Level-Set

Greetings from the Left Coast!

Before I start sharing my opinion on specific issues, I thought it would be only fair to let you know where I consider myself to be on the political spectrum - where I'm coming from.

I consider myself to be a "Traditionalist" as defined by Bill O'Reilly in his book Culture Warrior. I suspect a lot of people stopped reading right there, because Mr. O'Reilly is high on the hate list of the liberal left in this country. Still, I think that Culture Warrior is worth reading, and I would recommend it to anyone, if only as a means to clarify where you fall on the political spectrum.

It's hard to deny that there is a culture war going on in this country. But how do you define the sides? O'Reilly maintains that it is a war between Traditionalists and Secular-Progressives. By his definitions, Traditionalists believe that, for all her mistakes, the United States is fundamentally a good and noble country that is a significant force for good in the world. They believe that the traditions upon which this country was founded and built, which are rooted in Judeo-Christian values, and which allowed it to become the great nation that it is today, deserve respect and should be preserved. Secular-Progressives, in short, believe pretty much the opposite: that the United States is a fundamentally flawed, even an evil, country that is a negative force in the world, and that our society needs a radical makeover more along the lines of, say, France.

Here's where I part company to an extent with O'Reilly: he maintains that the Culture War isn't - or at least shouldn't be - a Republican vs. Democrat thing, or even a conservative vs. liberal thing. In theory, that's true. But when I go to the polls - excuse me, when I open my mail-in ballot - this fall, I don't get to vote on people who are listed as Traditionalists or Secular-Progressives. They'll be listed as Republicans or Democrats. (I'm ignoring the other parties for the simple reason that they don't have enough power to materially affect the direction of the country, and aren't likely to within my lifetime.) So it seems to me that if we care about the direction of the country we've got to pick a side, and that it only makes sense to pick the side that is most closely aligned with the views we hold, whether Traditionalist or Secular-Progressive.

I'm sure that there are Democrats in Congress who believe themselves to be Traditionalists - Joe Lieberman comes to mind, for one. There are also those who believe in some of the tenets of, shall we say, traditional liberalism, by which I mean the value set that was associated with the term "liberal" back in the days of FDR, which is a far cry from what it has come to mean today. And I know that many Americans still pride themselves, as my father did, on voting "for the person, not the party." I used to think that my father had the right idea. The last couple of decades have changed my mind.

One of the things that it took me a while to figure out is that when we elect these people to Congress, for the most part they vote their party, not their consciences. Think about it: how many times have you heard a newscast that said something to the effect of, "...and the vote went pretty much along party lines?" Why is it that way? Because it's all about power. If you don't toe the party line, you're not going to get that committee appointment, you're not going to get much financial help from the party's national committee come re-election time nor are you going to be able to count on having any heavy-hitters campaign for you (as proven by the way the Democrats threw Senator Lieberman under the bus in the last election), and you're not going to get any help getting that earmark into the spending bill that will let you show the folks back home that, by golly, you know how to bring home the bacon (or the pork, anyway) so they should keep re-electing you.

By the way, after his loss in the primary election, Senator Lieberman ran as an Independent and won re-election to his Senate seat anyway...but was he seated as an Independent? Nope, once he got re-elected, he threw in with the rest of the Democrats to make sure they ended up as the majority party. That, of course, radically changed the makeup of every committee in the Senate, not to mention the chairmanship of every committee in the Senate, and brought Harry Reid to power as Senate Majority Leader. So the entire Senate took a decided turn to the left because Senator Lieberman chose to stick with the party even though it had abandoned him when he needed them. I rest my case.

So I've become a Republican. Is it a perfect party? Nope, because, like any other human endeavor, it's made up of imperfect people. But, as a Traditionalist, I've looked at the two major parties and picked the one that most closely represents my values. If you're a Secular-Progressive, you're probably aligned with today's Democrat Party for much the same reason. If you're a Democrat, and still consider yourself a Traditionalist, you need to be honest with yourself and understand that the Democrat Party of today is not working to promote your values - so you need to either get out of it or get active and work to take it back. By the same token, if you're a Traditionalist, and don't think the Republican Party is doing enough to promote Traditionalist values, then you need to get active and work to take the party in the direction you think it should go...because the cold hard truth is that there's no other game in town. You're certainly not going to make things better by casting a protest vote for someone else or by refusing to vote at all.

I actually have voted for Democrats in the past. For example, I believe that Senator Henry Jackson, who represented this state for many years, was a great American and truly had this nation's best interests at heart, and I voted for him repeatedly. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I voted for Jimmy Carter the first time around, and even voted for Bill Clinton twice. But I cannot envision a scenario in which I would ever again support a Democrat for anything. In future posts I'll try to articulate why I feel that way.

Thanks for listening.