Yes, I知 a Democrat
Why is it that people always seemed surprised that I am a Dem? Is it because I’m white? Smart? Middle-ish age (in denial about that…)? Middle-management at a Fortune 500 company?
I try not to argue politics with friends and family. I feel very strongly that your political beliefs, like your religious beliefs, are very, very personal and are based on your core values. You cannot change someone’s core. All you can do is appreciate the good in a person and respect your differences. Maybe because I’m not as vocal as some they assume?
In a conversation at work last week, politics came up. I got frustrated at the total lack of THINKING I was hearing, so I remarked that I would be voting straight blue. You would have thought I had said I was voting for Charles Manson. A person is upper management asked me “HOW can you be a DEMOCRAT”? Here is how I replied:
1. To state the obvious, I’m a woman. I want equal pay for equal work. I want control over my body. I am pro-choice. No, that doesn’t mean I am “pro-abortion” – I do not want everyone to have an abortion. I want people to have the choice over decisions that will impact them for the rest of their lives.
2. My uncle is gay. My family is too conservative to accept this, so he lives a thousand miles away and comes home once every 10 years and has never brought his partner because my family would not accept it. I want more for him.
3. My aunt was on welfare for a few years. She got married right out of high school. Pregnant the next year, then again a few years later. Then her husband left – skipped town, no child support, no nothing. She had no skills and no experience. Started temping. No health insurance. Had an accident and had major issues from it where she couldn’t work. My family, myself included, contributed to her family, buying groceries, helping with rent. She needed assistance, more than my family could afford to give her. That assistance was there for her. She worked herself off of public assistance. She got a good job. She got remarried. Now she gives back to others that have had setbacks.
4. Growing up in the South, I know what racism is and I know how ugly it is. I cannot support a party that panders to rich, white people.
5. I am smart enough to realize that corporations are not people. I work at a large corporation. I am extremely thankful for my job, but that does not mean that I think that corporations are more important than our individual rights. I do not think that the dollar is king. I think that compassion, integrity, hard work, and honesty are king.
6. I grew up in a Southern Baptist household. I saw the hypocrisy between what the Bible said was right and the behaviors of those "christians" outside of church. I do not want that type of influence on my government.
The stunned silences from the 5 or so people in the conversation was amazing. No one had a retort. The conversation was changed to football. I don’t think I changed anyone’s minds, but I do hope that I made some of them think.
I am a Democrat and I am PROUD.
= new reply since forum marked as read
You showed great courage and you stated your case quite succinctly. That is hard to do on the spur of the moment.
I commend you! And welcome to DU!
edit: Added welcome.
your're AWESOME! 
Wonderful to have you here.
....some of those people and the infuriating thing is if you tell them the right-wing has infiltrated their church they get MAD. They take it as an insult. That would mean their church was weak enough to be infiltrated.
No.
They feel the opposite happened,...that their church infiltrated the Republican Party and they are now Godly men doing the Lord's work.
And welcome! 
