Flashback to 1985.
I was a 15 year old idealogue. A friend of mine and I climbed out of my 1976 Cutlass S (with swivel bucket seats...WAY cool at parties!) and went down into the dank basement of a church in my hometown. Around the table sat about 20 people, many of whom were college professors, doctors, and other intellectuals within the community. After I was introduced, I was excited, as they began talking about situations near and dear to my heart: The apartheid system in South Africa, the dissidents in exile in what was then the USSR, and the countless political prisoners imprisoned and tortured in countries with names that were then not on the tip of the tongue of most high school students: Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Turkey. We were given a list of addresses and of stories about some of these prisoners, as well as instructions on how we could contact the various state departments to put pressure on them to release these individuals, held for no other crime than daring to disagree with their government.
Over the next few years, I would see the fruits of my efforts, as the USSR crumbled and dissidents such as Andrei Sakarov were released, and as South Africa worked itself away from the horrible policy of apartheid and Nelson Mandela found his way not only to freedom but to the presidency of the newly liberated nation. As I worked on political campaigns, candidate after candidate was elected in what truly seemed to be a changing America.
Then came 1994 and the "Contract with America". The GOP gained control of the US House and Senate, and, for the most part, has not relinquished it since. The liberals I had so long associated myself with began to fall into disarray, moving further and further away from the ideals I held dear. A "consistent" pro-lifer, I found myself more and more ostracized because I refused to adopt a policy of abortion on demand rather than my more conservative position that it was in many cases the lesser of two evils; and because I refused to write off the second amendment and endorse the idea that guns should be banned in America, among other things. While I sometimes campaigned for moderate Democrats, I was, for the most part, finding myself increasingly left behind by a party that really didn't care about retaining my vote.
By 2003, the rift had become complete. All of the years I had spent working as an activist and campaign volunteer within the party and other leftist "third" parties came to nothing as the system I had once held so dear turned on me. We were falsely accused of neglecting our children because one of our four did not perfectly match up to the "average" height and weight charts on a government sponsored chart (and for no other reason than that alone). My "liberal" friends were not only NOT with me, they pretty much endorsed the system that brought it out. Determined to help others against such injustice after finding out that NONE of the liberal groups I had once endorsed would TOUCH our case, I began researching the actions of these "child protective services", originally believing it was a good system with a few bad apples (I have since found out otherwise). Fortunately, I had the aid of the internet, as these fractured families began slowly working through their hurt and pain and into a sense of community, and the stories I began to find were appalling. Almost without exception, their homes were intruded without warrants, their lives turned upside down on a presupposition of guilt, and their families torn apart without due process, all too often resulting in divorce or suicide from these "family friendly" agencies.
Then came 2004, when the Democrats ran to reclaim the White House. They selected a candidate who did not have popular appeal, and who ran a campaign based almost entirely on negativity. He was beaten by George Bush, and in the aftermath, the already crumbling DNC began to implode completely.
Those same countries whose human rights violations were POINTED OUT to me by my liberal friends began finding allies within the liberal community, who saw destroying President Bush as being more important than protecting the rights of third world dissidents. The same despotic theocratic ideologues whose state departments had received my letters became "freedom fighters", fighting against what these same liberals called "US Imperialism". The same Christian faith that had been an ally of human rights for so long became a poison on the tongue of these liberals who had no problem bashing a faith that had led the charge in establishing schools and hospitals in this great nation, and against injustices such as slavery and segregation. The left, in other words, began wanting nothing to do with Christianity, which it began labelling as superstition and mythology. They were, effectively, forcing me to choose between my faith and my political beliefs.
Now, today, the left seems entirely indecisive. Islam is a "religion of peace", but they don't want them controlling our ports. Our soldiers are "terrorists", but they want them on our borders. Our government is a dictatorship, but 100% of our armed forces were conscripted voluntarily, a fact they want to change by reinstituting the same draft they marched against in Washington in the 60's. They want federal funding of our schools, but they don't want to allow the federal government that supplies it onto the school property. States' rights are bad, except when the state upholds your right to die or smoke pot. NSA wiretaps are bad, but illegal wiretaps by CPS under CAPTA are good. Illegal search and seizure is bad if the victim is a child pornographer, a pedophile, or a drug dealer, but is good if the aim is to remove a child from loving parents. I could go on and on.
Now I KNOW the majority of the left don't feel this way. I have marched with them. I have written letters with them. I have sat around in coffeeshops with them. But the LEADERSHIP of the left has been hijacked by individuals who DO feel this way, and it is up to the responsible liberals to reclaim the leadership by throwing these imbeciles out and selecting leaders who respect a modicum of diversity. If this doesn't happen, the left will be further marginalized by a country that doesn't share its values.