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If there’s anything that will reliably cause hurt between friends these days, it’s gotta be politics. And it shouldn’t be that way. (He says, while cringing in the self-knowledge that he’s as guilty as the next guy or gal of the unthinking jab.)

I grew up in a Republican family. At least my Dad was an avowed Republican. But today, I have to wonder how palatable he would find some planks of the Republican platform.  

I should interject here that identifying the family of my childhood as “Republican” should be taken with a certain grain of salt. In the late fifties and early sixties, a family was identified by the father’s politics. I don’t recall my mother’s comments from that era, if indeed there were any to recall. It was a sign of the times that women didn’t generally speak up concerning beliefs that clashed with those of their husbands. That would come to a crashing halt for my Mom in the early 70’s but I digress…

As a teenager, I was a member of the first wave of eighteen-year-olds who voted in a national election. The presence of Democratic Party proselytizers on the corner near my high school campus dictated that my registration as a voter identified me as such.

I voted for Richard Nixon at my first opportunity. I felt that his foreign policy was progressive when contrasted with that of his competition. I was focused on withdrawal from VietNam (an area in which he sorely disappointed me) and enlightened pragmatism in our dealings with China (an area in which he satisfied my then-beliefs). I don’t recall being passionate about any other national issues in those days and given my age at the time, it’s certainly possible I based my choice primarily on those two considerations.

Since then, I’ve voted for the candidate I thought would best serve my own beliefs concerning the direction of my country. While I consider my voting record private, I will tell you that a thorough review from 1972 to today would probably confound any attempt to identify me as a staunch member of any particular party.

This is not to say I haven’t had identifiable leanings. For much of my young adulthood, my friends and family knew me as a conservative Republican and most of my utterances in those days would admittedly have supported that view. But in the last twenty years, I’ve shifted my allegiances in ways that would regrettably and inaccurately identify me as a traitor to my Republican friends and a latent conservative to other friends.

Also during the last twenty years, through my role as a father of daughters and as husband to a strong woman and as an advocate for folks living with disabilities, my views have shifted. At the same time, through ludicrous political positions ranging from Reagan’s trickle down obscenity to Clinton’s claim that it was about his personal sex life and not about the Chief Executive committing perjury under oath, I felt more and more marginalized by the country’s two largest political parties.

It’s been quite awhile since I felt aligned with any formally organized group of political thinkers. The 1% certainly don’t all believe as I do and I don’t believe there’s any such thing as The 99. Neither Occupy Seattle nor the people they claim to despise represent me. So, as a thinking person – and I’m hoping folks on both sides will at least grant that perhaps I do occasionally think – I just can’t get on board with anyone who believes that if I embrace the plank I have to support the whole platform.

I cast out both extremist claims: that only liberals are caring or that only conservatives are responsible.

I won’t advocate for any particular position in this posting. Can’t guarantee I won’t from time to time in other postings but for now, I’ll just offer my thoughts on a few issues of the day. For those who may be inclined to read or not my blog based on my political beliefs, I offer this small bit of soul-bearing, admittedly not comprehensive but probably appropriately representative:

·         Government at any level exists primarily to organize resources to allow people to live together. I am primarily devoted to the U.S. Constitution but only to the extent that it continues to serve us well. If it is not a living, breathing document, it is nothing at all.

·         With that said, I believe in the evolution of case law; that the principle of stare decisis must be tempered by respect for new situations, fresh information, and evolving cultural influences; and that devotion to any constitution, law, regulation or ordnance is and should  always be trumped by reason.

·         Any sovereign entity holds and should responsibly exercise the right to enforce its borders.

·         It is ludicrous and hateful to assume that one wave of immigrants is more deserving of succor and assimilation than another.

·         It is anti-pragmatic to consider the health care and public services costs associated with immigrants without also considering the richness – both cultural and economic – that they bring with them.

·         Fundamental health care is not mentioned as a right in the Constitution, so national movements to provide both basic and catastrophic health insurance can only be reliably considered from a practical point of view. I personally believe that every person in this country should have access to health care, and that no one should ever be faced with making a choice between health care and other essentials – roof and walls, food, knowledge and training, personal dignity. We can talk about how we accomplish this but I find it amusing to hear folks argue against “socialized medicine.” What do you think we have now? Find a medical school, pharmaceutical company or hospital that receives no public funding, then we can talk. Otherwise – and I say this with love – kindly shut up.

·         The principle of freedom of religion can be upheld only to the extent that it rests on a foundation of freedom from religion. I will never support any political party or movement that claims to have a god or gods on its side. Neither do I resent you practicing according to your beliefs, so long as you keep it out of my face.

·         Sexual orientation and sexual perversion are not the same thing. Some people do things in the bedroom that I consider ickey. That doesn’t mean they are lesser humans. And a lot of those people doing ickey things would proudly identify themselves as heterosexual.

·         In any society I can respect, EVERY CHILD should be able to count on protection and support from ANY ADULT. Adults who fail to accept and live by this tenant are indeed lesser life forms.

·         Self-restraint trumps censorship every time. We need MUCH more of the former and always, less of the latter.

·         I don’t know it all, but it is incumbent on me to act on what I do know.

·         In a free society, you vote where you are, when you are, according to your understanding of the issues. Allowing any political “leader’s” proclamations to become a proxy for your own thought is irresponsible. Note to cheering throngs - please just stay home on election day.

·         Welfare as currently deployed is a sad and destructive program. We need programs that build people up, not that encourage them to be warehoused and marginalized.

·         My thoughts will continue to evolve, or so I hope and believe. Anyone whose political position doesn’t shift over time either got it perfectly right at a very young age, or just isn’t listening.