I vaguely remember one moment from politics from 1980 -- I was six, and people were happy after turning on the TV, and I didn't know why. It was the moment the hostages came home from Iran. That's about my earliest memory related to politics. I avidly read news magazines in high school, in part because I had to for the speech and debate team I was on, but mostly because I found it interesting. I had liberal-leaning opinions on the Iran-contra scandal -- I thought Ollie North was much less of a hero than my dad did, I think -- and debated endlessly the merits of fiscal and social conservatism with my debate partner. The end of the Cold War in 1989 showed me the positive impact of more freedom in the world, and eventually led me to visit Germany as a college student. I also debated the first Persian Gulf war informally, but I didn't protest that war, as some did. I never felt the urge to join the military, despite my dad's 20-year career in the Air Force, but I do support the troops. I'm not sure how relevant all these experiences are to today's kids, who seem hardened by war and economic stagnation, but I believe it's important to see things from all sides, so I'm sharing them here.
I definitely lean to the liberal side of some issues, in part because of Jesus' teaching that it's what we do for "the least of these," meaning the people with the least, that matters most. Government can be a tool to care for the sick, the elderly, the poor, and other disadvantaged people, and though it doesn't do this perfectly, it is a very important social safety net for many, many people. The goal of good government ought to be to solve problems, not to sit back in some sort of rigid, ideological freeze and let the world spiral out of control. It feels like that's what Republicans want most -- a return to some idealized past in which the government was "restrained" and didn't actually have to meet the needs of millions of people. I acknowledge that government waste can be a problem, and mismanaged disasters like Hurricane Katrina show how incompetent officials can make a problem worse instead of better. The jury's still out on how well the Obama administration has handled the people's business, but at least they seem to care more than Pres. Bush or his cronies.
All this to say, I lean liberal. Here's a link to my previous posts with the politics label.
