Thank you for this post because I have found here an articulation of my opinion that I have never been able to get out clearly on my own. And I *love* the term yellow dog Democrat.
I only vaguely remember the 1984 election - I wanted my mother to vote for Reagan because I'd at least *heard* of him, and I'd never heard of that other guy (hey, I was 5). At the time I didn't even know what Democrat and Republican meant, but it was the last time I had complimentary thoughts about pretty much any Republican. By the 1988 election I was the only person in my 4th grade class (Missouri) who voted for Dukakis in our mock-election and that has sent the tone for the rest of my life. I was too young to vote in the 1992 or 1996 elections, and by 2000 I was living in the South, so I have never felt my vote was anything more than pissing in the wind.
All my life I have seen nothing but America backsliding further and further from what I was taught that America should be. My mother was in grade school during the Civil Rights movement, and while the very fact a struggle was necessary is an embarrassment in the supposed Land of the Free, at least she can look back and say we *won* that one. Or so it seemed. My own formative years have been punctuated by loss after crushing loss and a general return to the 'Good Old Days' of prejudice, fear-mongering, and theocratic sentiment.
Take all the amendments to state constitutions 'defining' marriage as between a man and a woman. Although both the states I have voted in have them, I can at least say I was not living in either state when the vote was passed (Louisiana passed theirs in 2004, the year before I moved here, and South Carolina, where I used to live, passed theirs in 2006, the year after I moved away). Every time the issue comes up, the idealistic child in me gapes in disbelief that so many states could choose to *write into their constitutions* a provision that has *no purpose* other than to deny a portion of the population their *basic rights*. Each time I have stared at the news in shock, the mantra in my head "This can't happen. Not in *America*". And nearly each time I am proven horrifically wrong. Whatever happened to "We find these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal"? I guess that only applies if you're white, male, straight, and a Christian. Well, shucks, I'm 1 out of 4 so I guess I only get a quarter of my rights, huh?
Wow -- this was meant to be a comment and look, it turned into a treatise. I'll have to cross-post this on my own journal :) Anyway, thanks for the inspirational (in a cynical sort of way) post.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2008-11-04 06:34 pm (UTC)I only vaguely remember the 1984 election - I wanted my mother to vote for Reagan because I'd at least *heard* of him, and I'd never heard of that other guy (hey, I was 5). At the time I didn't even know what Democrat and Republican meant, but it was the last time I had complimentary thoughts about pretty much any Republican. By the 1988 election I was the only person in my 4th grade class (Missouri) who voted for Dukakis in our mock-election and that has sent the tone for the rest of my life. I was too young to vote in the 1992 or 1996 elections, and by 2000 I was living in the South, so I have never felt my vote was anything more than pissing in the wind.
All my life I have seen nothing but America backsliding further and further from what I was taught that America should be. My mother was in grade school during the Civil Rights movement, and while the very fact a struggle was necessary is an embarrassment in the supposed Land of the Free, at least she can look back and say we *won* that one. Or so it seemed. My own formative years have been punctuated by loss after crushing loss and a general return to the 'Good Old Days' of prejudice, fear-mongering, and theocratic sentiment.
Take all the amendments to state constitutions 'defining' marriage as between a man and a woman. Although both the states I have voted in have them, I can at least say I was not living in either state when the vote was passed (Louisiana passed theirs in 2004, the year before I moved here, and South Carolina, where I used to live, passed theirs in 2006, the year after I moved away). Every time the issue comes up, the idealistic child in me gapes in disbelief that so many states could choose to *write into their constitutions* a provision that has *no purpose* other than to deny a portion of the population their *basic rights*. Each time I have stared at the news in shock, the mantra in my head "This can't happen. Not in *America*". And nearly each time I am proven horrifically wrong. Whatever happened to "We find these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal"? I guess that only applies if you're white, male, straight, and a Christian. Well, shucks, I'm 1 out of 4 so I guess I only get a quarter of my rights, huh?
Wow -- this was meant to be a comment and look, it turned into a treatise. I'll have to cross-post this on my own journal :) Anyway, thanks for the inspirational (in a cynical sort of way) post.