http://www.dailykos.com/...
Having read this diary, I wanted to fulfill the request and talk about why I'm a Democrat, but I'm not sure I have anything particularly interesting to say. I was born in a liberal household in a liberal neighborhood so diverse that I didn't really get the concept of "different races" until I was in 3rd or 4th grade because to me race looked like a continuum rather than discreet sets of cultural identities. My earliest political memory was being surprised at George McGovern's loss to Nixon in 1972- everyone in my neighborhood had McGovern signs in their yard so I assumed he was bound to win.
I think I've always been to the left of the Democratic party, in a somewhat lonely place that doesn't really jibe with the more common groups on the far left of the spectrum. I'm not a socialist, nor am I a communist, nor am I really interested in any of the more mystical bents in my political neighborhood. I don't want a fundamental change to our system of government, I just want everyone to be nice to each other. Of course we should "allow" (As if we had the right to make that kind of decision for other people in the first place) gay marriage. Of course poor kids should get food and medical care. Of course women should get equal pay. None of those things are bold policy positions; they're minimum requirements for entry into the company of decent people. To this day I still have a hard time seeing why everyone doesn't agree.
Liberals have always been behind the causes of social justice. In the coming years, the Democratic party is going to be even more important than ever before for one major reason: Global Warming. Global climate models are extremely complicated and it is difficult to predict what will happen in the future with a high degree of accuracy, but it is entirely possible that the earth will see a 2 degree rise by 2050. That's only 37 years away, and many of us will live to see those days. Certainly our kids will.
A 2 degree rise in global temperature is a disaster. Millions will die, there will be famine and wars over the diminishing food supply. There will be large swaths of heavily populated areas of the world where people die of heat stress during the summers. And I can tell you who ISN'T going to deal with that mess: Republicans. If we're to save ourselves it's going to be the work of Democrats here and liberals everywhere.