Raised a democrat by intelligent and educated parents and an admirer of Roosevelt from almost infancy. Didn't despise Republicans, just considered them misquided. Thought Ike was plausible, but didn't know of his foreign adventures -- no one else did either. But when I saw Nixon's Checkers speech I was so offended that I became an instant opponent of the Republicans. (Joe McCarthy had already given me a push in that direction. Is it my imagination or does Ted Cruz bring McCarthy to mind?) The more I learned about the Republicans the more I disliked them. There is a dark context to this -- some people wouldn't put a Lincoln stamp on an envelope. (Yes deep and irredeemable South.) With time my instinctive aversion to Republicans became deep contempt, especially after and during the civil right movement and Nixon's Southern Strategy. Nixon, poisoner of the well. With time I realized that there wasn't that much difference between the two parties. Gore Vidal was right when he said there was only one party in the US -- the party of property. But for many years it has been clear that the Democrats were the lesser evil. They remain the party of lesser evil but as a representative of the plurality of Americans they have lost their way. Democratic politicians now have only one client: their own reelection and the advancement of their own interests. Below is my resignation as a Democrat.
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