I may be liberal but...

I may be liberal but I'm not crazy.  Democrats, liberals, and progressives, for the most part, have not gone off the deep left end of the political spectrum.  We are patriots, we are intelligent, we think things through, we analyze. We understand that this is a country blessed by people who have come here for better lives, lives that give them  freedom from tyranny and fear.  America is indeed a smorgasbord of ideas, of individuals who bring their hopes, their dreams, their traditions and beliefs, their skills and abilities.  But mostly, they bring their desire to live in a country which values individual rights, justice for all its citizens and the freedom to be heard, respected and valued.  We were a country which produced the best and the brightest.

But, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.  Thanks to the Republican Party which has been taken over by the Tea Party, the ideals that I thought described what the United States was all about are systematically and deliberately being sabotaged, state by state, and through the obstinate and narrow mindedness of a group of people intent on denigrating our first black President at every turn.  The vitriol, the venomous comments, the intent to thwart everything Democrats propose, regardless of whether it benefits the country is beyond reason.  They have decimated every program that benefits the elderly, the young, and the infirm. The twisting of words, the outright lies, the breaking of unions, the disparaging of teachers, police officers, and firefighters, the  attempt to dismantle the government's ability to protect the environment, to educate every child, the effort to privatize everything so that corporations can squeeze humongous profits , using race-based politics, the gutting of regulations insuring the safety of of our citizens, the insertion of Christian-based beliefs into law contrary to the separation of church and state, insisting that this is a "Christian" nation when it most definitely is not, denying healthcare to millions of Americans...this is the Republican way.

It is the road to Fascism, led by a selfish, self-absorbed, bible-thumping cadre of insolent, contemptuous, disrespectful, homophobic, racist, and bigoted people from a segment of the American populace who have become the most intolerant human beings the United States has ever experienced. It is criminal, it is shameful, it is unpatriotic, it is un-American, and it is a disgrace.   And they must not be allowed to strip this country of its claims to democracy, freedom, opportunity for all and the pursuit of happiness for every citizen.  We must not let anyone "take our country back."  We must take our country forward, ensuring equal rights for everyone, a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people", not run by the rich and their corporate friends.   Republicans are against a real democracy; Democrats are for a real democracy.  It's an easy decision for those who really care about the welfare of the citizens of the United States.

Values mean something

When I was a child I was raised in a home by parents who valued many things.  My dad told my brother and me, time and time again, that "Your word is your bond."  He always believed that if you promise anything, if you give someone your word, it was something you were bound by and you must follow through with whatever was promised.  Keeping your word was a principled, morally correct and ethical thing to do.  My dad lived by those words.

Doing goods things for other people was a very big part of my mom's life.  Every day I was able to observe my mom doing things that not only enriched people's lives but literally saved some lives.  She raised money for charities (the March of Dimes was her special charity), she secured housing, household goods, groceries & jobs for refugees from the Holocaust, she provided an ear for listening to others' tales of woe (and there were many.) And she did all this anonymously.

So, through the years I observed how my parents lived and the good that they were able to do.  My parents didn't have much but they cared about others who had even less. 

Now, the bombshell:  they were Republicans.

If they were alive today they would be horrified at what the Republican party has become:  the party of greed, deceit, fear, hunger for power and money; a party that can be bought, a party with no scruples, the party of exclusion, a party that wants complete control of everyone's lives even though they profess otherwise, a Christian party with all other religions or beliefs delegated to inferior status, a party filled with double-talking hypocrites, a party who hates liberals, homosexuals, immigrants, poor people, people with no jobs, those who have lost their homes, the elderly, the sick, the homeless.  They have no compassion.  They are without a soul.

Yes, my parents, the Republicans, would be horrified.  And if they were alive today, they would be proud Democrats.