I Voted for Richard Nixon, pt. 1

"My bent is not political but religious and I take part in politics because I feel that there is no department of life which can be divorced from religion and because politics touch the vital being of India almost at every point"  Letter to G.S. Arundale, Young India, 6 Aug. 1919

In 1972, having just left home to go to college, I registered and voted for Milhouse.  My father was a dyed in the wool Republican and I respected and feared my father.  I was afraid of everything.  Voting Republican was an attempt to put up a bulwark against fear.

After this election, I fell in with a bad crowd - bridge players.  I spent the four years learning the finer points of how to squeeze RHO to unblock his queen of hearts.  I lost track of politics.

Then came the military and politics had a new urgency for me.  Politic decisions affected my paycheck.  Political decisions could end my life.  An bent winged bug sucker (F-4E Phantom) with my name spray painted on the cockpit could fly away with a nuclear bomb to help end the world.  I had a baby girl.

My views changed.  Unfortunately, politics in America had not.

A young Englishman (yes, that Dudley Moore) is talking to a friend about his upcoming visit to America:

“Paxton Whitehead: They (the United States) have inherited our two party system.

Dudley Moore: How does that work?

Paxton Whitehead: Oh, well, they have the Republican Party which is the equivalent of our Conservative Party, and they have the Democratic Party which is the equivalent of our Conservative Party.” – Beyond the Fringe, 1962

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuZ46v5SftI 

I just couldn't vote for Defense Policies that had the end of the world as a backup plan and Republican or Democrat, that was and remains our country's fall back position.