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I have been a Republican since Barry Goldwater's faltering 1964 run. I was 13. They said if you voted for Goldwater, the war in Vietnam would escalate. "They" were right. My leanings were strange, considering my mom and dad were FDR Democrats who had grown up during the Depression.
My older brother voted for the first time in the '64 election and convinced me that Goldwater was the right guy. I was following my parents' lead as an LBJ supporter. I can't exactly recall his argument, but the conversion had something to do with me egging him on about his political views during that election. He responded by throwing a plate of pot roast at me from point-blank range--and missing.
I took being spared from his "meat and potatoes" argument as an omen. The incident changed my innocent political ideas. I believe that 40 years later, "the flying meat incident," as it's known in family lore, helped me land work as a speechwriter and, later, as a congressional aide, both on the GOP side of the aisle.
During the intervening years between the pot roast and Congress, I held too many jobs but always remained true to my GOP beliefs. There were the GOP campaigns where I served as a staffer: two U.S. Senate races, one win and one loss. A couple of volunteer stints campaigning for mayoral and congressional candidates. I even ran for office twice, though I didn't run fast enough.
Looking back, I'm pretty sure I stayed true to Republican ideals because, in my mind, the GOP embraced my ideal of American patriotism.
I tear up during the national anthem, get goose bumps hearing "The Stars and Stripes Forever," and must watch the musical 1776 every Fourth of July.
I don't really know what patriotism is, but I know it when I experience it. I see patriotism in the soldier and in the person who shakes the soldier's hand saying, "Thanks for your service." I see it in the laborer and the executive. The professor and the trucker. The parade and the protest. In the community volunteer. I see it in all the folks who get out there to keep America moving.
I do get angry with the ideologues. Those who use "Old Glory" as a banner for "their" intolerance, and those who shred it because of "their" intolerance.
I stayed a Republican because the party came closest to representing my view of what America should be.
But my GOP has been hijacked by a despicable human whom I voted for too many times. Because of, and in reaction to, this hijacking, the Democrat Party has also been hijacked.
These extremes are not what my America should be. And if I take a breath, I'm pretty sure they're not what America is, either.
Without extremes, there is no middle.
Currently, the middle is quiet. Back in the day, it was called "the Silent Majority."
I'm sure there are a lot of us quiet folks out there, and we're ready to roar. At least, I hope so.
I'm taking a breath.
MIKE GLAZER
Lewisburg
Submitted by Virtual Newsroom