I'm going to admit it straight up, i voted for Bush in 2004 and yes I'm bitter....and very very angry. But I wanted to share my story on how I went from being a Bush voter to a staunch supporter of Barack Obama. So here goes.
I grew up in a fairly conservative family. To my father, the right to own guns is basically principle #1 and over the years I've shot plenty of them (was never a very good rifle shooter, but I could hit 3 birds with 2 shells at the skeet range fairly often.) To him Reagan was a national hero while Clinton was routinely scorned as the "Lefty socialist scumbag." To him Republicans could do no wrong and that was basically the way my first 20 years was like from a political perspective. Get back in line and do what you're told. Oh and don't ask questions.
But that all changed when I headed off to school (amazing isn't it? And one wonders why they want to dismantle the education system). First by pursuing a minor in political philosophy and later, by meeting a great woman who's uncle has done a lot of writing about the rise of the Neo-cons.
When I started College I didn't know what I wanted to get into. First it was Computer Science until I realized how boring it was, then to Computer Animation until I realized I had no talent. Off to Business School where I simply decided I wanted a degree in something and chose Information Systems.
In all the classes I took, 1 class hooked me. Philosophy 101. Talk about an eye opener of a class. I absolutely loved it and how couldn't you. 2 hours twice per week to sit in class and just think. And as Plato makes the point in his cave allegory, it all started to open up.
Over the next 2 years or so, each quarter I would find myself taking on another course in philosophy but quickly moved towards a concentration in Political Philosophy after taking a course with one specific professor (who's name i can't quite remember). An absolutely brilliant guy and great professor as well (you learned from him whether you liked it or not).
He was a self described republican who had NEVER voted for a Republican in his lifetime. Carter in 1980, Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton X2, and at the time was really excited about Al Gore. He never told us why he never voted for any Republican but 6 years after the fact it's as clear as day.
He was a huge Lincoln scholar and would always tell us stories on how he gave speeches in the south in front of the "Sons of the Confederacy." and onee of his classes (and one of my favorites) was a philosophical view of the 1840's through the civil war. The books "Cannibals All", and "Sociology for the South" were required reading and 2 very excellent reads I may add. Morally unacceptable but interesting none the less. (And yes I did win a debate defending George Fitzhugh and his philosophy at the time) After taking the class and a few others, I found that the shared many of the same values as Lincoln and there were 4 things that made someone a Lincoln Republican. And 4 things that I do value.
- Small government.
- Fiscal Responsibility
- Personal Responsibility.
- Keeping government out of peoples lives.
Sound familiar?
I wasn't able to vote in 2000. Too many classes lined up back to back and with final quickly approaching basically every waking hour was dedicated to studying. Not that that's important as I (being a registered Republican in NY and as well after moving to VA in 2002) probably would have voted for Bush (Only doubling the pain I feel now.) as he was the Republican which is basically how I came to vote for him in 2004.
After I moved to Northern VA (DC area), I started sensing something. Something didn't quite click and what I was seeing wasn't exactly what I had come to know. With the passing of the Patriot Act and the massive deficit spending, those 2 key elements which I had come to associate with the Republican party were non-existent. In 2004 when I voted for Bush, for some reason I had still thought #2 and #4 above were still there to some degree helping me cast that vote. It wasn't until about 4 months later that I had realized I had been duped.
When the Terri Shivo case it the MSM, any notion of keeping government out of peoples lives was shot to the wayside. That was it. That day I switched my affiliation to the Libertarian party in MD and not long after that I found the DK. The Republicans disgusted me and you have absolutely no idea just how angry I am. I am absolutely pissed, and as i said above, there are a lot of people like me.
So how does this relate to Obama?
