I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so.....

Davegator may cut me out of the family will, but I think Barack Obama is turning me into a Democrat.

There is this oversimplification that I am basically conservative, while Jenny is basically liberal. I think to some extent that is true. But. The problem is that the republican party and it's conservative base has so fallen away from what I think are basic principles of conservativism and common sense, and even simple basic decency, that the Democrats are becoming the principled, moderate, intelligent party; the party that I think best reflects the country and how this country should solve its problems.

Having said that, it all depends on whether or not the dems select Obama or Clinton. If they pick Obama, they are the party of the American Dream. If they pick Clinton, they slide back into everything I used to hate about the democrats: power for the sake of power, race identity politics, irrationalism, fear, unintelligent big-government, etc. If she wins, I am officially campaigning for the GOP. At least they had the nerve to nominate a maverick war hero. McCain is problematic, but he deserves to be nominated.

Props to Missy for this political quiz link:

Barack Obama Score: 39 Video

Agree Iraq Health Care Energy Marriage Gun Control Environment Education

Disagree Immigration Taxes Stem-Cell Research Abortion Social Security Line-Item Veto Death Penalty

My highest score was a match with Obama, which made me very happy. The quiz nicely breaks down where I agree with the dems, and where I agree with the republicans. even though it looks like I am 50/50 liberal conservative, I think I end up on the dem side because the issues on left side are more important to me than the issues on the right. With the exception of marriage amendments - not that important. Gay married couples won't ruin my kids' life. Global warming will.

So here's why I am not all that in line with the republicans these days. Not as "mature and intelligent" as Jenny's, but I always say that men marry up and women marry down:

Iraq:

Iraq was a monstrous mistake. I wasn't smart enough to figure it out when Bush and his crew started it. My best friends, Sascha in Germany, Chad in Houston, Jenny in my house, were all wise enough to know that it was a rotten idea. Note to self: when your three best friends tell you your logic doesn't make sense, it doesn't. I also believe that older, wiser republicans like Colin Powell and Jim Baker were against it, but they kept their doubts to themselves out of a sense of duty. We need to have a timetable so that Iraqis know we've done enough. Sink or swim. We can't continue a war the American people are not willing to pay for. The Chinese are floating us a gigantic loan for a war we never should have gotten into.

Health Care:

I have recently experienced life with lousy private and student health insurance, I can't even imagine what life is like for the 45 mil with no health insurance. Your kid gets a tooth infection, but you don't have the money or insurance to have it treated at a dentist. The infection becomes systemic and your child goes into shock. Faced with no other choice, you take your kid to the emergency room , where after 45 thousand dollars of emergency treatment, he dies (true story.) That's why we have the highest per capita health spending in the world. A third of the country has great medical care, a third has mediocre health care, and the other third has no health care, which ends up costing everyone. It just doesn't make sense.

Energy

Huckabee has this figured out: "We pay for both sides to fight the war against terror." All of our enemies feed off of American energy consumption, which is the most wasteful in the world. Republicans are not serious about new technologies, nor are they serious about conservation.

Marriage

I am not a big advocate for gay marriage, but I don't believe in using the constitution as a tool for imposing moral standards on the federal level. THAT is unconstitutional and weirdly in opposition to state's rights, which republicans normally protect.

Gun Control

I am pro-gun control. I fondly remember living in a country where you never had to fear being shot. I've been mugged at gunpoint in America, and for that reason, and because over 30 thousand people die by gunfire every year in this country, I believe guns should be an earned privilege, not a right. I believe the second amendment is ambiguous, but assuming it does spell out the right to bear arms, the constitution also provides for amendments. It doesn't have to be a sacrosanct right.We live in an age of school shootings and criminals with automatic weapons. It's time to fix this.

Environment

Global warming is real people. I've heard this comparison to "global cooling" before and I think you need to dig a little deeper. In the 70s a few scientists theorized that there was global cooling, and a few magazines prematurely ran alarmist stories. That's not what is happening today! Arctic ice shelves the size of Texas that have existed for millions of years are breaking up and dissolving. 99.9 percent of scientists have reached consensus that humans are heating up the earth. If 99.9 percent of doctors tell you smoking will kill you, you have to be in real denial to start to saying "doctors have been wrong before! There is still disagreement on this issue!"

Education

Obama and I are not in lockstep with the dems and teachers unions on this. We are both for merit pay and charter school innovation. I would like to see Obama be pro-voucher, but I'll take what I can get, cuz it's pretty good.

Here are the issues I don't agree with the dems on:

Immigration: secure the border first, and then put the existing illegals on an aggressive path towards citizenship. Dems are too soft on this issue, because of their constituency. Republicans are too harsh. Kicking illegals out and making them "go to the back of the line" to get in is unrealistic and punitive.

Taxes: I don't really think that dems will seriously reform the tax code, but I also don't think republicans are right to impose impose regressive tax changes that so agressively benefit the wealthiest 1 percent. We have other problems that need taking care of first besides making Paris Hilton a little bit richer. I trust republicans a little more in general to not go to far in one direction, but Bush's tax cuts were not smart.

Stem-Cell Research

I don't think we need federal funding of stem-cell research. Not comfortable with that. Fortunately recent breakthroughs are starting to make this a moot point.

Abortion

Democrats need to speak out on the moral necessity for reducing abortions in a more forceful way. Republicans need to consider solutions, besides criminalization, that will result in fewer teen pregnancies and abortions (not including abstinence education, which has been proven ineffective.)

Social Security

Lock-box mentality is dumb. Republicans are right on this.

Line-Item Veto

I think a line-item veto makes sense, but I wouldn't know for sure until I see a president with brains actually use it.

Death Penalty

I am torn on this issue. I am not happy with the way the death penalty is employed, but I also feel like it is a state's rights issue.