Where to Start?

Having seen that this is a perfect medium to express opinions and debating for weeks on how to start, I have now decided to just dive in. I don't profess to be any type of political expert, I have no formal education on the subject. I simply have my own opinions, seemingly on a daily basis according to those who are tired of hearing me talk about them. I have been a political cynic for over a decade, essentially starting from the time when I was a Reagan supporter in the US military, and the Iran-Contra scandal broke. When the president testified and was so brazenly lying, I felt incredibly disillusioned.

With the opening of the Jerry Brown campaign in 1992, and his vocal opposition to the Washington establishment, I once again became involved. Ninety days later I was crushed when the Clinton campaign took off the gloves and smeered the Brown campaign into the ground with baseless claims of cocaine parties at the Governer's mansion in California. I can still see the shadow of a "policeman" who refused to be identified on the Phil Donahue Show sitting behind screen making outrageous accusations. This was a sad time for the Democratic Party.

The only redeeming quality that I found from the newly elected Clinton administration was the choice of Al Gore as the VP candidate. I had become familiar with his work in the Senate when I had become more active in the enviromental movement, and while he seemed to epitomize the stuffed shirt politicians in Washington, there was something about him that drew me to him.

I never forgave Clinton for the underhanded tactics he used against Jerry, but I was reasonably happy with the results that his administration produced. The Familt Leave Act served me well with the birth of my daughter, allowing me demand time off from my employer to care for her for several weeks. I was then further impressed later on down the line when I needed IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) because my daughter was diagnosed with Autism. For those of you who are not familiar with this, it empowers the parents of disabled children in the direction of their education (regular classroom inclusion, personal aides, speech and occupational therapy, individual classroom modifications, etc...)

My take on the Lewinsky scandal was somewhat different that what was played out in public. My intial impression was that there was little doubt what had happened, but how it came about. It seemed to me that it was a HUGE abuse of power, and based on the limited information that came out during the campaign (Jennifer Flowers and countless Arkansas State Policemen who described his womanizing behavior) I was not at all surprised. The surprising part was the vicious nature of the attacks that were leveled on him.

I of course was thrilled with the Gore nomination for the Democratic Party in 2000. I was however not impressed with the way he allowed himself to be "handled". I very rarely caught glimpses of the man I was so thrilled with just eight years prior. He seemed to be constantly evasive and lacking conviction. While I could certainly understand his disgust for the lack of intelligence for his opponent, it came off as boorish to the American public. Being a techy, one of the things that I came to like about him was his idea of how the Internet could be used. While it did technically exist, it was strictly used by the government and scientific organizations, and was not available to the general public. To this day, I still don't know why the Gore campaign and the DNC didn't turn the tables on the "I invented the internet" Republican smeer.

Needless to say, the outcome was just another in my many political disillusions. My distaste for the the 2nd Bush administration is immeasurable. My disdain for the Democratic National Commitee is nearly its equal. They continue to allow their nominees to be protrayed as privileged, silver spoon fed, no conviction, tax and spend until you bleed LIBERALS!

I am a liberal and proud of it. I will attempt to use this space to espouse the idea that being liberal is not the curse it is made out to be. I welcome any comments that are constructive and open minded.