During Thanksgiving dinner in 2004 at my wife's' family's house, they were discussing politics. (They're basically all hard core Democrats w/ the exception of 2 or 3). I can't remember the conversation but her Uncle brought up the speech Obama gave at the 2004 National Convention. I didn't really think much of it as I had already cast my vote for Bush that year (in hind sight, thankfully MD had more sense than I did). Fast forward two and half years later when the next group of candidates hopped on the trail. There's Obama....here I am thinking "shit he's a democrat, can't vote for him." But there were people on the Kos who were saying interesting stuff about him.
"He's different.", "He's too moderate." yadda yadda yadda. Eh I thought lets give him a try. I Youtubed the convention speech and was hooked. It was actually pretty funny as in the next two weeks or so, I knew more about this guy than my wife did and she didn't really know who he was. She was originally for Clinton.
What finally sold me was a speech that I heard my wife's' uncle give. He's spent a career covering the neo-cons. And hearing how the neo-cons started buying up the media in the late '70's, to the Iran-Contra scandal and coverup, through Bush 1 and selling of weapons and such (I was very young in those days...like 7ish....so like most 7 year old kids i cared more about G.I. Joe and Transformers) but I do remember the Clinton years pretty well. It's amazing after putting 2 and 2 (after school and learning from my cousin) together seeing Clinton for the vastly more fiscal conservative than anyone else in the past 28 years and the neo-cons for what they are. Crooks. They certainly NOT Republicans by any traditional measure. They don't take responsibility for anything, they're the most fiscally irresponsible group ever, most invasive of personal liberties ever and have the largest and wasteful government ever. Oh and they don't give a shit about anybody but themselves. But everything just clicked. It was like a revelation finding out that not only was I duped, but why. It's tough when you grow up in that environment and you know nothing else. That's just the way it is. You don't fault yourself because you didn't know any better. But it's also a big sigh of relief and a bit of a self pat on the back knowing that you figured out that the system was gamed. That rewarding.
So there it is. Going from voting for Bush in 2004 to a die hard Obama supporter in a mere 2 years. Plato cave allegory at work in it's purest sense. Once you're out of the dark and see life for what it is, colorful, shapes, sounds, smells, individual thought, you constantly want to know more while that cycle continues over and over.
So yea, in a long journey that has gone over 25 years, I've woken up. It took a while and thanks to the help of Professor what's his name, my wife, my family, the good folks here at the DK oh and President shit head, it happened. It's kind of funny to in a way. It pisses my dad off something fierce I'll tell you. Was home a few months ago after we had our little chat regarding some choice comments he made towards my wife at Christmas (you can read my vent on that here http://www.dailykos.com/... he had the audacity to call me a liberal yuppie. Took it in stride and my response: "Well that's vastly better than being a Neo-con like you." You could see the rage building inside Bill-0 style. So when they like to toss out the words, just use my response. Works every time. They do not like being called neo-cons.
In conclusion here's a great quote from a bad movie that I think sums up my feelings this election cycle. "To pursue natural justice. This is not vengeance, revenge is not a valid motive. It is an emotional response. No not vengeance. Punishment." - Frank Castle
P.S. With all the diaries up lately about Obamas move towards center i part with this. People we have an election to win. Obama is the best candidate out there possibly in our lifetimes. We need to do everything we can to make sure this guy gets elected. Everyone here is going to have to chip in. When I get my pay check I'm sending Obama $100 and will probably do so each month until the election. We don't have a choice. We all have to help (even you Kos!). If you don't think we have much to lose just close your eyes real tight and think to your self "President John Sydney McCain." That should be enough to send Barack some dough so we can all punish the republican party for a LONG LONG time.
Update: I made the rec list for the 1st time. Thanks everyone. I'm having a hard time keeping up with the comments so please bear with me.
Update 2: Hey y'all. I appreciate all the comments and i did my best to respond to what i could. I just want to say that I'm here to make sure that Obama gets elected in November. As Kos points out this blog is to make sure that Dems get elected. I'm here for that reason and i have no intention of leaving anytime soon. This is a great site so thank you all for all your kind words. One person at a time. We may disagree on policy but that's not the point. Thanks again! you guys and gals are great.
cheers
ERR