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Why I Am A Democrat.

“No Republican ever cared about us when we were poor.” – My grandfather

I come from a family of poor dirt farmers, people so poor that they had to take off their shoes to save on the leather when they walked somewhere, noble yeomen who worked harder than any CEO on Wall Street can imagine. The women raised chickens, sewed on the side, cooked in the school lunchrooms, watched their husbands and children often die needlessly and went to bed bone tired, the kind of tired that aches and makes you hard.  For decades they plowed some of the richest farmland in America, and had nothing to show for it. Each night they folded their empty hands in prayer and asked Jesus to save them.  He gave them Franklin Delano Roosevelt instead.  He stabilized corn prices through the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act), gave them electricity when the power companies said it was too expensive through the REA, (Rural Electric Administration) gave them jobs and dignity through the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps.), paved the roads, and helped put a car in the driveway.   When they got old, he told them they did not have to worry anymore, or work until their bodies gave out because of a new program called Social Security.  And we repaid his grace a thousand fold. That is why I am a Democrat.

Both my grandfathers were able to escape the poverty of the farm.  One rose from being a cream truck driver, to a banker who helped farmers get federally insured loans and a place to put their money where it would be safe. The other put on a uniform and risked his life at times for the safety of others.  The only thing I wanted when he died was his badge, because I remember sitting on his bed in the basement as he proudly pinned it on his chest. It was that check that allowed him to purchase his own home. Until you have been an orphan, been forced to move every few years, you cannot understand the difference having a place of your own means. Give a man a solid place to stand and he will move the world. My grandfather did. It was the insurance of Social Security and a government pension that allowed him to retire after a massive heart attack.  He was a government employee, as were my grandmothers.  Both worked long before it was fashionable to do such, one for the local university, and the other for the state’s transportation department, and should be seen as feminist icons for their great-grandchildren. Liberals fought for laws to make sure they, as women, were not harassed at the work place. My grandparents gave back to their communities more than they ever earned. That is why I am a Democrat.

My father was the first male in his family to go to college. He did not have to mortgage his future because he went to a land grant college, back when you could go at a reasonable cost. Land grant colleges are taxpayer investments in young people and he returned that faith by becoming a successful businessman. He never had a problem understanding that part of the taxes he paid went towards giving other young people a helping hand up the economic ladder through education, including his own children. Through Pell Grants and federally insured student loans, all of his children went to school and got advanced degrees.  That is why I am a Democrat. 

My sister is a school teacher, one of six in my family. She works with children that the system used to give up on, kids too poor, too black, or too slow, children that more than likely would end up in jail if it were not for her.  Some of her former students live near a friend of mine.  There is nothing more humbling than to watch a large, young black man sob as he tells you that any good he might do in life is partly due to your sister. She is helping give him a chance.  That is why I am a Democrat.

My aunt,  a single mother and another inspiration of a human being, raised two little girls.  When she had nothing, the federal government offered her a program that gave her a chance to purchase her own home. She repaid everything she was given, but more importantly two little girls got a home of their own instead of growing up in a dingy apartment, a fire hazard of a trailer, or a dank basement.  The difference it made in those two girls’ lives cannot be calculated. Both went to a public university and are doing amazing things in this world. It was liberals that fought for that program that gave them a chance. That is why I am a Democrat.

My oldest brother is a lawyer, a great one. One day on the way to a deposition tragedy put on spiked boots and walked the yellow centerline. A truck pushed his car into a bridge. Heroically, he probably saved the young female lawyer in the car’s life, by taking the brunt of the impact as the car smashed into the bridge. He lost his leg and nearly his life in the accident. It was safety standards, fought for by liberals when the car companies claimed they could not afford them, that saved his life. My nephew and niece still have their dad and his being in their life has been priceless. That is why I am a Democrat.

One of my nephews is a special needs child.  His mom and dad define what a parent should be.  When you have a child with a disability, little things mean the world.  With therapists, teachers and social workers, school and non-school programs, my nephew is a very expensive little boy, especially for the taxpayer.  Thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which was introduced by Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, an extension of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, both of which were championed by liberals, my nephew is given a chance to achieve things, that generations ago he would not have had a chance to. Conservatives, corporations and the business community fought the act. That is why I am a Democrat. 

My cousin and one of my best friends had a brain tumor. Due to unemployment, there were several months where he did not have insurance.  He was lucky enough to be in a great job with great insurance when the growth was discovered. One of the first doctors he went to basically sent him home to die. Instead, he was able to get a second opinion at one of the best hospitals in the United States. The course of treatment gave him another four years of life, and more importantly, it gave his wife and two children forty-eight more months with their husband and father. He almost beat it.  No one should have to die because his or her insurance is crummy or they have no insurance at all, not in the richest nation in the world. Right now we pay twice as much for half the care of any other industrialized nation. Something has to change. That is why I am a Democrat.

My father is now retired; at least he claims to be. He has a bone disease. Thanks to Medicare he can still walk and still goes into work every day instead of sitting at home in a wheel chair. That is why I am a Democrat.

I believe that global warming is real. I believe that homosexuals should be treated with dignity and respect, and just like women and African-Americans, whether the founders knew it or not, their names are found in that line, “All men are created equal.” I believe in education, protecting your faith for government bureaucrats, that Social Security and Medicare are not ponzi schemes, that the working poor and middle class should not have to pay for the greed of Wall Street bankers and the rich, and that we should be a light to the nations, not a bully across the globe.  I believe that a two-year-old little girl of a single mother in Indiana should be able to grow up dreaming and have the chance of becoming President if she wants, just like the black kid on food stamps from Hawaii did. I believe that the richest nation in the world should not be cutting programs like Head Start, watching its bridges collapse, its roads crumble or have one-sixth of its population living below the poverty line.  I don’t believe in the politics of fear and hatred of the other. I am disgusted when crowds cheer the execution of an innocent individual, applaud the needless death of someone because they don’t have health insurance, or boo a gay soldier.  I believe in the better angels of our nature, that we need to work together, take care of each other, or we are going to lose this noble experiment. That is why I am a Democrat.

If you examine your family and your life, I think you would have to become one too.