I Was Democrat Before Democrat Was Cool

          I was seven years old when I first saw the movie Bridge On The River Kwai. My mother was working the afternoon shift at Sister's Hospital in Buffalo and my father had taken me to the Aero Drive-in to pass the time before he had to pick her up. Perhaps you are familiar with this David Lean film starring William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins and Sessue Hayakawa? The British colonel, played by Guinness, would have died before giving up the honor that his whole army career, his whole life, was based on. He never did relinquish his honor...only his mind. He ultimately supported the enemy that was at war with his nation because his reasoning was damaged by a distorted sense of that honor, not in a cause but for an ideal, that of the ultimate British officer. At the end of the film he sees the reality of his misguided efforts. His whole purpose in life came crashing down upon him. At that moment of realization he could only look up and ask "What have I done?"
          I was a Democrat for most of my 62 years. OK, that includes from the day of my birth in that same Sister's Hospital but I distinctly remember my dad making a big deal about finding a union barber shop when I was a young boy. I idolized John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy even more. My father is buried a few hundred yards from both of them in Arlington National Cemetery. I remember seeing the president himself riding in a motorcade by my elementary school after he arrived at Buffalo International Airport. I was devastated when Bobby was assassinated. I shook Jimmy Carter's hand...twice... and volunteered for Ted Kennedy's failed presidential run in 1979. I still have some Democrat blood running through my veins. The picture of Bobby Kennedy standing atop an automobile in Soweto, South Africa, the cuffs of his white dress shirt rolled up and his shock of hair dangling over his forehead as he reached out to the black faces, still moves me as does the same deep concern for the poor of this nation and the world.
          As far-right as this blog might appear to the first time reader I do not march in lock-step to any political mantra... if only more Democrats could make the same statement. Bill, Al, Hillary and Barack are not Democrats, not in the sense of anything that I grew up knowing Democrats to be. My hope has been that real Democrats, and there are a few of them, retake their party for we need two, actually three or more parties to keep each other in check. Today we have only one party, the UniParty (please see my Dec. 25, 2013 post on this if you are interested). I have to believe that if I were still a Democrat I would have long ago demanded the ouster of Eric Holder and a complete investigation of Barack Obama's agenda and what sinister force propelled him to where he is. Pick up a copy sometime of A National Party No More by former Georgia Democrat Senator Zell Miller (paperback isbn 0807897015724) to see what the Democrat Party was and how it has changed.
         The day will come when the modern Democrat, the real Democrat, and many Republicans, find themselves in the same position as Colonel Nicholson from Bridge On The River Kwai. He (she) will weep over what has happened to America and will also say "What have I done?" The rest will be in denial, the final stage of the postmodern culture we are polluted by. Oh, for that day when both sides bow before Jesus Christ and humbly ask for undeserved mercies; when we may differ as Americans but not as different kinds of Americans; when we follow laws and not men; and when  a politician would rather resign than work only for a career, defend the Constitution over a platform, and survey his conduct over conducting a survey.