Growing up here in the South, the term "Yellow Dog Democrats" were voters who consistently voted Democrat because their daddy voted Democrat and his daddy voted Democrat, and so on and so on. Granny's china, Granddaddy's farm, and Daddy's guns and political party preference were passed down through the generations as a right of inheritance. "Yup, I'm one them there Yeller Dawg Democrats," my crazy Uncle Speedy would say as he cleaned his hunting rifle and spit out his snuff into a stinky brass spittoon. "My Pappy'd roll over in his grave, he would, if he knew I done gone and voted Republican!"
You see, here in the South during the sixties and seventies of my childhood, the Republican party was the party of so called elitists. They were "the Man." The Man had money, questionable morals, was educated in an expensive school and was there for the sole purpose of holding the poor and downtrodden down even more than they already were down. My mother's father lost his corner grocery store to the Man. The Man was the big chain store A&P, who offered Grandaddy's customers cheaper cuts of beef, cheaper canned goods, and modern innovation. My dad's father was a blue collar worker at an oil refinery. The Man was a big oil company that paid low wages and required long hours and often fought with his union. My family is a family of strict Southern Democratic heritage. These people weren't crazy far out liberal Democrats. They were good, conservative, church-going people who just happened to be Democrat.
Then Reagan came along. I started looking at the Republican party in a different light. I went to a private college. The Young Republicans I knew had high SAT scores like me, debated and never argued, read the Wall Street Journal and aspired to positions in prestigious law firms and corporations, believed in small government, big military and fat bank accounts. Reagan's "shining city on a hill" hit home. I became a registered Republican and rescinded my Yellow Dog Democrat inheritance, much to the chagrin of my parents. Intelligent conservatism, a power suit, power job, and a BMW, what more did a middle of the road Republican need, right?
Something happened; however, and the Republican party shifted ideals. People began discussing political affiliation as either far out left & liberal or extreme far right & evangelical. Religion rear ended that BMW with its big honkin' church bus. Red State vs. Blue State came into the picture and we became a nation partisan and polarized. I am a moderate Republican, a Republican who still believes in conservative government yet believes the Constitution is sacred and Roe v. Wade is justified. I find no reason for religion to even factor into politics. That would make us a theocracy and separation of church and state is as sacred to me as separating my darks from my lights on laundry day. Is there no middle ground anymore? It seems the intellectual Republican middle has become that island on the TV show "Lost" with its players, such as Peggy Noonan and George Will, caught up in some crazy plot twist perpetuated by the likes of the late Jerry Falwell, John Hagee, Ed Kalnins, and possibly even John of Patmos himself.
Intellectual conservatism has now been replaced with intelligent design, end time ideology, a hypocritical sense of values, medieval beliefs, and a resentment toward intellect and wisdom. So-called "conservatives" charge that their party is the only party which embraces true family values. Does that mean my family of Democrats has no values? I had a fabulous childhood. I was loved, I ate dinner with both of my Democrat parents every night at the dining table, and we went to church on Sundays as a family with other loving and decent Democrat families. What is immoral about that?
They stand on my party's convention stage and vow that they will elect a leader who will appoint litmus tested Supreme Court Justices to overturn Roe v. Wade because God said the decision is an abomination and those who choose abortion are murders. Does that mean a good and moral woman, who has just suffered a violent rape at the hands of a soulless criminal is herself a soulless criminal because she chooses to have an abortion six weeks after the heinous crime? That our party must now defeat evil, defeat it now and if you are not Christian, well then, you are just plain evil, too. Huh? Does that mean we must wage war against the Dalai Lama, my nice and friendly Hindu gastroenterologist and half the population of Florida, including Bubby, my friend's sweet and loving grandmother?!! They warp Sarah Palin's lack of intelligence and experience into folksy savvy and maverick motivation. Does that mean those of us Americans who read the New York Times, perhaps teach Constitutional Law or split atoms for a living, and can form complete sentences without the use of a teleprompter are a bunch of inexperienced blithering idiots? The disconnect I feel is palpable.
So this is what conservatism means now? What happened to the real conservative issues at stake - economics, foreign policy, energy, immigration, social security? Did we suddenly replace those with out of context exerpts from Ephesians and Revelations as the issues most impacting the majority of Americans today? This is what it means to be a conservative in America in 2008? Are you kidding me? We're getting our -ism's mixed up here apparently. That's not conservatism, that's fascism!
From what I can see, there is no conservatism left in the Republican party that I came to know and respect in college. Spending ten billion dollars a month on a futile war with good men and women dying daily in the guise of defeating evil is not conservative. Contributing to a ballooning and out of control deficit is not conservative. Rewarding corporations with huge tax breaks while they outsource our jobs to foreign countries is not conservative. Allowing Americans to make the choice between food on the table or health insurance for their family is not conservative. Demanding that a good and moral woman give birth to a rapist's baby against her will and upsetting her life forever is not conservative.
Barack Obama's "Change We Need" is Reagan's "shining city on the hill" revisited. He talks about real issues that concern real Americans. Scare tatics and slander are not the conserviative issues I came to believe in. Perhaps my parents and grandparents were onto something there with their Democratic voting legacy. This election year, as a disenfranchised moderate Republican, I'm reclaiming my Yellow Dog Democratic birthright and voting for Obama. It's the only intellectual and conservative thing I can do.
