Who You Calling a Democrat? February 13, 2006 at 08:43:22 America

This semester I'm teaching the 2nd half of the US history survey. We've already had a discussion about race in connection to Reconstruction and some discussion of class tied to late 19th century strikes and industrialization.
The other day a student said, "You're a Democrat" in response to something I'd said. My reply was no, I am not a Democrat I just vote for Democrats.
They didn't seem to think there is a difference. Is there?
Another student tried to pin me down by asking what Republicans I would vote for. At this point I figure I've got a "teachable moment." Maybe I can get them to see that there are politics outside of the two parties.
The fact is that I've only ever voted for a single Republican, a guy I knew personally who was running for Family Court judge. But when I first registered to vote in 1972 a gang of us did it at a friend's house and his father was a local Repub pol. So I registered as a Republican. At that time it made no difference.
I had become politically aware during the Vietnam War and had come to really despise LBJ and HHH. Their Cold-War liberalism was repugnant to me. My older brothers were in Chicago in '68 for the convention and that event soured me on the Democrats. Of course, Nixon was no better. I had in fact organized a walkout at my Catholic HS in 1970 over Cambodia and Kent State. So basically I saw both parties as part of the Establishment and not worth supporting.
Then in '72 the Democrats nominated McGovern. I watched the convention speeches, got the impression that this was a different party (different delegate selection) and was moved by McGovern's speech and his anti-war platform. I decided to volunteer for McG. and when I showed up they were ecstatic that I was a Republican because they needed repub signatures on thosands of voter registration forms. This was the only time I have ever actively worked on a campaign.
I was disappointed when McG lost but I didn't start to feel hosed until Nixon's administration started to unravel. Agnew went (yayyy!) Ford gets appointed. Finally Nixon resigns (triple yayyy!!), then Ford pardons Nixon. I got to tell you, I lost all faith in this government. I know the lesson of Watergate is supposed to be that the crooks get caught but it seemed to me as if the crooks got away with everything. I mean they broke into Democratic party HQ during a presidential election. To me it seemed like the system had NO integrity -- none.
In the wake of that I went back to the idea that both parties are part of the system or establishment. Nothing would change in the US by voting. I didn't see any significant difference between Ds and Rs.
So I didn't vote in 1976 or 1980. Carter got elected without my help and mostly because Republicans had been responsible for one of the worst scandals in US history. The Carter years weren't great ones and he was just too born-again for my taste. But I think mostly he was a victim of circumstance. Nobody in their right mind would pick those four years to be president. Lousy economy, gas lines, Iranian revolution, hostage crisis, no they weren't good years.
The hostage crisis killed Carter and gave life to the idea that Democrats suck at security. On the Republican side they got the Big Blowhard to run and like the trained actor that he was he sold an American dream to people like he used to sell 20-mule-team Borax. Reagan scared the shit out of me. He was like Goldwater with hair --yikes!! Also, I got sober and quit smokin' hooch in 1983 and as part of that process I attempted to reconnect with "normal" citizen life. I tried going back to church and I registered to vote once again.
So I was on board to vote for Fritz Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro as they got their asses kicked. And when Dukakis ran I also voted for him. I recently saw the video of him in the tank -- what the hell was he thinking? I don't know that I knew what these candidates platforms were, I just knew that they weren't Reagan and they weren't Bush Sr. They couldn't have possibly been worse than those guys could they?
By the time 1992 rolled around I was in graduate school and had little time to waste on politics. I did watch debates but mostly so I would get the jokes on SNL. I found Perot particularly entertaining. And was glad that Clinton, a Democrat, had been elected.
However, watching the attack on Clinton was horrible and I began to really despise all Republicans who I had merely been hating since 1968. I wasn't crazy about NAFTA or the welfare reforms but motherfuck those Republicans. I had a list of the Repub judiciary committee members and I was trying to put evil on them.
So I voted for Gore and saw that election stolen by the Supreme Court. And watched as Kerry was pummeled by lies and slanders.
By 2004, I had found my way to the blogs. I remember doing a search for left blogs and DKos came up. That was a whole other world for me. People for whom the Democratic party was a religion weren't on the same wavelength as me. But it was early over there and there were many voices and stances not all of them strictly Democratic. It's funny, my first diaries at DKos were dream conversations I had with Joe Hill the wobblie songwriter. This was a device to talk about working-class politics without getting attacked. From the very first I realized that I had to be careful about what I said over there.
Also from blogging I've come to realize that there are many, many Democrats with whom I have serious differences. On questions of war, flag burning amendments, taxing corporations and a host of others I am often aghast at the positions some people hold. Nowadays, when I check out DKos I rarely find really interesting diaries. It is mostly, it seems, a machine for electoral politics, which is fine. But I'm still not sure to what extent Democrats can change things. I'll go on voting for them, mostly because they aren't Republicans. But I don't really have a sense that I AM a democrat. I'm not anti-communist enough, I'm not convinced that there are "good" wars, I'm not very patriotic to tell the truth. I don't much like capitalism, although I don't have an alternative. I'm not a liberal, rather a lefty in an old-left-working-class kind of way. I don't like that Democrats voted against the filibuster and I hate that some of them voted for the bankruptcy bill.
No, I'm not a Democrat. I'm just forced to vote for them.