So, Politics

My mother was a low-level Democratic Party volunteer.  I'm not sure where she got her original party affiliation, but by the 60's her allegiance was solid.  Raised Catholic, she would have been excited about Kennedy's nomination; and she always supported civil rights.  When we cleaned out the house after her death, she'd kept the Party paraphernalia, like the fake straw hat she wore to greet LBJ as a "Johnson Girl".  My dad probably just voted the way my mom told him to; I never heard him discuss politics.  But he was in a union.

I was confirmed as a liberal during the Vietnam War and the civil rights struggles.  We lived in a fairly conservative area (York, PA, which has had a Republican Congressman for all but two years of my life).  De facto segregation kept my schools all white despite a substantial black section in York proper (we were in West York) that rioted after the MLK assassination and again a year later.  (Two deaths--that's a wild story in itself.  Both murders were solved three decades later--and the then-mayor of York was one of those charged.)  I graduated high school in 1970, so the 60s were definitely formative years for me politically.  I was one of two to wear a black armband to school on Moratorium Day.  (I had to put it on after I left the house--my dad did not approve of protests of any sort.)

College provided an environment in which my opinions were actually the majority ones.  Student protestors occupied administrative buildings, classes were shut down with the approval of the professors, and we blockaded the Institute for Defense Analysis compound just a few blocks from the campus.  I learned some economics and history, and thought myself a socialist.  Still, it was the war that animated most of us, and I got a lesson in realpolitik when Nixon ended the draft and war protests collapsed.  Well, it was winding down by then anyway, and it was clear that the US lost.  The division over Vietnam lasted a long time.  A decade later--more--some were arguing that it was not a mistake to have prosecuted that war.  Echoes of McNamara and Kissinger are audible in the war cries of today's Republican candidates.  There are people who are incapable of learning.

Like most people, my politics have moderated over the years.  Communism was a failure; capitalism is a mighty economic engine, albeit one that needs regulation and steering.  I'm a believer in the necessity for an active government, but am intolerant of fraud and incompetence in it.  I'll elaborate on some of the following in the future, but here's a brief rundown of where I stand on some hot button issues:

-  I'm pro-choice, but respect the pro-life position.  I think Roe vs Wade was good policy, bad law, and disastrous politics.

-  I'm no isolationist, but lean very strongly against armed intervention.  It probably did more good than harm in Kosovo, and we didn't have a lot of options in Afghanistan.  But usually, sending in the Marines hasn't really been good for anybody.

-  Anything we can do to get closer to single-payer health care is something we should do.  It's absurd how much we pay as a nation for health care that is not as good as it is in many other countries.

-  The fight for equality is not over, but damn, we are advancing on all fronts.

-  I think every nation has the right and duty to control its borders, but I don't consider illegal immigration to be a problem.  I see some every day, and they are making the country better as far as I can tell.  The kids are as American as I am.

-  Raise the minimum wage already.

-  Republicans are engaging in a profoundly antidemocratic (and anti-Democratic) effort to restrict voting.  It's working.  We should have fewer election days and they should be holidays.  Legislative districts should be drawn by computer.  I'd love to see instant runoff voting.

-  If I had my way (I won't), handguns would be illegal.  We'd have thousands fewer deaths every year.

-  There are way too many people in jail.

-  Tax capital gains and dividends as ordinary income.  Restrict the homestead exemption on real property gains--it's ridiculously loose and generous now.

-  Institute a small financial transaction tax.  Shut down tax havens.

-  Get serious about eliminating nuclear weapons.

-  Push hard for real UN reform and support the UN strongly.  It's gotten so bad that no one even asks why the UN isn't all over Syria and other trouble spots.  No one really thinks they'd improve things.

That'll do for now.

I have never voted for a Republican in my life, and seeing the candidates that Party throws up lately makes me fairly certain I never will.  I'm not a Hillary Clinton fan, and am unconvinced that Sanders can win in the general (or that he'd be an effective President).  Despite his age, I'd sign on to Biden's candidacy in a minute.  It's pretty shameful that neither Party can dredge up a really good candidate.  But I don't see any Reps as good as any of the Dems in the hunt, so it's no contest.