Bipartisanship

I am proudly voting for Barack Obama, John Lynch, Jeanne Shaheen, Carol Shea Porter, and pretty much anybody who has a D next to their name that is campaigning actively.

In 2003, Howard Dean's message inspired me to become a Democrat, and since then i've served as an officer of the Democratic Party of Keene State College, the Democratic Party of Merrimack and as a State Committee member of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.

Even before that, I have only voted for a Republican in a state or federal election once, and that was Peter Batula, a state rep candidate in Merrimack whose wife worked with my mother and was going to win anyway.

However, I want to say something that goes against that may be construed as blasphemy, and that is that not all Republicans are bad people. In fact, most Republicans i've met are decent and pleasant people who I just happen to disagree with on alot of issues, they're just getting drowned out by all the angry and delusional people who have taken over their party.

The question I've been pondering is where is the line between reaching out to the other side and loyalty in my party, what I believe in.

For me, it's complicated because I couldn't publically endorse a Republican candidate even if I wanted to without losing my status as a town party officer under Chapter Eight of the New Hampshire Democratic Party constitution. I fully support and understand that, but I don't believe that means I need to "hate" people from the other party either.

At the upper echelons of their side of the ticket, there's not much to listen to, but I often enjoy going out of my way to hear and understand what the other side is saying at the local level. Indeed, I and local Republican candidates have helped each other in the past in small ways that don't include getting them votes.

To me, that's at the core of why I became a Democrat. Karl Rove and George Bush'es idea of what politics should be detests me, and I wanted to make sure that I am there to not only fight that brand of politics, but also engage in more constructive politics with people from all ideologies who are willing to respect my point of view as well.

For each person, it's going to be different to be sure, but what i'm curious about is where the line is on average, and I wanted to have a dialogue with all of you about this.