The Democratic Party sent something interesting to my house today—a “Proud to be a Democrat” bumper sticker. There’s just one thing: I’m not.
Proud, that is. I mean, I am a Democrat; that’s just not something I’m particularly proud of.
Look, politics sucks, okay? Politicians are sleazy bastards, regardless of party. They lie, cheat, philander, take bribes, and so forth. Democrats, by virtue of the fact that we don’t advocate government control of personal morality, tend to attract people who want to actually do immoral things. And these are the people that I choose to run the government.
As Otto von Bismarck put it, “People who enjoy sausages and respect the law should never watch either being made.”
The thing is, we can put the right selfish, corrupt, sleazy people into office and still get a good result. At least I hope we can, because that’s honestly the only choice we have.
I have more or less one single principle that sums up my political philosophy: “The government exists to ensure a decent quality of life for Americans.” That’s a decent quality of life; not a fantastic quality of life, but at the same time not a destitute lifestyle either. That’s why the government should provide things like schools, law enforcement, welfare, and yes, even healthcare.
The government exists to ensure a decent quality of life for Americans. Because it’s just wrong to let people fall all the way into destitution when we, the people, through our vote in the U.S. government, have the power to help them. It’s wrong to detain citizens without probable cause. It’s wrong to spend our money and our lives to invade countries that have not attacked us.
The government exists to ensure a decent quality of life for Americans. Too many Republicans don’t believe that for my tastes, and that is why I am a Democrat.
But it’s not something I’m proud of. For one thing, a lot of the things that set Democrats on fire don’t matter to me. Abortion. Gay Marriage. These kinds of “personal morality” topics are topics that, within the realm of politics, don’t matter to me at all. See, friends, when it comes to personal morality, good people will do the right thing; it doesn’t matter what the law is. Therefore, I don’t really care what the law is.
But from the perspective of a political philosophy like the one I’ve described, the Republican train seems to be moving us at cruising speed towards the edge of a cliff. I’m hitching myself to the Democrats because they’re the only ones who might stand in the way.
