Venn Diagrams and Politics

When describing my political orientation, I have morphed through many descriptions. My own beliefs have determined some; other times I have tried using terms that describe what political party I most associate with. I have toyed with using what is in vogue for most people that I politically agree with, and with using what most aptly describes which way I was leaning. My grandfather was involved with Boston city politics, becoming a campaign manager for a long-time city councilor. That meant he was a Democrat. It was from my mother’s side that I inherited the Democratic bent. My father was a cynic who rarely voted. He never subscribed to any party because he believed they were “all a bunch of crooks”. From my father, I inherited cynicism, which rested dormant in my mind until world events pushed me to recognize abstractly that my father was right to be a cynic. All politicians are a bunch of crooks, as most put the comfort of the wealthy before that of the voters and made sure they too are among the wealthy. Strangely, as my cynicism blossomed during my later teen years and the Vietnam War and then through the Reagan administration, my father’s cynicism weakened as he believed dutifully the President was justified because he knew things we did not and could do whatever was needed. For a while, I considered myself a Democrat.

In fact, I am still registered as a Democrat. But I cannot take part in their party activities. I am still invited to their meetings, local caucuses, and other events. But I cannot find the space in my life to go.

My wife’s family raised her in an Italian Catholic home, but their religion was the Democratic Party. She has never wavered in that. She tried a few religions before settling on becoming a Jew. So, a nice Italian Catholic Democrat girl became a Jewish Democrat. Those are samples of the Venn diagrams she individually lives in.

As I noted over the years, I modeled my descriptions along more esoteric terms. Lately I have bundled them all together into a long stream such as “Progressive, Liberal, Left Wing, Bleeding heart, Social Democrat. I intentionally leave out the Liberal Libertarian part that was a moniker I used online for a while. Inevitably, people would accuse me or tell me that if I used Libertarian in my self-description that regardless of any modifier I used (such as Liberal!) then I am a Libertarian and therefore required to follow the Libertarian agenda. Labels are most useful on boxes; they fail with people. I realized a label serves as a restriction on what you can believe was true across the political spectrum when I stated opposition to early voting and was rebuked by someone (who labeled me a Democrat) telling me, “Democrats are in favor of early voting”. Perhaps I am not a Democrat? Is autonomy dead? Do most people look to political parties to tell them what to believe? Current events tell me this is so, more now than ever.

Liberals categorize everything into a single group. Liberals believe Russia hacked the election; they tell us. Conservative voters believe Trump will bring good business sense into managing US economic issues. None of that makes any sense. Russia did not hack the election. Trump has no business sense at all. I am a Liberal and I know conservatives who do not believe Trump would know how to run a lemonade stand.

We are all defined by the Venn diagrams that describe each of us. The media, on a day when there is time to tell the actual story, are supposed to be cynical; instead, they are toadies of the lowest sort. I have noticed some of the Venn circles I find myself in; I bet every person who reads these shares at least one circle with me. That is not something today’s political party setup can cover.

Anyone can use whatever nomenclature they are most comfortable with, but its real purpose is to separate out those of us that want to disassociate themselves from any of the established political parties.