Posted: Aug 3, 07 8:59pm
Regardless of your political moniker you probably find the phrases; conservative, liberal, democrat, republican, neo-con, socialist too broad. These finite boxes others try to place us in feel too confining and entirely incomplete. Akin to the 12 zodiac signs, The name "Scorpio" falls woefully short as an adequate description even if you toss in a Leo as your ascending sign.
These limiting labels are by nature a disservice to any useful political dialog. The purpose seems to be to tie you into all the things a certain box entails. Struggle as you might to get an occasional..."but I don't..." in edgewise, your tagged with labels that seemingly discount your yet to be shared opinion. Like a polar bear struggling to get out of an poorly tailored suit, attempting to disassociate yourself from your duly assigned box is a difficult enterprise. If your like me even the parts of your assigned box that appeal to you come with incomplete descriptions articulated by woefully inadequate representatives. It feels like your drunk uncle standing to make the family thanksgiving pre-dinner prayer...he means well but slurs the message.
So, the first assignment to you as a new member of this newly formed group comes as a friendly request from your "oh so humble" administrator.
In this age of cloning, take a moment to describe yourself in poetically waxing terms, animal personification or any combination there of. Feel free to discard the limits of the approximate 48,000 phyla of the animal realm. Toss in colors, imaginative parts of seemingly unrelated mammals even go mythological if need be.
In short, describe to the group your political species in terms a bit broader (and hopefully more humorously) than the moronic and confining bifurcation of Donkey or Elephant.
Here's an example;
A Republican by birth (meaning my mother and father were Democrats), I broke away from the crowd in a very tangible sense. In 1960 during the Kennedy/Nixon campaign, then NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller came to my little old home town of Dover, Delaware. There amongst the throng of supporters were my mother and father (wearing Kennedy buttons) and me their 3 year old child. I got away from my mother just long enough to toddled up the steps of the dias where "Rocky" was all too eager to pick up a suspender clad tot for the proverbial "baby kiss". Unfortunately for my parents the next day their child appeared with Rocky on the front page of the Delaware State News. I'm sure it was a tough thing to explain in the "Kennedy for President" campaign office and Colt Lanes bowling alley bar on that faithful day.
In 1976 I was finally old enough to vote. Ronald Reagan was running against Gerald Ford for the GOP nomination (ironically Rocky was the unelected VP). My first vote?...a write-in vote for Ronald Reagan. Nelson Rockefllers kiss was a bit too blue blood and wet for my taste. In the GOP primary Reagan had been barely defeated by Ford who was then trounced by Jimmy Carter.
That said, I am one part GOP, with a Teddy Roosevelt slant, hence a bit more than miffed with the current White House resident. One part Southern Democrat (after all Delaware lies on the Mason-Dixon line). In fact the books I've read show the line coming to Delaware and stopping. There were gray states and blue states but in my history book in Dover Middle School Delaware was shaded light purple. That probably is the reason I am a long suffering lifelong Minnesota Viking fan :(
You see Delaware never left the union but were not exactly antislavery (lots of agricultural interest in Southern Delaware),
Then add one part New England "don't tread on me". The end result is a sort of Libertarianism tempered by a pragmatic 21st century view. My tequilla/gin/vodka/single-malt Bourbon enhanced brain has been formed by 32 years of experience in this fluid and ever changing dog-eat-dog business world.
So, I'm a red, white and blue Elephant wearing P-and-L rhinestone laden ballet shoes...always trying to gracefully carry my enormous girth. This "ELE-RINA" remembers a time when conservative meant lesser government, a fair but laisse-faire business landscape and staying out of others peoples personal business.
How about you?
Bi-Partisan Tango
