Barry, Ron and Me

When I was a kid, I loved politics. From the time my mother cut my bangs like Mamie Eisenhower til the time I had a red knit skirt and top and pill box hat like jackie Kennedy, I was into politics. I still am. I love it and hate it all at the same time. I read and study every aspect, and I vote with a religious fervor. I haven't ever missed an election. And I sit up all night watching returns. I know the issues because I AM the issues- I invest and trade in stocks, pay taxes, am a RN with subscriptions to magazines with the innovations in health, read a lot of commentary by people much smarter than I am, own a home and keep myself insured. I was active in the school systems when my kids were in school, and I donate to charities and volunteer in the things I am interested in. In other words, I am an American. I am fairly well educated. Because of several flukes, I had to take US History UP to the first World War THREE times. Luckily it wasn't many years later that I was born, so the knowledge gap wasn't that big. We were a busy little country during that time. Lots of dates and people. (Btw, it wasn't because I failed it- it was a course in my junior high school, a history credit in my high school, and then a college credit from the University of New Orleans because my grad school wanted me to come with a history credit, and that was the only course that was available with my work schedule). And my greatest memory of political involvement is the fervor with which I believed in Barry Goldwater. I had Goldwater buttons by the handful. I went to SCHOOL with Goldwater buttons on my shirt! I wore a Goldwater button on my gym suit (yep- a blue baggy thing with snaps on the front) that they made me take off for safety reasons. When my guy, Barry, lost the election to the incredibly cheesy and annoying LBJ, I sat in my room and cried. Cried like Tracy Flick. My father, a reformed Democrat who voted for Barry on my behalf, reminded me that "no matter who wins, this country will go on and politics will go on, and it's okay". I didn't stop crying for a couple of days (My husband says that was due to my loyalty gene). But he was right. Kennedy was barely okay- the war escalated and all that changed our society forever- and it's been progressively more socialistic in our country since he took office. So today, for some reason, I wondered WHY I loved Goldwater. So I went to wikipedia, and to wikiquote, and it became very, very clear. I loved Goldwater because he was the politician that I always envisioned the founders of our country would have been. That all that sleepiness I had in American History 101 still couldn't cloud what our country was MEANT to be versus what it has become. And that patriotic fervor for the constitutional vision- well, this year it is embodied by Ron Paul. I am shocked at my libertarianism! I always thought I was a Republican, but really, in my heart, I don't like the federal government. It robs me blind! I'd give so much more voluntarily to the groups I love, but the feds take it and force me to give it to groups I don't love. I won't go farther- but I know that Ron Paul won't win this nomination. But like the patriots who dumped the tea, I have to take a stand. I have to believe that some pork loving senators must shake in their boots to see so much ground swell for a real candidate. Someone who represents PEOPLE who work and want the freedom to govern locally. So Ron, I hope you show them. I'm behind you like I was behind Goldwater. But now I know why! And the day you bow out, I will sit and cry like I did for Barry. Then I will have to go with the masses and pick the guy I wanted second. Good luck, Ron. Barry would have loved you.