Am I a Partisan Hack?!

I think of myself as Liberal, open-minded, but I've never voted for a Republican, ever, in my life. I've always voted. I figure I can't complain about anything if I don't vote, so I vote, I vote to feel I have a right to complain, a right to care.

So liberal, yes, open-minded, maybe not.

I come from a long line of dead people. I come from a long line of Democrats. My father, my father's father, my father's father's father were all Democrats. A long line of blue collar, working folks. Pretty much "have-nots," struggling to make ends meet.

My father once told me he did vote for Eisenhower in 1956. He was a soldier in Korea, and Eisenhower promised to end the war and bring the boys home. So that year, he voted, and told everyone back home to vote for Eisenhower, the decorated General, but that was an outlier.

I've voted for some pretty poor candidates in my life; Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis & Rod Blagojevich come to mind, but the alternative GOP candidate always, always seemed worse. 

I wonder this morning, "Am I a partisan hack?" Maybe. I do think that, for me, the GOP has always been the party of the wealthy white establishment. They have never been for "the little guy." They have always used race to divide us, although usually they talk in code, using words like "small government," "balanced budgets," and "welfare reform." They always promote a big military at the expense of social welfare programs. I am all in for well-funded social welfare programs. If I am to pay taxes, I'd like my tax money to be used for the social well-being of us all.

The GOP usually (always?) wants to promote policies that keep the wealthy, privileged, white establishment wealthy, privileged, white and in power. At least that's how it all looks from my little perch. Maybe it's a skewed vision, maybe not. 

But I suppose it's sort of "bred in the bone." A lived political consciousness. Partisan for sure.