by Aggrieved American
I am the Irish-Catholic son of two Democrats. I grew up in poverty in an all black Philadelphia neighborhood during the 1970’s and 1980’s. I knew nothing of the differences between the Republican and Democrat parties except that the Republicans were known to bring us into wars. In fact, I was told that the Republican candidate for President (Ronald Reagan) would certainly bring us into a NUCLEAR war if he were elected. My paralyzing fear of being drafted and dying in a war led me to one conclusion: Republicans must be BAD! I registered as a Democrat when I turned 18 and I voted occasionally, but I had no serious interest in politics or the political process.
Many years later, at the end of President Clinton’s second term, I began to notice obvious differences in the candidates for President. Al Gore came off as an empty promise maker and panderer, while George W. Bush came off as sincere, but he was arrogant too. My adult sense of perception now picked up on this when I’d never noticed such things about politicians in the past. By this time, I was the proprietor of a modestly successful small business and, I was a father. Even though the Democrat candidate (Gore) lost the election, I felt no personal defeat as a registered Democrat. The truth was that I didn’t trust him based upon hearing him speak. I didn’t even vote in that election. After the beginning of the war in Iraq, I became upset and I wished to see Bush and Cheney removed from the White House. I voted against them. Although I was deeply saddened that they won reelection, something began to make sense to me. They actually won by a LARGE margin. I realized that a huge number of Americans must actually agree with them and with the war. This was a difficult thing to accept, but accept it I did.
By the time the Bush era was coming to an end, I noticed the same Gore-like hollow promise making personality coming from a new Democrat candidate, Barack Obama. I immediately didn’t trust him just as I didn’t trust Gore, but I gave him my vote because the other choice, war-mongering McCain and his laughable VP choice was not an option for me. I was totally disgusted with Obama’s non-stop speeches and unrealistic promises, but I felt that this was going to be a choice based upon the lesser of two evils. I voted for Obama then, and again four years later. But I do recall feeling some guilt when I pushed that Obama button the second time. I didn’t even know what Mitt Romney stood for. I had just heard some bad things about him from Democrat friends and so I made my choice ignorantly.
It seems that my party went completely berserk after that. I found myself engaged in endless online debates with former co-workers and classmates wherein any objection to Obama’s policies, (many of which I STRONGLY disagreed with) were met with scorn, accusation and red hot vitriol. I was attacked personally. My intelligence was insulted. I was labeled a “racist” countless times. All of this came in response to the simple act of disagreeing with the President’s policies. The Trayvon Martin story seemed to induce a psychosis in many of my Democrat friends. The craziness snowballed and seemed to grow exponentially by the day. I noticed that many other moderate Democrats were experiencing the same phenomenon. It became obvious that our party was becoming EXTREME in its ideologies. Anyone who did not agree 100% with the MSNBC-style narrative was condemned, ridiculed, and criticized relentlessly.
The very first time I pushed the button for a Republican candidate was in the New Jersey gubernatorial election for Chris Christie’s 2nd term. I actually felt like a traitor while doing that, but I also felt that my party was going off the deep end and it desperately needed a smack in the face to bring it back to reality. Then I voted all Republican again during the mid-terms in an attempt to send that same message. I was relieved to see that so many independents and moderate Democrats did the exact same thing. This validated what I was feeling. It also let me know that I was not alone.
Here we are at the end of Obama’s 2nd term. I am so happy to see him go, but I fear that a Hillary win will only mean 4 (or 8) more years of the same horrible Obama policies. I will surely vote Republican this time too. I will not call myself a “Republican.” I do not agree with all of the Republican principles. I will admit that I am NOT a Democrat anymore. I simply no longer view the Democrat party with respect. All I see from Democrats is endless, promise-making and pandering to emotional voters. Perhaps if I had been paying more attention to politics, I would have arrived at this conclusion many years ago. As an adult and a father I am looking forward to the future and I’m certain that the Democrat party (in its present incarnation) will only expedite our country’s self-destruction. I do not want that for my son or my future grandchildren.
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