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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2007-02-05

Why I Am A Republican, part I

First, I should say that I suppose there is a bit of a genetic predisposition towards the Republican Party. My father is a life-long Republican, and my mother, though she only in the last fifteen years or so changed her official affiliation, was always of a conservative bent. It was probably only natural--they both being devout Catholics from birth, and my father being a veteran of the Korean War, I think they saw very few options on either social issues or national security. And though I do have siblings who are more center-left to liberal, I think the household, as a whole, was pretty conservative.

My first memories of the life of politics was in fifth grade. I had become slightly aware of the Iran Hostage Crisis, and I followed the news just enough to know that the economy was in a complete shambles, and that the mood of the country was surly. So I, really not knowing a darn thing about anything, supported Ronald Reagan for President.

So I had that going for me.

But the life politic still sort of escaped me. I don't remember paying too much attention as I was going through school. I remember Reagan being dismissed by most as a buffoon and a war-monger, but he was brilliant in front of a camera, and he kept managing to out-maneuver his opponents--including the Soviet Union. So, it seemed to me that his detractors were the buffoons, while he was doing a great job turning the economy around and improving America's position in the world.

And, I gotta say, the Democrats managed during this time to put forward two of the most singularly uninspiring Presidential candidates the country has ever seen. So that helped.

But I am a big fan of Winston Churchill; and, in fact, I held true to one of his tenets--I was NOT heartless when I was 25. Comng out of college I tilted slightly to the Left, though in Boulder that put me somewhere close to Moussolini on the spectrum. Actually, it was many of the excesses of the goofy Left that pushed me away from that ideology. From dirty, smelly shanty-towns in the middle of campus to preachy Socialist trust-fund babies, the plain and obvious hypocrisy of the Left was in full bloom on the campus. And, in my last semester of college, the first Iraq War started . . .and ended.

And so, as I began my adult life, I was uncomfortable claiming any particular Party--I chose to be Unaffiliated, and to describe myself as a Moderate. I valued public education and thought government had a role in propping up the lowly in society, but I couldn't accept the idea of abortion on demand and thought low taxes and a strong military were good things.

I even held to that philosophy throughout the 90's. Most elections I would deliberately split my ballot if I didn't know the candidates, and I voted for Bill Clinton twice (I think) and Democrat Roy Romer for Governor. In the case of voting for Clinton, I thought he presented a better vision to the table than the non-vision of GHWBush ( I was too stupid to realize that stewardship can be a vision of its own), and Bob Dole just never connected for me.

But my first child was born in 1996, and the world around me became a whole different place. And that started my slow move towards the GOP, which will be the subject of my next post.

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Posted by: Michael / 2/05/2007 11:16:00 PM

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