Thoughts on Today's Election

Raised with my parents' and grandparents' conservative views, I used to be a Republican. My dad's views on capitalism were formed by Hayek and Von Mises decades ago (reading The Road to Serfdom was his watershed experience), and don't seem to have evolved at all during his lifetime. He is unable to see that unfettered capitalism in this country has resulted in an incredible disparity between rich and poor. I was well into my adult life before I realized how insensitive the Republican party has become to social issues. "Compassionate conservatism" is an oxymoron. Conservatives believe that the poor deserve their poverty just as the rich deserve their riches. It's an undemocratic, elitist system that perpetuates itself because the Republicans have managed to rally portions of the unsuspecting middle class around issues like abortion and gay rights (check out Thomas Frank's beautifully written What's the Matter with Kansas? for insight into this phenomenon). People aren't looking at the big picture: like it's wrong to kill people before they're born, but it's okay to kill them afterward in wars or if they are convicted of a capital offense?--or just doom them to a life of ignorance and poverty and slavery to capitalism? Doesn't sound "pro-life" to me!

So my hopes are for a Kerry win, a Democratic majority in the Senate, and a surge of public support for the working poor and the middle class, and the issues that affect all of us, not just rich people and well-meaning but misguided religious conservatives. It's time to mend the social fabric!