Updated 2 years ago
For the first time in my life, I am officially a Democrat. As I probably have only about three decades left, it will probably be permanent.
This has been decades in the making.
It is no secret I have been disgusted by Trump taking over the GOP. I can safely say they have burned their bridges for me for a lifetime. I will neither forget nor forgive the depths to which their death cult plunged for as long as I live.
I’ll still be a cantankerous moderate with a few libertarian impulses on some social issues. I do not get into identity politics at all. I have re-embraced my moderate, open-minded Christianity, but do not consider myself Evangelical at all, which I look at with suspicion.
But Coronavirus changed everything. We are all connected. We are not self-contained bubbles. I have seen the limits of libertarianism.
Where once I saw the Dow as part of my self-worth, I now see it as a disengaged, rarefied billionaire’s trophy gauge completely divorced from everyday reality.
I can no longer falsely equivocate between both sides. It is a matter of life and death now. I can no longer sit on the sidelines while science and expertise are degraded by a vulgarian wannabe dictator and his enablers. I want to be part of the solution.
Minor epiphanies during the past few years snowballed into a big epiphany. A generous welfare state does not have to conflict with a competitive capitalist economy. In fact, they go hand in hand. I am now open to all ideas coming from the left, such as single-payer health insurance and universal basic income, and will now support their candidates no matter what.
Even if, God help me, it ever turns out to be Bernie, Alexandria, or Ilhan.
Count me in.
