Alright, here I am, one more person adding his voice to the Daily Kos. Not so spectacular, and of course people will say, "So what? What makes you think the world cares/wants to hear your opinion?"
To which I would answer, "Welcome to the world of blogging. It is 2011, by the way; what, have you been living in a compound in Abbottabad?"
... In my head, I heard a rimshot.
And so you can see my journey to the Daily Kos below.
Anyhow, so here I am. And let me assure you, the fact that I am even staring at electrons associated with the Daily Kos shows how far I have traveled. You see, I grew up in Boise, Idaho, in the 1980's, and boy oh boy you ain't seen "mayo on white" until you've been to Boise, Idaho in the 1980's. I was all rah-rah-Reagan Republican, and all them Lefties was stinky commiehippies (and probably gay to boot).
Fast forward to joining the Army and meeting Black people for the first time, and Hispanic people, and going overseas to Germany. Even getting to see East Germany, specifically, East Berlin, back when it was such. Then, upon leaving the Army, I went to live in Southern California, where I met [gasp] gay people and even Muslims.
The sum total of all this experience was the realization that other people can believe in different things, and live different ways of life, and not only does lightning not strike them, but they actually like the way they live and wouldn't change it for the world.
So by the time I met transgendered people, folks I would have once shunned as lepers, I was rolling with the party and staying over at their houses, hanging out and having a great time.
My allegiance to the Republican Party dissolved over time. While I was meeting new people and learning not to be threatened by them, I was still a party loyalist. I was coasting on memories of Reagan. I was shaken by George HW Bush's talk about "family values" ("that's what you call an issue, George? What?") and his embarrassing attacks on Murphy Brown, a popular TV character, for choosing to be a single mother.
I initially disliked Bill Clinton but my main complaint hinged on his gun control stuff; I grudgingly admitted he did a good job and handled the Yugoslavia thing about as well as most people probably would have (I mean, seriously-- Newt Gingrich? Really?). And I was again embarrassed by the decision of the GOP to focus on Monica Lewinsky as another, um... "issue".
Then came W. Bush.
Most of us were there so I won't dwell on it, but by the time Katrina hit, I knew my only real allegiance left to the GOP was Second Amendment rights. That was it. On every other issue, I had shifted. The people they said were bad (gays, women who get abortions, non-Christians, etc) I had met in droves and knew them personally, and liked them. I no longer drank the Kool-Aid.
So I broke. I decided I'd rather be a Democrat that was willing to argue firearms ownership rights than be a Republican that had one, single, tenuous grip on loyalty (and some of the GOP'ers were getting batshit on that issue, too). I'd gone to Iraq with the Reserves and came back to run for office (County Clerk) as a Democrat. This being Idaho, I lost, but I got pretty close (hey, 40%).
I'm now angling to become a Union steward at work and have gone to protest rallies to argue against an insane plan to turn our state education program over to on-line for-profit "schools" that just happened to donate a lot of money to our education superintendent's campaign (imagine that!).
I now watch as the Republican Party descends into outright lunacy. Michelle Bachmann? Sarah Palin? Newt Gingrich? That Mafia Pizza Guy? Seriously, people? With Glenn Beck as their standard-bearer, and Rush Limbaugh as their chorus, the only thing that astonishes me anymore is why people still vote for this train wreck. Ronald Reagan would not even survive a primary with them now; he'd be considered too "liberal"-- he'd probably be on a par with Mitt Romney, for the luvva Gawd.
Now I quietly watch and chortle, and await the next move.
More to come, later, etc.