Why I Left the Left

Dave Rubin and I share a similar path.

When I was a kid, Milton Shapp was my ideal Dem. He was an ardent proponent of business and of government transparency. I grew up a block from the AFL-CIO headquarters in town, and IBEW sponsored a Little League team. All my friends' dads had strong middle class union jobs, and the things that the Democratic party fought for made sense to me. The willingness to approach deregulation on the part of New Democrats (like Clinton/Rendell) got me registered, even with the insult rendered to Gov. Casey, Sr. at the 1992 convention.

I stuck with it even until last year, increasingly frustrated by the focus on identity politics at the expense of meaningful intersection of government and economics. When I ran for state house in Pennsylvania twice as a Democrat, people's eyes glazed over when I talked about lowering CNIT and trying to incentivize distribution business to come to our area. What they did want to talk about as a quid pro quo for the ever important fund raising: "how are you on abortion?" "how are you on gun control?" "how are you on LGBTQ?"

My take was that trying to elect effective governance has become of less interest than imposing leftist ideological purity tests. I formally exited stage right after they all but coronated Clinton, and watching the party fight it out over whether or not to double down on the identity politics (Booker! Ellison!) or to be true practical champions for those they claim to represent. I was invited to be director for Jewish Outreach for the Libertarian Party's candidate, and so there it is, and now I'm considering the Quixotic endeavor of running for Congress in our new home state for the Libertarian Party.

I like that I can do this and stay in the Guard, by the way. On one hand it's, to me, a natural extension of serving, but it also keeps me on the "useful dialog" path by avoiding contemptuous words against my elected officials.

The whole thing is, I'm not convinced my own ideology has changed, with the notable exception of an increased suspicion of government. I'm just tired of the histrionics of weirdos coming ahead of finding practical solutions.

I always enjoy reading your posts.

But what he is describing himself as isn't a Conservative position either but I do agree with most of his points as well. Don't know what you call someone these days who holds values that are both liberal and conservative in ideology so I'll keep calling myself an independent.