A Beginning or a Middle; perhaps an End?

I don't know which group I identify with anymore...

I used to feel pretty comfortable as a Democrat - and I KNOW I am not a Republican, nor could I ever be a member of the GOP. I am still too engaged to be an Independent and I am too rational to be a Green or Reform or Libertarian.

I've taken a number of those quizzes and they ALL tell me that I am a Democrat.

I don't care what you do in your bedroom... or with whom. Yep... that is a mostly Democratic viewpoint.

I believe the government (neither federal NOR state) has any busy telling a woman what to do with her own body. Some GOPers might agree, but this is still a mostly Democratic view.

I support the unions. I absolutely agree that every worker should have access to a union and every employer should allow his employees the right to organize. Completely a Democratic view.

I believe taxes are the burden of an enlightened society and am happy to be able to pay them. I think the more you make the higher % you should pay. So... as a identifying issue, this puts me squarely on the left.

I think small employers (single or under 50 employees) should only have to pay one half the payroll taxes. Seriously... I know this makes me a fringer on all tests of political ideology, but I still believe it.

I think lobbyists should be drawn and quartered. I consider them to be the single, greatest threat to our Constitution and survival as a Democracy. In fact, I am SO concerned about the really BAD lobbyists that I am willing to push for our government to give up lobbying in ANY form on behalf of ANY group by ANYONE paid to do so. Teachers and nurses included. Even Unions. Even Democratic lobbyists. See... this is where I start running into problems. Many years ago, this was a leftie viewpoint. But lately... not so much.

I am a member of the Democratic Party. But, I am not sure that I agree with my newly elected Democratic President on several issues. Lobbying is just the biggest. A real close second is the whole TORTURE issue.

The Torture debate is ludicrous to me. The country I love doesn't torture people...ANY people...for ANY reason. It is a law. A federal law - and an international law. People who DO torture other people get arrested and tried and convicted by a jury of their peers. We are a nation of laws - aren't we?

The Bush era has been bad. That probably could win as the most inane statement and the biggest understatement of the century. I just don't think everyone really gets how BAD the Bush era has been for us as a nation. Many of the bases, the very legs, that our Democracy was founded upon are just no longer there. They are GONE.

I read the blogs and the newspapers and listen to the talking heads (my favorites are Rachel Maddow... and Keith Olbermann) as they tell me that President Obama is not going to insist that our fellow Americans who tortured people... or made it seem legal for others to do so ...be arrested and allowed their day in court.

Let me clarify that a little. President Obama has made it clear that he chooses not to say that torturers and their enablers should be arrested and tried in court. Our current administration doesn't SAY that torturers and their bosses should be arrested and tried in court. And they aren't going to DO it, either.

So. A Democratic Administration is going to allow torturers a free ride and has already squandered billions to "bail out" the worst of the lobbyists.

What do people like me do? Whom do we support? Do we continue on as Democrats... just happy that the Republican Zoo is gone from town? Seriously. These are THE two most important issues of our day. And the DEMOCRATS got them BOTH WRONG!