E-Whacko or Conservationist

Vivid memories return to me of time with my father - it's 1980, I'm 12, and I'm watching the election returns in the linoleum-tiled family room of our home in Tampa, FL. My dad was ecstatic. "Landslide! It's a Landslide!" he'd gleefully shout as return after return showed Ronald Reagan whooping Jimmy Carter. As his son, I was understandably excited myself.

It was fun to see my dad so happy, and to watch the electoral map grow progressively bluer. Yes, back then Republicans were blue and Democrats were red. How did that ever switch? I remember thinking how much that made sense to me. Blue was my favorite color, and Democrats were as bad as Communists, so, yeah...it fit.

Thus, sitting on our fake leather couches, and eating popcorn in front of our old-school dial-knobbed TV, my slow indoctrination into the Republican party began.

Almost 28 years later, I'm still a Republican - albiet a moderate one. I am fiscally conservative, socially moderate, and environmentally liberal (as today's classifications go). I am active in environmental groups, volunteer at the local Animal Shelter, and am disgusted with people of any stripe who seem to think that "if it's profitable, it's right." I don't care if it's Michael Vick's selfish brutality or Ted Stephenson's attempts to rape ANWR.

I struggle in the voting booth with my belief, my values, my emotions and my experience. Are there others out there that feel the same way?

Let me hear from you, and we'll see if this one little dialogue can help us find some answers - or maybe just change the world a little.

~Wade