I was "friended" on Facebook the other day by a young lawyer whom I did not know who said that he wanted to make friends with a "left-leaning lawyer." I guess that most people would describe my political views as more left than right. I have certainly never been reluctant to speak my mind on politics. Somehow the young man's description of me as "left-leaning" made me uncomfortable. Maybe it is my Southern roots showing, as in the South most everyone today seems to be a conservative Republican. Probably most of the friends I grew up with have long since hidden my posts on Facebook. My sister jumped all over me a couple of years ago for sending out a joke about Red states v. Blue states. My mother had a way of talking about "old Haaarry Truman" that left no doubt as to her views about the liberal Man from Independence. I was told again and again that Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman (and later John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson) were "radicals." Even when I was little, I figured that being a "radical" probably was not a good thing. I think my mom once pinned an "I Like Ike" campaign button on my diaper. I was a big Ike man in the election of 1956. After all, Al Gore, a fellow Tennessean, didn't even carry Tennessee in 2000. So I guess I come by my discomfort with the "left-leaning" label quite honestly.
When I first started voting in the late 1960s in Tennessee, you had to register as a Democrat if you wanted to vote in the primaries because there were no Republican primaries. My mom and dad were technically registered Democrats for much of their lives. Nonetheless, in national votes I proceeded to vote for Nixon (twice), Reagan and George H. W. Bush. I did vote for Jimmy Carter in 1976 just because I thought it was time that the Southeast was allowed back into the Union. That was really just a sentimental vote for a fellow Southerner rather than an endorsement of Jimmy Carter's platform. My parents were solidly conservative and almost always voted Republican if they had a choice. My sister still votes that way. How did a stalwart Young Republican find his way to where I am now on the political spectrum?
I saw Rachel Maddow on the Tonight Show a few months ago and I thought she explained it pretty well. She said that her views of today would have made her an Eisenhower Republican back in the 1950s but that the entire political spectrum had since shifted drastically to the right. She said the Republicans have been steadily tacking to the right and that the Democrats have been following right along with them, if always a few steps behind. I thought when I heard that explanation that Rachel Maddow was exactly right in her analysis. I don't really think that a lot of my ideas have changed all that much over the years. I think that I have stayed pretty much in the same place and that the political spectrum has careened so far rightward that I have effectively been moved involuntarily from the center way to the left of center.
My views really haven't changed very much over the years. I thought that torture was wrong 30 years ago and I still do. Who knew that this would make me a liberal in the early 2000s? I thought that invading other countries without provocation was wrong 30 years ago. Who knew that such a position would make me a lefty in 2003? I have paid into Social Security since I had my first job in 1963 at age 16. I thought that Social Security was a good program and solidly established as an integral part of the American social fabric. I was therefore shocked to read a few years ago that some might deem Social Security "America's experiment with Communism," as one letter to the editor put it. I thought that we learned from the stock market crash in 1929 that some degree of government regulation of business was probably a sound idea. I had no idea that such a belief would make me a budding pinko in 2011. I thought that it was a Constitutional principle that we would keep organized religion out of government, including the public schools. I still think so. I guess that makes me ineligible for a Tea Party. I have always felt that while our tax policy should provide a strong incentive for people to work hard and make money (the pre-Reagan 90% marginal tax rate seemed completely unfair and incentive-killing to me), I have likewise always felt that our society still does need to make some reasonable provision for those who can't do for themselves. A lot of conservatives don't seem to agree. Every man for himself seems to be the mantra, and let the devil take the hindmost. All in all, I thought that my ideas and beliefs were pretty standard stuff for an everyday American. Now I guess I really am the left-leaning lawyer that my new "friend" thinks that I am.
I have always tended to speak my mind and vote my conscience. It seems to me that our country is coming to a point of departure. We are being presented with two drastically different visions for a Twenty-First Century America. I think that full and free discussion of these competing ideas is necessary and healthy. It is unfortunate that things have become so polarized that friendly disagreement has become difficult to pull off. I think at this point that I am going to continue to put in my two cents and let other people categorize that how they choose. I hope that I can at least make people think. Maybe I can get some of them to read in more depth. I feel that our media presents a very superficial view of current events. One of the regular readers of my blog sent me a note the other day and said that he totally disagreed with my opinion but that he would continue to read my blog. Likewise, I have tried the past couple of years to give a listen to the more conservative commentators. We have some critical decisions to make in this country in the next few years about what kind of country we want to be. I think that we all need to read as much and listen as much as we can. As we say in the legal profession, I hope that we can all somehow learn to disagree without being disagreeable.
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