Ponderings of a Radical Left-winger.

I've always considered myself sort of apolitical. Entirely apolitical, actually. Conservative, Liberal, whatever. I didn't vote in the last Canadian federal election because it was basically a choice between moran A or moron B. Although, I confess, my opinion of my MP has gone up a few points since he decided to come down in favor of gay marriage, against the official position of his party; and the bulk of his riding. Good for him.

I did, however, vote in the US election last year. Although, admittedly, neither candidate was a particularly good choice; it was pretty clear to me that Bush was a bad one. Not to put too fine a point on it or anything, but Bush frankly scares me. I didn't vote Democrat because I have any particular love of the Democratic party. I didn't vote Democrat because I hate the Republican party. I voted for Kerry because I hate Bush. There's a difference. There's something really scary about the single most powerful man in the world thinking that he owes God for getting him out of alcoholism and a couple of DUI indictments. Bush, who came in under the label of "compassionate conservative" has shifted significantly to the point of being a "Right Wing Freak of Nature."

Actually, come to think of it, the whole political spectrum has shifted to the right in the US. As I mentioned before, I consider myself to be a middle-of-the-road political type; but by many people's standards (I'm related to quite a few of them), I'm a frothing, radical, left-winger.

How did it happen (and, not to put too fine a point on it, it has happened) that you could shift as far as you want to the right of the political spectrum; to the point of blatant homophobia, extreme protectionism, arduous Bible-thumping, and barely-veiled racism; and still be part of the mainstream; when if you shift to the left of Alan Keyes, you're a radical left-winger.

Seriously, let's take a look a what I, apparently a radical leftist, believe in: I believe in providing health care for our citizens, especially children; I believe in allowing two people of the same gender to have legal recognition of their relationship; I belive in allowing women the medical option of teminating their pregnancy; I believe that it's abhorrent that in order to be a serious candidate for presidency in a country which is supposed to have separation of church and state, you have to be a religious person; I believe in fairness and equality for all citizens, regardless of race, religion, age, gender or orientation; I believe in not allowing the elderly to rot after they retire, in providing them with some help in their declining years; I believe in my right to cry when I watch Bambi without being called a pansy; I believe in my right to do what makes me happy, provided that I harm nobody else; I believe in the right of someone else to announce at the top of their lungs that they think that everything I believe is stupid; and most of all, I believe that the purpose of law is to protect one's rights, not to limit them. If these things make me a radical left-winger by someone's very warped standards, so be it; I also believe in their right to slap that kind of a label on me.