What's your Democratic party pedigree?

[many a good man]

I was BORN a Democrat. While I have no party credentials whatsoever, I was bitten with the "politics" bug at an early age due to my Grandfather, who was once chairman of the Cleveland Democratic party in the late '50s and the campaign manager for a long time incumbent in the US House of Representatives. He appeared on stage at campaign events with Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy.

My grandfather got into politics as soon as he could-- he ran for state legislator at age 18 in 1924 finishing 7th in a field of 17. He was inspired to run by the great reform mayor of Cleveland Tom Johnson. His platform included support for Muny Light -- which five decades later was the cause of Mayor Dennis Kucinich's downfall.

He dropped out of school in the 8th grade to take over his father's job in the steel mill, which he lost due to disability. There he saw fellow workers killed on the job and their families forced to turn over the man's last paycheck to cover the "lost" productivity caused by his accident.

He came from the lowest level of society-- three quarters Irish and one-fourth Indian. He dedicated his life to improving the lot in life for all working people of all religions and ethnic backgrounds. His example of fighting for the downtrodden inspires me to this day. That's why I'm a Democrat.


If you have a pedigree in Democratic politics please share it with the rest of us DUers. If you're the first, let us know that, too. If you don't have a pedigree yet, tell us what you're going to do to start one!



:kick:

[havocmom]

1. Why should it matter? What matters is what we do now.

What is with the 'DEM-er than thou' thing? Seems like a good way to annoy and disengage people from the cause.

And why would we wanna share family history with everybody who can go online?

[Eloriel]

3. I don't think either of those were the point with the OP

at least I didn't take them that way.

I too don't have a political "pedigree." I don't even like politics, and only came to my political involvement (such as it is) kicking and screaming, once I realized during the Reagan administration, "Whoaa! These people can HURT us" and got involved purely out of a sense of self-preservation.

However, I was born a liberal, and the reason I know that is that I can remember a conversation I had with my grandmother when I was under 10 and she was in her 70s at that time, which was late 1950s, about illegitimate children. I had brought the subject up, why I don't know except tht it must've registered on my consciousness from somewhere. Anyway, I was pointing out to her (and she agreeing, bless her) that there shouldn't be any social stigma attached to the children, after all it was hardly their fault. (It would take me 2 more years to join the ranks of women who started to insist that there shouldn't be any social stigman at ALL, for anyone.)

Anyway, the older I get (I used to say) the more liberal I become, except I don't really think of myself as a liberal anymore, I think of myself as a Dean Democrat. I've given up nothing of my liberalism, but adopted an entirely new way of seeing politics as a result of Dr. Dean. I've written about it at length elsewhere and am not eager to do it again. But Dean's vision is one that transcends the polarization of Left/Right while keeping to our core values. Dean is a synthesizer of the first order -- AND a natural-born healer.

[havocmom]

6. I agree on Dean's approach. He had a lot of followers where I live,

here in GOP hell. Many GOP neighbors were really disappointed he did not get the Dem nomination as they would have voted for him easily.

My concerns about anyone wanting to know about one's 'pedigree' stem from postings of late which have been a bit quick to declare that someone is not really a liberal, progressive or a DEM if they support gun ownership for example. Have seen some good. productive DUers attacked of late and that concerns me. Am glad the admin and mods have taken serious interest in it.

As far as Dem history goes, OK, how about this, my granny signed up to be a poll watcher as soon as women got the vote. She knew there would be gentlemen who would try and intimidate women at the polling place. She died on primary election day, at her post, in 1960. She never missed working an election and checked herself out of the hospital to work that day. Over the decades, she made sure a lot of voters had their rights protected.

She was also a registered Republican. Don't know if she did that to annoy her husband, or if there was some concrete reason she joined that party. But I do know the lady fought, as best she could with a crippled body from a back broken in infancy, all her life to defend the democratic principles this nation was founded on.

Is she the black sheep in my Dem clan or is she an inspiration? What matters is what I do today. And only I can feel my granny's scrutiny on my efforts.

[many a good man]

7. It connects us to our history

Of course you're right what matters is now. But this forum is for the Democratic party, our only real hope. The party has a proud history and we should salute those who helped make the party represent US in the past. By learning from them and being inspired by them we can become effective agents of change ourselves.

I like history so I thought it would be cool to see how we all link to events in American political history. Its also cool to hear someone share about the person or event in their life that they can identify as "turning" them into a liberal.

[havocmom]

9. Grandpa was a registered DEM, Granny was GOP

Gramps was a bigot and it was Granny who wrestled a gun out of his hands and tossed it down the hole in the outhouse when the old crank was gonna track down the nice Jewish boy who had the audacity to ask my aunt to the prom. He also railed against that "uppity n****r, Dr. King" whose birthday we celebrate tomorrow.

He was a DEM but he was also the product of his times.

Granny managed to raise 3 broad minded kids. She was a bit narrow minded about religion but she too was a product of her times and her geography.
She didn't travel far and never held a job outside of the home except on election days.

