hogwash

For just a moment, forget party loyalties.  Forget that you have always voted Republican.  Forget that you have always voted Democrat.  Take a step back and look at your positions from the outside.  Take note that not any one party has been in possession of the greatest ideas of their time all throughout history.  What has happened instead is that one party capitalizes on whatever is moving our society forward, (or backwards) and if the movement is considered a worthy one by a majority of the population, that is the party that rules until the next great idea comes along.  The fact of the matter is that over the last fifteen to twenty years, both parties have changed, just as they have changed throughout history, and right now, only one party, the Democratic Party, is in possession of the greatest ideas of our time.

How have they changed throughout history?  One example is how the Democratic Party has handled African Americans.  Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence and James Madison, who is widely considered the father of the Constitution, both formed what would become the Democratic Party.  Both were slave owners.  James Buchanan, a Democrat, was the last President leading up to the Civil War and presided over the country throughout the Dred Scott case.  Along came the creation of the Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln.  They came to free the slaves and a war ensued.  Not just over slavery, but over state rights and federal power.  Of course, the Republican’s won and changed the course of American history forever.

Skipping forward a bit, throughout the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the Democratic Party was the party of the South, the party of White Supremacist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan.  The Republican Party, similar to how it was later, was about business, and banking, and national security.  In 1929, it came to a head.  The Republican Party had control of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency under Herbert Hoover.  What happened in 1929?  Due to failures in banking and Wall Street, the stock market crashed, forcing the long running Great Depression.  As a result, groups like the KKK lost its stranglehold on the Democratic Party and Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the one party control Democrats took the reins of the country and implemented new and innovative programs to put people back to work and to raise the country out of its financial ashes. 

The irony was that everyone did better; everyone from homeowners, to businesses, to banks.  FDR lead us in to WWII and after passing away during his fourth term in office, passed the torch to Missouri Democrat Harry S. Truman to finish the job.  Then came the baby boom, the civil rights movement, and the anti-war movement, intertwined with the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy and Republican President Nixon’s Watergate scandal.  All altered the course of American history forever.  During that time, the Democrats became the party of civil rights, and equal rights for all, but also the party of hippie peaceniks, an outdated moniker that it still struggles to shake off to this day.

From 1865 to 1965, the parties traded major aspects of their party platforms and their ideas.  What was once Democratic was now Republican, and vice-versa.  A Lincoln Republican in 1865 would not have recognized his party in 1965.

Skipping forward to today, some of what took place in the sixties still leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths, especially those who identify with the Democratic and Republican parties of 40+ years ago.  However, while many of us believe we haven’t changed, the fact of the matter is, the parties have.  While the Democratic Party is still the party of civil rights and equal rights, it is also the party in possession of the best ideas for our new 21^st century global economy.  The Republican Party is still trying to hang on to the outdated economic and national security ideas of the 1980’s, the party of Reagan, the party of 20^th century economics.

My support of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in 2008 is not about anything that happened before September 11^th, 2001.  My support for Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in 2008 is about the contrast of the two platforms and the ideas of the parties since September 11, 2001.  Not only is this not the world of our grandparents, these are not the parties of our grandparents.  The world and the times have changed and the challenges that face America in the 21^st century global economy cannot afford the Republican platform and policies of the sixties and eighties. 

I understand that some people just cannot bring themselves to vote for Barack Obama, not just because of the color of his skin and the letters that make up his name, but also because of the myths that make up their beliefs about the Democratic Party.  I am asking you to set those things aside for a moment and to look at the bigger picture.  The bigger picture being that this is a new day that calls for new solutions, and the only party offering new solutions for our economy, our country, and our world is the Democratic Party, the 21^st century Democratic Party.

Don’t just be a part of history, be a part of our future.  Vote Barack Obama on Tuesday, November 4^th.