherwise inclined to join some other sort of (shudder) Third Way party, but I would much rather work within a party that can effectively make change and that also largely represents my interests. To me being a Green would just be a copout and counterproductive. That doesn't mean I disrespect those who make that choice, it is just not one I would make. And yes, neoliberal Democrats annoy the fuck out of me. I don't like them.
4) I love and respect women, my Grandmother, my Mother, my ex-wife and many girlfriends, my countless work colleagues, friends, fellow Toastmasters, the list is endless. Don't get me wrong, I love and respect men as well. But the policies of the right are clearly not only disrespectful of women but frankly just plain mean-spirited. I could never support them.
5) Speaking of neoliberal Democrats (and I use the term to mean those who would use market based solutions for certain social issues, e.g., health care, while being liberal on social issues that don't require any economic intervention, e.g., same-sex marriage - otherwise known simply as "marriage"), Obama is clearly one of them. But even as an advocate of single-payer financing for health care, I can appreciate the boldness of the ACA and the great leap forward that it is, and that it empowers my party to do even greater things, like ACA 2.0 (aka single-payer health care financing). And I am greatly moved by Obama's speaking on many social issues.
6) I strongly believe that we are moving away from the era of "lesser of two evils", especially in down-ticket races. I wish the Senate could be 50 Elizabeth Warrens right now, but just a casual look at the composition of our caucus versus their's should make it pretty clear to anyone that we are the party of the future. I like having my values represented.
I could go on, but I want to keep this readable. In the end my Dad, who passed on in 2010, was quite liberal in his views, having seen the destruction the right was wreaking on the country he helped preserve during a major war. Most of my family is extremely liberal, I am happy to report. So perhaps it is all in my genes. Nah.