Recently someone dear to me accused me of being a Republican merely because it is what the church demands (my liberal Christian friends would find that funny) or because I was brainwashed in the Army. Because of this I thought I’d put here, for the world to see, why I am a Republican.

I am a Republican because of the way I was raised. When I was a kid, my father decided he had better things to do than play father and husband (except with his new wife and kid). As a result my family was poor, teaching me a valuable lesson about poverty. I learned what poverty was because I learned what caused it. Poverty was caused by choices. We were not being repressed by any rich man or stopped by any class ceiling. We were poor because my father decided to run away and abandon his responsibilities. My father’s choices had placed me in this situation, my mother’s choices would impact the situation and my own choices would dictate whether I stayed in the situation for the rest of my life.

Our mother worked hard—harder than anyone I have seen since. She worked in a factory, at a time when women automatically received less than men for the same work. She chose to work piece-rate so her own hard work could earn more than a flat hourly. This taught me that I could make choices about my work environment that would impact my standard of living. I learned that pay according to risk and productivity was better than the government or union mandated wage. To take the risk on such a job, was another choice made to change the situation.

Mom found ways to economize. She made our shirts until sometime in Elementary school. She made her own dresses and blouses for most of my life. We knew that our shoes would be the cheapest and our pants the toughest. I learned standard of living was not a matter of right. One lived according to one’s means and the means were of one’s own making. No one expected government to even things up.

Mom worked extra jobs. For any young family it is often difficult to make the money stretch to fill the month. Ours was no different. Mom added more elastic to the budget by working extra jobs. I learned that making ends meet is also a matter of personal choice. First, it is your choice that sets the ends. If they don’t meet, look nowhere else but the mirror. Make changes when needed, to draw the ends closer and then take action to close up the difference.
Mom taught us morals. Stealing was wrong. If someone works for their property no one else has a right to take that property. To steal what a man or woman works for is to steal the time the man or woman worked. To steal time was to steal an irreplaceable portion of a person’s life. This lesson on stealing was so ingrained that once when I violated it (I stole a piece of penny candy from a store), I felt so guilty that I scrounged up a penny and went to the store to admit my crime and pay for the candy. This taught me a lesson as well. If I had done the work of scrounging up the penny before taking the candy I could have escaped several hours of excruciating guilt and still had the candy. I have no right to take what belongs to another. If another steals on my behalf I am an accomplice to theft. A thieving government changes nothing. If government takes from someone to give to me, who has not earned it, then I am a subsidized thief.

This leads me to why I am a Republican. I could never join a party that tells me I am a victim of the 1% (or other BS like that). I could never join a party that would tell me I need their help to succeed. I could never join a party that would rob one person to give to another, punishing good decisions and subsidizing bad ones. I could never join a party that would regulate away the profits from a business, take what is left from the owner to give to those who chose not to work, then demonize the owner for not hiring enough people to stimulate the economy. I could never join a party that wants to manage my life, my career and my body from cradle to grave. I was weaned long ago and have no need (and even less desire) to suckle at the government teet. Why am I a Republican? Because I am the man* I was raised to be!

*Note: I know some will be offended at my boast of being the man I was raised to be. We are in a society today that looks down on masculinity. There are those who want us to be gender neutral and sexually homogenous. But didn’t you hear? I am a Republican!