How Did You Select Your Political Party?

When you first registered to vote, what caused you to declare yourself a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Independent or some other party?

I'll bet that, like me, a lot of people chose the party of their parents. As a small child you can't help but be influenced by hearing the opinions and remarks of your father and mother, no matter how one-sided they might be. They say that religion should be introduced to children under seven for it to influence them for a lifetime. I think the same thing is true of other parts of a child's education, including politics.

I was into my 70s when I changed allegiance from Republican to Democrat when a friend pointed out how different my opinions actually were from how I viewed those of my party, and I re-registered as a Democrat. I might have joined the Green party or the Peace and Freedom Party, or some other one, but third parties have narrower viewpoints on issues and they turn out to be the spoilers in elections. Also I wanted to have a vote that would count in the primaries.

It isn't that I support one party or the other 100%. My ideas on how government should work are somewhere in between the extreme ends of the two main parties, but I don't like the intrusion of religion into politics that I see happening in the Republican Party. I consider myself a centrist.

In general I have always thought that Republicans are strongly Christian, independent, mostly well off, and abhor charity for themselves or anyone else. Their  idea about really poor people is that they are lazy people who want something for nothing. They figure they worked hard for what they have and everyone else can do the same.

Yet sometimes I have thought that particular attitude doesn't go along with Christianity as I interpret it from Christ's Sermon on the Mount. But I don't know much about Christianity because my father didn't allow my sister and me to have any instruction in religion. He considered himself an atheist and thought we should make up our own minds when we were in our teens or whenever we wanted to learn about religion.

But when it came to politics, I knew that my parents were Republicans and in the campaign after the crash of 1929, they never had anything good to say about Franklin D. Roosevelt, and to them Truman was a despicable politician who was part of the Pendergast machine. Of course as a

 child I thought my parents were never wrong about anything.

At 86 years old I realize that I have always felt there are certain social issues that should be overseen by the elected government. I feel strongly that we should have universal health insurance that is not connected to employment. We shouldn't lose our health insurance when we lose our job. Also health insurance supplemented by employers puts our country at a disadvantage in world trade. I watched a PBS show that compared the health insurance in major countries, and we are way down the line in efficiency. I did some research and wrote an article about it.

Last week I spent some time looking up the planks and positions on issues of both the Republican and Democrat parties. They aren't that different in what they want for the people, but they differ a lot in how to achieve their goals.

The Republicans have had eight years to push through their ideas, and they have a dismal record to show for it. To give them their due, I don't think Bush and Cheney really follow the Republican doctrine, except for supporting business over people. Bush and Cheney have shown they favor a much stronger executive branch of government, and that leads to dictators and Fascism.

The Republicans believe in the trickle down effect, and I can't see how that can work in such a globalized economy as we now have. The goodies can trickle down to workers in other countries. And Bush doesn't believe in constraints or regulations for business. I have heard reports that Bush is in the process of cutting even more fiscal regulations before he leaves office. Sad to say humans can be selfish and greedy, and there must always be constraints on them to prevent illegal and unfair  practices.

The Democratic Party was started in 1776 during the Continental Congress by people who were in favor of signing a confederation of the thirteen states. It continued after the establishment of the United States under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson. Anti-slavery factions organized the Republican Party in 1854. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president.

As I see it, the main difference between the Republican and Democrat Parties is that Republicans favor helping business, especially big business, and Democrats favor helping people. So that is why I have chosen to support the Democratic Party. I am especially enthusiastic for the Democratic point of view this year when we have Barack Obama as the presidential candidate. He is an intelligent, well-educated man who has spent his whole adult life trying to help people who needed help. As I see it, Obama is our best bet for bringing back respect of the world for the United States, getting us out of the two misguided wars we are mired in, attacking  the huge national debt, and curtailing the sharp downturn in the economy; ll things that are part of the legacy that George W. Bush is leaving behind him.