An American Democrat: by Paris Van Street

Typically I will write an article on a subject which is currently facing America and its Citizens. I recently received this from a good friend of mine. I thought it well written and put in a manner that I wanted to share it. I received his permission to share it with whomever I wanted so here it is in its entirety.

An American Democrat: by Paris Van Street
I am an American first and a Democrat second. As I look at my party, I realize that American patriotism is a distant memory for many democrats, while some look upon our great country with disdain, distrust, and even disgust.

My inspiration and foundational political views as a young American came from words spoken by an American Democrat who paid the ultimate price, "My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

Where are the John F. Kennedy democrats today? I would like to be counted as one of that group. Everything that I have written here, is dedicated to the spirit of these words.

I grew up in a Norman Rockwell painting - slice of Americana. The sign, as you enter town, proudly proclaims this obvious fact, "Welcome to Bridgeville, Delaware. If you live here, you would be home now." As corny and quaint as the Bridgeville slogan is, it should be sprawled across every point of entry into United States of America. I can see it now...
I know that the idea is kind of silly and I am not ready to march on Washington or raise a grass roots movement, its just the idea that I am proud of being an American. It is a comfortable and a sobering thought. Every time I step foot on American soil after a foreign trip, I feel a great sense of relief, because I know I am at home.

America the Beacon
I see America as a diamond clad beacon of hope atop a mountain shining for the entire world to see and admire. Sure we have had our shortcomings and even outright failures from time-to-time, but America is that jeweled beacon, an example of what good can come from a truly free society where a government has limited power and where there are real checks and balances.

A Crowded Room
Sometimes I feel as though I stand alone in a crowded room of people. I hear the deafening roar in this rolling sea of voices. Recently, as I focused on an individual voice that managed to be just a little bit louder than the rest, I heard a call for change. “Any change is good, as long as it is change.” I hear the language of our democratic forefathers, but the words have a different meaning now. I hear talk of good things for the common worker, but I do not here solutions that will actually work. When our leaders talk all I can here is a collection discordant "anti-something" or "it is so-and-so's fault". It is all rhetorical blither reminiscent of a school yard brawl.
The other side is no better.

The Evil Rich
I hear words of hatred for the rich. I hear how we are going to raise taxes on those evil rich capitalistic dogs, but I do not hear a plan for how we are going to keep these people from leaving the country altogether, and taking their job producing billions with them. This reminds me of that luxury tax back in the 1990’s where my party pushed through a big feel good tax on luxury yachts. Rich people stopped buying these expensive boats in the United States. 120,000 middle-class Americans lost their boating industry jobs as two hundred year old companies went bankrupt. Have we learned any lessons from that abject failure? Will we repeat the same mistakes? Do we, as Democrats, value our political collateral more than the promotion of constitutional “General Welfare”?
Basic Human Rights
Voices in the crowd cry for rights of the individual, but human rights are ignored. We talk about a woman's right to her own body, but we don't address the rights of an unborn human. We rail against the young mother who puts her newborn baby in a dumpster to die and we put her in prison for murder. Meanwhile, we defend the work of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas who advertises, “We specialize in "late" abortion.“ (See drtiller.com/elect.html)
What is the difference between an eight and a half month old fetus and a one day old baby? Two weeks! My youngest son was three weeks early. Today a woman in trouble, in her third tri-mester, could show up in Kansas without proper counseling. In our haste to make abortion safe and legal in any circumstance, have we missed the most important point of all. The decision she makes will affect the rest of her life. It is a decision that is entered into in haste and encouraged by the facility where it is to be performed. People are encouraged to spend more thought on what car they are going to purchase than on this life altering decision. In fact, some of my Democrat friends ignore the emotional post abortion stress altogether. Why?


Equality
We celebrate and champion the cause of homosexual rights and talk about encouraging tolerance. If you express indifference you are judged as intolerant. If you express any form of incongruity in the smallest degree you are demonize and compared to advocates of the KKK or the Nazis. There are those in our party who live in the fringes of society that dominate political discussion and demand lockstep adherence to their far off center views and aspirations.

Criticizing America
If I don't care for a politician I criticize him or her. My criticism may become intense, sometimes insensitive, but I never criticize America just because I don't like one of her politicians. There are those in our party who belch out vitriolic criticism saying that America caused the tragedy we suffered one September morning in 2001. That Is like saying about a girl that was raped, “She asked for it.”

What I want as an American Democrat
I want change, real change. I want a small central government. I want the states and individuals alike to make their own choices. I want government to do the things it was supposed to do according to the constitution and nothing else. I want to defund 90% of the Federal Government institutions and completely abolish ALL federal collection of taxes. I want the state governments to fund the federal government based on their population just like the original framers of the constitution intended.

Call me Idealistic
It is fine with me if you want to decry my positions and call me idealistically naïve or ephemerally simplistic in my approach. I support the great American experiment. I am in love with Lady Liberty and get a tear in my eyes every time I see her statue in the harbor. I extol America's virtues while I overlook her shortcomings, not because of ignorant idealism or fleeting simple thoughts of flag waving nationalism or chauvinism, but because like my forefathers I truly believe in the good that is America.