My folks moved us out of the bible belt so we would have broader experiences. My brother is pretty RW. Go figure.

I do think it is a good idea for the Democratic party to stress its populist heritage. We might start by reminding Dems in Congress about it ;)

[cmd]

2. Raised to be a Democrat

My parents were Roosevelt Democrats, never active in politics, but always faithful to the ticket. I came from a Union family and have never waivered. My first activity with the party was this year with the Kerry campaign. I have been invited to be a member of our county executive committee. I proudly accept the invitaion.

[Itchinjim]

4. Irish Catholic Union Roosevelt Democrat on my father's side,

Irish Catholic Farmer Roosevelt Democrat on my mother's side. I never had a chance.

[autorank]

5. Grew up in a home with New Deal Democrats who "liked Ike"

I heard stories about the Great Depression and how everyone pulled together and Roosevelt saved the nation. Then the stories changed to how Roosevelt created too much government (from my father). I was old enough to read and I did. I decided my father was off base. I heard stories about a great uncle who was part of the Eugene V. Debs movement. I did some more reading and I had my pedigree! I've been hard core ever since.

My father did come home however. Just before he died, he voted for Clinton and announced that the Republicans were not worthy of trust; thus he was allowed to go to heaven.

[DemGirl7]

8. my family was never big into politics...

I'm the only member that was bitten by the politics bug, when I was a teenager through my love of history. Yet my family, when they voted, would vote for Democrats, they never talked about it. Also I grew up and still live in a somewhat pro-democratic party area, in which one of the areas biggest claims to fame is being the home of FDR. When I graduate from college I hope to eventually work for the Democratic Party, and on campaigns and stuff related to politics.

[fnottr]

10. No pedigree for me

I'm just a 20 year old who's sick of the bullshit. I think most of my ancestors voted Repub in years past, but to my knowledge no one in my family has ever been more active than voting regularly. Neither of my parents have voted Puke since '88 though.

[ZombieNixon]

11. I wasn't born a Democrat, but I was born a liberal.

My parents are direct immigrants from India and are very liberal. This is surprising, considering our family's ethnic and social background, we should be raving conservatives, but our entire family's liberal. My parents still aren't US citizens (my mother refuses to salute the flag under a Republican president). They don't wholly identify with the Dems, but they do hate the Republicans.

My first political involvement came in my junior year of high school, when I started writing opinion pieces for the local newspaper, and I went on the volunteer for the Kerry campaign. I plan on going into politics after I graduate from college.

[blondeatlast]

12. Interesting. My husband is Indian, too, and while he's Independent,

he's very liberal in his views.

One thing I've noticed is that while most Indians in the US tend to be conservative, the ones who are liberal tend to be very active in politics. That's my perception, at least in my area.

[ZombieNixon]

14. I can't speak to that,

given that we're the only Indian family in this area. I believe that most Indians lean Democratic (we strongly favored Kerry this time), but there's also a disproportionate number of Indian doctors and stockbrokers, professtions that tend conservative.

[blondeatlast]

13. Fourth generation yellow-dog. My father was the son of tenant farmers,

both parents' families severely affected by the Depression.

Of course, they were huge FDR fans.

My son is showing Democratic signs too, although his dad is an Independent with slight Left hitch.

If there's any chance political persuasion could be genetic, I'm a prime example. Going RW would be as unnatural for me as switching me to use my left arm at this point (not to mention cause my ancestors to return from the immortal plane to straighten me out!).

[rabid_nerd]

15. My father worked on campaigns

although he dies when I was 12 and I've been bitten by the bug myself and re-discovered much on my own.

He worked on the Al Benedict campaign in PA when he ran for auditor general. My father knew Mario Bagnoni and Mayor Tulio of Erie, and I remember meeting Bagnoni as a child with my father on State Street with parking tickets to take care of.

Other than that.. I'm trying to build my own

I'm a Councilman

[No Exit]

16. Don't really have one

though some of my mother's people were fervent supporters of Hubert Humphrey.

My father was conservative. My mother was pretty much apolitical, though she was intelligent and fairly well-informed.

I remember hearing rants against "socialized medicine".

Of course, like all Americans of my generation, I have been subjected to a lifelong, constant, drumbeat of propaganda that "socialism is bad", "communism is bad". (But they never tell us why these things are "bad".)

Today my father would agree with my political views, because he himself had one overriding viewpoint that never seemed to waver. How to sum it up? I guess it could be summed up by saying, "Don't trust the people who own you. Don't trust what 'they' tell you."

That's why I KNOW he would be virulently opposed to Bush, and to what the republican party has become.

