Yesterday I was having a beer with a conservative friend of mine, and he remarked that he was telling someone about me and denoted me as his Jewish Republican friend.
After I finally finished laughing hysterically, I explained to him that I was actually pretty liberal, but that I had come to my liberalism via conservatism.
The first political campaign I remember was the 1992 Presidential election campaign; Clinton/Bush/Perot. Specifically, I recall the interview all the candidates did on Nickelodeon and I remember being most impressed, oddly enough, with Ross Perot. The next day, we had “elections” at my elementary school, and everyone was talking about how they were going to vote for Clinton. Because peer pressure is a funny thing, I filled out my little paper ballot for Clinton too.
I came home after school and my mom asked me who I voted for. I told her I voted for Clinton, and she asked me why, to which I responded that it was because everyone else voted for Clinton. Both of my parents were registered independents, and we never really discussed politics as a family. But, that afternoon, my mother packed me up in the minivan and drove me to our polling place, where she voted for Ross Perot. I know, because she took me into the booth with her.
The reason for this, as she explained as we were walking out of the polling place, was that I should never be afraid to stand up for what I believe in. Perot didn’t win Indiana that year, or any other year, but that vote represents the core of my political philosophy.
In the intervening two decades since that fateful November afternoon, I’ve experienced much. I grew up, I read books, I met people, I watched TV, and I watched four more Presidential elections. From a personal perspective, I’ve been on both sides of the fence, both paying taxes and receiving government services.
My personal political philosophy is rooted in four concepts: personal responsibility, playing by the rules, a belief in facts, and pragmatism.
Personal responsibility, for me, means that when you screw up you say so and take the blame. It means that you don’t rely on anyone else to help you; it’s you against the world, with your success being determined solely by your desire to succeed. It also means you mind your own business; you don’t interfere with someone else’s life, and they don’t interfere with yours.
Rules exist to ensure that everyone is playing the same game. A level playing field ensures that the most accomplished rise to the top.
I believe in facts. Information derived from observation supported by evidence. Not truth, because truth is subjective. I need something to see, to touch, to hear, to make sense to believe in it.
Finally, pragmatism. If someone has taken responsibility for themselves, played by the rules, and adheres to the facts, and yet still can’t get ahead, it’s clear that something is broken. Pragmatism says “If it’s broken, then you need to fix it.”
All four of these things are conservative ideas, and yet there isn’t a Republican politician alive that would embrace my positions on any one of them. And that is, fundamentally, why I’m a liberal.
I haven’t seen a single member of the GOP stand up and say “You know what? We fucked up. We let C+ Augustus charge two wars, a tax cut, and a new entitlement program to the national credit card, and nominate two extremists to the Supreme Court.”
I haven’t seen a single member of the GOP stand up and say “You know what? The Wall Street guys that fund our campaigns nearly tanked the economy because they broke the rules. We should investigate the hell out of them.”
I haven’t seen a single member of the GOP stand up and say “You know what? The planet is getting hotter. Gays are people too. Abstinence-only sex ed doesn’t work. Abortion is legal. We lost the war on drugs. Supply-side economics and austerity are complete crap. Let’s base a new governing philosophy on the lessons we’ve learned from those things.”
And I haven’t seen a single member of the GOP stand up and say “You know what? The system is broken, because we broke it. We need to help fix it.”
So, when my friend says that he thought I was a Republican I understand why, but it doesn’t make it any less funny to me.
