Contemplating my own politics

I was contemplating my own change in politics over the years. I have been pretty open on this forum. I was raised a Democrat. My parents still were Democrats, sometimes deviating and voting "split-ticket" but mostly Democrat in National politics, until this administration. Then they started correcting me and claiming Independent status.

I was trying to figure out in a deep analysis of myself what changed me. I've always attributed it to my Military experience. But now, I'm beginning to wonder. I've seen a lot of people come out of the military and stay liberals. My brother-in-law is one. He's what I deem a limousine liberal. He's all for the capitalist system when it works for him. But I'm beginning to think he hates America. He's constantly saying bad things about capitalism, even though it got him where he is. He makes twice as much money as I do (meaning my family, I'm a stay at home mom). He and his wife work for AT&T. He claims that since he does, he contributes more to the Republican party than we do. Fine, I'm paying 2 mortgages because I had to move out of his mother's house that we own together or go crazy. It has been 17 months and it hasn't sold yet. I've cashed in an IRA, a 529, spent my tax refund back into my budget in order to keep them in that house and not on the street because I couldn't make the mortgage payment anymore. I can't afford to give to the Republican party. If he gets extra money he buys more toys with it. He doesn't give anything out of his pocket.

So, I don't think it was from the military. He's a veteran, too, and spent about the same amount of time that I did. His parents were conservative to begin with. We actually have opposite backgrounds, which might be an influence. My parents drug me to church until the 4th grade, and then we had been in the country for about a year and a half and they decided it was too far to drive. We stopped going. My husband's parents we're sort of the opposite there. They were Easter Catholics in the beginning. The boys got saved at a Baptist church in their early teens, and dragged them to church, where they converted. Then they went overboard and dragged them to church every Sunday. My brother-in-law ran away once, not sure if that was before or after his "conversion experience," but came back. Joined the Army and spent 4 years in but came back to live with his mom while he went to college. He lived with her until his 30's, when he got married. She meanwhile, drug him to church with her. She, meanwhile, had adopted 2 girls, whom she drug to church.

He did get to see her hypocrisy. That might make a difference. He claims to be an atheist now.

I think, as I look back, that I have a strong sense of justice. I always have. I have to wonder, how can you have a strong sense of justice and remain a liberal? Liberals have a victim mentality. But, sooner or later everyone is a victim, and the victims will victimize. If you are playing the victim card and trying to get everything you can from the government, aren't you victimizing the government? You are no longer the victim. That makes the government the victim. It's no longer poor pitiful you. You become the stronger one because you have learned to work the system and get what you need. How are you weak? You have flipped the tables and now you are a predator.

I know from which I speak, because I have been a victim. I can spot a predator from across the room. I used to attract predators. I used to be a predator magnet. I used to be a narcissist magnet. They just seemed to come to me. My first husband was one. My mother in law is one. I can recognize them now, because of the large number in my life. They will use any tactic in their arsenals to get what they want. They will be aggressive, or passive aggressive, what ever it takes. They will even be persuasive. They will even pretend to like you. They will scream and fight if it upsets you and makes you give in. They sill sulk and give you the silent treatment, if it helps. Anything.

So I believe the people who are still liberals have no sense of justice, no sense of what is fair. They are only out for self. They have no empathy. They have no ability to put themselves in someone else's shoes. They think everyone is out for as much as they can get, because they are. The limousine liberals are feeling guilty for using the capitalist system when they really what to destroy it with every other principle they don't like. They only want to climb the ladder and then kick it out so no one else can use it. They're the ones who find a system that works, and won't tell you about it. They're the ones who have said that capitalism doesn't work, well, OK I used it, but I'm an exception, it doesn't really work. It won't work for you.

My dad always said find something you love to do, and then find a way to make money at it.

Lori Ann Smith