This last election I did something that I’ve never done before in my life. I voted Democrat, pretty much right down the entire ballot. I had several reasons for doing this. First, I have the vain hope that in this classically Republican state, I would be part of a growing trend of people switching sides. I wanted that to be part of a message to Republicans that they needed to change because they were losing people. Second, I honestly feel that Democrat representatives are more in line with my beliefs.

Don’t get me wrong here. I don’t have faith that either political party has the interests of the people at heart. Both are completely devoted to serving their own needs before those of the people they claim to represent. Washington is a cesspool of corruption and it extends to both sides.

With that being said, over the last couple of years, the group that has made me scream “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” is hands down the Republicans. Most of that is the Tea Party’s fault as its gotten its claws deeper and deeper into the GOP. Although, in all honesty, I was drinking the Tea (koolaid) only just a few years ago. I’ll admit it. I listened to Glenn Beck. I worried that the end of days was right around the corner, and Obama had sold us out to enter us into a new dark age where all Christians were locked away in concentration camps and liberalism and political correctness destroyed freedom, truth and the American way. I kept it quiet, because my opinions were not shared by my friends.

Then, I stopped listening to AM radio. I started reading. I started listening. In short, I started thinking for my own damn self, instead of taking the word of some radio hosts as the gospel truth. I finally started listening to what the ass-hats on Fox News were saying, and how they were saying it. It didn’t hurt that they also said some terrifyingly stupid things during that time that made me hate them. It also didn’t hurt that during that time, I was exposed to more than a few things in Church that made me question the Conservative mindset.

Please, also keep in mind that when I say I was Conservative, I say that mainly on the basis that I thought smaller government was better, that people needed to take care of themselves, as opposed to getting welfare, and that all our overseas actions were awesome because the troops deserved respect. To further clarify, yes, the troops do deserve respect; the people giving the orders are the ones that I have problems with.

I disliked Obama, when he was first elected, because I thought that his “Hope and Change” would destroy America. Now, I’m just disappointed, because I don’t have any Hope that Change will ever happen in Washington. Despite the entire theme of this post, I don’t like to get political. I disliked it even when I was a dyed in the wool Conservative. People talked about politics, mocked each other over politics, and made assumptions over peoples intelligence over politics that were often unfair. I even do it now, though I think my reasons are a little better.

So, the question is, why? What caused me to switch sides? There’s a lot of reasons, but much of it boils down to what the Republican party has become since the Tea Party came along. Its no secret to those of you who know me, science is kind of a big thing with me. I’ve spent pretty much my entire life either watching, or reading science fiction, learning about science just because its fun, and desperately wanting to go into space myself someday. Or be a cyborg. Or have a robot exo-skeleton. Or all three. I’ll take all three and be a cyborg, Ironman in space please.

When you take that into account, it was probably inevitable that myself and the right-wing would have an eventual falling out. They promised that trickle down economics would solve everything. It didn’t. Science promised me tablet computers. Guess what I’m writing this post on. They told me that global warming isn’t real and isn’t an active threat to the planet. It most certainly is.

*sigh* I’m actually getting tired of writing this… and since I don’t expect many people to read it, especially not this far, I’m just going to say that everything that the right-wing has promised me has failed. We have two dollar a gallon gas right now, and Fox News is trying to convince me that’s a bad thing, because the economy will suffer from billionaires losing money and investing elsewhere. I’m not posting links, I’m not going to really engage in any conversation, this isn’t a call for help. This is me, finally telling whoever cares in “The Establishment” that I’ve changed and I did it long ago.

If police fuck up and shoot a kid, they should be held to the same laws that they try to enforce. If someone has cancer, why in God’s name should they even have to worry if their insurance will cover it? If we are destroying our planet, the only damned planet we have, how is it bad to take better care of it? Creationism is not science. Religion does not belong in government. Government does not belong in religion. Stop saying political correctness, and start realizing that you don’t have to be a dick to people. A better use of money would be feeding people and funding research rather than building weapons and fighting wars.

And most of all… WHY IS TED CRUZ GOING TO BE CHAIRING THE COMMITTEE THAT OVERSEES NASA?! I’m trying to find a better way of saying “That’s like putting a moron in charge of some of the smartest people on Earth,” but it is putting a moron in charge of some of the smartest people on Earth.

So, I’m a liberal. Because in at the end of the day, progressive isn’t a bad word. It means you want progress. There isn’t much about the way things were or are that I want to conserve, so lets shake things up a bit, try something new, grow as a country and as a species.