What's a guy like me doing on a blog like this?

This should have been my inaugural posting, and had I not been so compelled to vent about the need for universal health care last night it would have been. A brief introduction is in order. If you're taking your precious time to read this, you deserve to know a little about the person who is behind the wheel of this blog and the metamorphosis that has led me to this political point in my life.

I can't imagine a more liberal blog exists. I am a 'tax the rich, feed the poor, socialist' and make no apologies for my beliefs. However, I haven't always believed in a so-called 'big government.' During the 1980s I was a Reagan Republican. Really! These days I typically admit that looking at my feet and mumbling those words with sheltered reticence. During the 1990s I developed some moderate views, but remained a Republican. Early after the turn of the century (2002 I think), I decided to change my voter registration and became an independent - or, more precisely in Kentucky, I chose not to have any party affiliation. I abandoned the Republican party but I wasn't prepared to become a Democrat. Then, during the past few years I have become increasingly liberal and joined the Democrat party shortly before the 2008 election.

So, how have I progressed (some would say regressed) from being a conservative to a liberal in less than 30 years? I believe much of my transformation has come from observing life, both filtered through the media as well as observing it first-hand. I spent more than 20 years as a journalist and seven years as a teacher. I have seen poverty, although fortunately never experienced it firsthand. I also have become increasingly sensitive to the plight of the less fortunate. Back in the 80s, I realized there were poor and homeless among us, but they were invisible to me. I didn't care about them. I believed that they were responsible for their own actions. I admired rich people as people who earned their money through talent and/or hard work. At some point my eyes and heart were opened. I realized that rich people become rich by exploiting others - their employees, their customers/clients - always somebody and usually somebody less fortunate. I realized that the poor might be poor because of choices they made, but those choices may have been made when they were teenagers (or even younger) in school. Should they suffer in poverty because of a few bad decisions made when they were 7 or 8 years old? The poor are also typically poor because their parents are poor.

What I'm saying is that the poor, more often than not, are not poor because of their actions or inactions, but are poor because of their circumstances. I have grown to resent the wealthy and to develop a deep sensitivity for those who are less fortunate. I have transformed from believing that government should be minimalist, providing only those services needed for basic human survival. Now, I believe government should exist to make life better for the have nots and that it should be funded by those who have. My heart has grown. My mind has opened. I am not the same person I was 10, 20 or 30 years ago. I don't know what political beliefs I will hold in the next decade. I can't imagine moving any further to the left. But I am on a political journey that has taken me from one extreme to the other, and I refuse to profess that the journey is over.

This blog will offer me a chance to express my opinion on a variety of issues about which I feel strongly. If nobody ever reads it, this blog will still be a catharsis to me. It will make me 'feel' that I am making a difference, whether or not I actually am. As I love to say, "Perception is reality." If I perceive that my blog might change even a small part of the world, then as far as I'm concerned, it will. If a few people become followers along the way, all the better. And if I'm fortunate enough to convert a soul here and there, that will be the best situation of all.

You're a socialist. Admit it!

Just when I thought we had moved past the "better dead than red" mentality that permeated most of the five decades of my life, hardly a day goes by now that I don't hear about the 'dangers' of President Obama's socialist agenda. Right-wing commentators discuss health care reform as if its passage would result in the permanent removal of their spleens, kill grandma and grandpa, and make it impossible for us to receive medical care when we're sick or injured. The only thing that is more ridiculous than the bunk they are feeding us is that America actually seems to believe it.

Do I trust our government? Not much. However, I trust it a hell of a lot more than I trust corporate America. If anyone thinks that our health insurers actually give a damn about our health, you are smoking dope and living in la la land. Corporate America cares about only one thing: earning as much money as possible at our expense. And that means charging us the highest premiums they can possibly charge, providing the lowest level of service they can get away with and denying coverage anytime they're able. That's capitalism in a nutshell. Unless you are a high ranking executive with a health care giant, capitalism does not serve you well when it comes to health care.

Perhaps government will not do a perfect job providing us with health care when we are sick. Perhaps there will be times when we can't see a physician as quickly as we would like. Perhaps there will be illnesses that will be misdiagnosed or treatments that will not be made in a proper and timely manner. Perhaps we won't have enough physicians to meet demand. However, that's happening now. There is little chance that our health care system can get any worse than it already is. American health care ranks below more than 40 other countries. Our life expectancy is near the lowest while we spend the most of any industrialized nation in the world. How can anyone argue in favor of permitting corporate America to maintain its monopoly on health insurance, given these facts? It is simply insane to believe that corporate America will look after our well-being as well as our government.

By the way, do you support public education? Do you believe the government should provide police and fire protection to all, regardless of how much they pay in taxes? Do you believe the government should provide military and homeland security protection for everyone? Do you believe the government should spend a portion of tax revenue on finding cures for cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's and other illnesses? If you do, then congratulations. You have met the definition of a socialist. A socialist believes that it is the role of the government to spend money in a manner that protects and improves the quality of life for everyone. That is exactly what a public option for health insurance would do. Supporting it is no different than supporting any of the other policies or services that I have just mentioned. Don't look now, but I think you may just be more of a socialist than you want to admit, comrade.