HOW I BECAME A REPUBLICAN
They say you should never trust anyone under 30 who isn’t a Democrat and anyone over 30 who isn’t a Republican. So what do you do when you turn 30? Well, in my case, I became a registered Republican.
I run in extremely Democratic circles: East Coast, urban Philadelphia, living and working among anti-war bohemians and anti-Bush blacks. Some of my work colleagues wonder how an intelligent economic development professional could be a Republican; others are glad to know me because they don’t have any conservatives in their life that they respect. I am not even close to any of the somewhat true stereotypical Republican archetypes: suburbanites our parents’ age, Midwesterners and Southerners, and snotty rich kids.
So how did it happen? (It is asked of me just like that sometime, like it is an unfortunate disease that I caught by chance.) To begin with, though I voted mostly Democrat in my twenties, I never totally bought into the ideology. When I hit thirty and took a sabbatical from work, I got more comfortable with who I really am, instead of trying to be somebody else.
And who I am is pro-business, in the sense of small government but not in the sense of protecting domestic companies. On both topics, I argue for capitalism: let market forces drive economic policy, and encourage free trade rather than coddle industries that can’t compete globally.
To be sure, since I have become a Christian, I have a category for applying capitalist principles to social change, and I do believe that societies have an obligation to provide a safety net for those who are either temporarily or permanently down and out. But I am uncomfortable with the welfare state and tax policies of most of Europe as well as of Canada, and think that taxes should in general be lower and not higher.
My 30th year also coincided with a one-year gift subscription to The Economist, a British right-leaning news mag that affirmed my free-trade beliefs and gave me a window into European policies. I also participated in a campaign on behalf of a Republican candidate for city council at-large, which introduced me to some of the movers and shakers on the R side here in Philadelphia.
So here I am, on this side of 30 and on the red side of America. To be sure, I am still opposed to the flavor of Republicanism epitomized by Bush, Ashcroft, and Gingrich, but I’m not totally convinced that that isn’t just moral conservatism rather than economic and political Republicanism. After all, on moral issues I actually swing more stereotypically Democrat: for affirmative action, for gay marriages, and for stem-cell research, for example. Although I am unashamed to say I am pro-life, believe that homosexuality is a sin, and agree with the current administration’s legislation on extending funding to faith-based organizations that do social work.
So that’s who I am and how I got here. What’s neat about this country, more so than any other nation at any other time in history, is that the goal of each election isn’t to decide whether D or R is correct, but to give each side the opportunity to state their case and add to the fabric that is our living and breathing democracy.
They say you should never trust anyone under 30 who isn’t a Democrat and anyone over 30 who isn’t a Republican. So what do you do when you turn 30? Well, in my case, I became a registered Republican.
I run in extremely Democratic circles: East Coast, urban Philadelphia, living and working among anti-war bohemians and anti-Bush blacks. Some of my work colleagues wonder how an intelligent economic development professional could be a Republican; others are glad to know me because they don’t have any conservatives in their life that they respect. I am not even close to any of the somewhat true stereotypical Republican archetypes: suburbanites our parents’ age, Midwesterners and Southerners, and snotty rich kids.
So how did it happen? (It is asked of me just like that sometime, like it is an unfortunate disease that I caught by chance.) To begin with, though I voted mostly Democrat in my twenties, I never totally bought into the ideology. When I hit thirty and took a sabbatical from work, I got more comfortable with who I really am, instead of trying to be somebody else.
And who I am is pro-business, in the sense of small government but not in the sense of protecting domestic companies. On both topics, I argue for capitalism: let market forces drive economic policy, and encourage free trade rather than coddle industries that can’t compete globally.
To be sure, since I have become a Christian, I have a category for applying capitalist principles to social change, and I do believe that societies have an obligation to provide a safety net for those who are either temporarily or permanently down and out. But I am uncomfortable with the welfare state and tax policies of most of Europe as well as of Canada, and think that taxes should in general be lower and not higher.
My 30th year also coincided with a one-year gift subscription to The Economist, a British right-leaning news mag that affirmed my free-trade beliefs and gave me a window into European policies. I also participated in a campaign on behalf of a Republican candidate for city council at-large, which introduced me to some of the movers and shakers on the R side here in Philadelphia.
So here I am, on this side of 30 and on the red side of America. To be sure, I am still opposed to the flavor of Republicanism epitomized by Bush, Ashcroft, and Gingrich, but I’m not totally convinced that that isn’t just moral conservatism rather than economic and political Republicanism. After all, on moral issues I actually swing more stereotypically Democrat: for affirmative action, for gay marriages, and for stem-cell research, for example. Although I am unashamed to say I am pro-life, believe that homosexuality is a sin, and agree with the current administration’s legislation on extending funding to faith-based organizations that do social work.
So that’s who I am and how I got here. What’s neat about this country, more so than any other nation at any other time in history, is that the goal of each election isn’t to decide whether D or R is correct, but to give each side the opportunity to state their case and add to the fabric that is our living and breathing democracy.
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