Question for white male Dems

[misanthrope]

166. Frankly, I wasn't a Democrat

This was the leader of the Democratic Party in the state where I grew up and the party was loaded with plenty more just like him.

That said, I was always liberal for my environment. Mostly because sympathy came easy for me. Some of it was due to the times in which I grew up, entering grade school less than 10 years after four young girls were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, the explosion of which would have been audible from our neighborhood just west of there.

My family was deeply immersed in the church and I took the words and actions attributed to Jesus of Nazareth to heart. There was also a popular cultural figure in Birmingham known as James Alexander "Brother" Bryan. The Depression Era preacher was reputed for his tireless work on behalf of the poor and homeless. The steel town was waylaid by the economic downturn and Bryan was known for literally giving the clothes from his back to people he ran across.

My grandparents' generation filled me with stories about struggling through the Depression and the salvation of FDR's leadership.

I was unusually aware of current events as a child and recall the Watergate scandal, hearings and conclusion. I found the growing nationalism of the Reagan era off-putting, then frustrating and finally repulsive.

But growing up in a state where so many Democrats were just as regressive and conservative as Republicans imbued me with a deep cynicism about politics, even though I found them important and intriguing. My voting patterns weren't dictated by party affiliation, but my values and beliefs.

As Southern conservatives infected the Republican Party and then overwhelmed it, my likelihood of ever voting for one of them became so remote as to be non-existent. Even now, I have relatives who have run for office under the GOP banner and I refuse to vote for them.