Reply #25: I am not sure I like party labels.

[hfojvt]

I was for McGovern in 1972 until I saw him on TV saying the space programs was a waste of money. As a ten year old boy, the space program was my sacred cow, so I switched to Nixon. I watched the debates in 1976 and was rooting for Ford. I don't remember why. The media spent four years bashing Jimmy Carter and I used to listen to this one minute Ronald Reagan show on my clock-radio. So when it was time for me to vote, I registered as a Republican and supported Reagan. And all other Republicans. Not because it was my party, but based on what I knew about the candidates. I cannot remember most of the candidates, nor what I knew about the issues. McGovern was the incumbent Senator and my problem with him was that he had been in the Senate for as long as I had been alive. I didn't like the idea of lifetime politicians, and I still don't.

Throughout my college years as I realized I was gonna be in the workforce and probably not gonna be super-rich I began to move to the left on economic issues. In the debates in 1984, Reagan exhibited the early signs of Alzheimer's. He obviously did not know what he was talking about. I wasn't ready to move to Mondale, whose mannerisms annoyed me, but I was not very enamored of Reagan any more either. Before the debates I was also kinda blown away by Jesse Jackson's speech to the DNC (although I did not want to admit it). I also saw Jesse as the host of Saturday Night Live and he impressed me there (gosh but I was sophisticated, eh?).

By the time I graduated from college in 1985, I considered myself a socialist, and I still do, although I advocate neither revolution, nor government ownership, nor income equality. I cannot remember if I voted in 1986. I was moving from one state to another, so it probably did not seem right to vote for Governor or Senator of a state I was not gonna live in.

By 1988 I was a registered Democrat and voting for Jesse Jackson in the primary, although I do not always support the Democratic candidate. For example, I did not vote for Clinton in 1992 because he sounded like a moderate Republican to me, so I voted Socialist Workers, realizing I might be helping Bush to win. I did not like Steve Gunderson at all, my Republican Congressman in 1990 and 1992 who happens to be gay, strangely enough, but I voted for the Republican Scott Klug in 1994 and 1996. Klug seemed like a moderate and he performed well in one radio debate I heard. His opponent in 1994 seemed to campaign based on "it's about time Wisconsin sent a woman to Congress" which wasn't a winning issue for this man. In 1996, his opponent was former Madison mayor Paul Soglin. Soglin seemed to ignore our part of the district while his opponent made several appearances in our town as well as radio ads. In 1998, however, all of the candidates came to tiny Hub City to meet the county Democrats before the primary. I was one of about 12 people to goto that, so I had the pleasure of meeting Tammy Baldwin, who surprisingly won the primary.

Because of Republican pro-rich tax and budget policies, and because of their dishonesty about them, and because of my inability to rise above the median income (actually I have spent most of the last two decades in the bottom quintile) it's highly unlikely I will ever vote Republican again, except maybe in some local county offices. Plus, I have become more involved in the party machine, becoming a Precinctman in 2004, and now entering my 3rd term.