The other day it occurred to me that we now have all the BAD parts of "socialized medicine", BUT with NONE of the good parts of it. Medicine is big business now, and it is controlled by nameless, faceless bureaucrats. They are not the government bureaucrats who were so feared; they are even worse--they are corporate bureaucrats whose only, ONLY driving force is to increase profits. Which party is responsible for this? The republicans. (And btw, all those little people who parrot the line, "capitalism is the best system" should be forced to live by pure predation--which is what capitalism is. Next time I hear one of those little people say that, I'm going to tell him/her: If you think pure capitalism/predation is so great, I demand that EVERY time you want to eat, you must go out and kill something for your dinner. You may not use anything besides predation to keep yourself alive--to do so would betray your principles.)


I was never a registered member of either of the two major parties. One of those parties I have learned to hate. The other one is the democratic party.

[BornaDem]

17. I was born a Democrat and carefully cultivated...

to what the party stands for by my father who was an immigrant.

[Adelante]

18. 4th Generation Dem

I have party listings back to my great-grandfather. Before that I don't know.

[OzarkDem]

19. 5th generation Dem

My great grandfather and grandfather were both rural Harry Truman / Roosevelt Dems who were politically active during the depression. Both were hard working farmers in the Ozarks who barely made a living. They thought Social Security was the greatest program ever developed. While very independent and self sufficient, the Depression taught them that there are times when the government has to take a role in helping people.

G-grandfather was head of the Dem party in Washington Co., MO. We grew up listening to the grownups talk politics around the wood stove or on the front poch. He lost two sons in WWII, as did many of his neighbors.

My first campaign work was handing out literature for McGovern at the local fair. I've worked for many candidates myself over the years and served as ward leader, precinct leader and on the county executive committee.

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

20. First Generation Democrat

My two Republican Parents managed to raise five Democratic Children. I guess it doesn't say much for their parenting skills!

[MadisonProgressive]

21. My Dad never taught us to be democrats

He was a role model. He taught me right from wrong. He taught me to care about people, regardless of race, social standing, etc. (I don't think sexual preference was talked about much in those days). I just naturally voted democratic from my first election. In the long run, I don't see any evidence that I made the wrong choices. Thanks Dad!!!

[xmas74]

22. I am a liberal Democrat

born into a family where my father thinks that the combo of Nixon/Reagan was the equivilant of the Second Coming. My mother claims to be a liberal but she thinks being a liberal means not really caring about politics around you and around the world (she has confused liberal with living on a commune). I don't know about one grandfather but he was a Assembly of God minister, so I will assume conservative Republican. My other grandfather, before he passed away, made comments about how we shouldn't be in Iraq(and he was a decorated soldier), about how he was in the Army with gay men and that he thought they were "good people" and that they should be happy(meaning: they can get married if they want). He was also in favor of universal preschool and universal health care, so I would label him progressive to liberal, maybe Democrat (he seemed to like Truman, JFK and Carter-talked about them). I am raising my own child to be a responsible, compassionate human. She was with me at the headquarters during the elections, coloring pictures of Kerry while I phonebanked, filed and preformed data entry. She also goes with me every time I vote( and I vote for everything-everytime there is a ballot).

[roguevalley]

23. Our party is the oldest one in the world today and its been here

since 1798. My family has been dems probably about all that time, some of them coming in from Irish groups that were libs and persecuted. My family has been union for more than 100 years and they have suffered for it too. My grandpa was a socialist from Alberta and he taught his five sons to be socially aware, love our country and seek to ameliorate its faults and to vote.

My mother beat up a kid when she was little who DARED to speak against God aka FDR and I remember nearly cremating a girl who was my best friend who said that if JFK lived, he would win the next election from the 'sympathy vote'. I will never forget that.

We were taught that if you were a good person, you were a dem. If you were a loser, satanic and hatefully cheap you were a republican. In the old days you could find good republicans, Tom McCall and Wayne Morse being just two. Now you can't. Even the ones who stand up against Bush the small amount they do aren't good people because they don't care enough for what their party means and meant to fight for it.

The hardest two things in my adult life I've seen happen is the co-opting of the press and the ball-lessness of the Dems right now. Maybe that is why so many of us older dems who remember back in the day find such pleasure in Boxer and Kennedy. Maybe that is why some of us who remember people standing up for principles even if it meant standing alone are so pissed at Kerry and the last election. It doesn't have to be this way.

I was born dem, I've lived dem all my life without a single damned apology to anyone and I will die a dem. I want to face my god right.

[Siyahamba]

24. Just got my card in the mail yesterday.

I've only been in this country since last August, but I started volunteering for the Democrats running in my county soon after. I just got my membership in the state Democratic Party yesterday.

Everybody's got to start somewhere, I guess. :)

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

25. It's genetic with me.

My paternal grandfather was a union organizer for the Rock Island railroad in the early 20th century and because of that his house was the first one on their block in Chicago to have a telephone. My father told me that Granpa never voted for any Republican in any election.

My maternal grandfather was a WWI vet, who was gassed twice in France and received two Purple Hearts. After he got out of the Army he became very active in the VFW and started his own printing business in Chicago which became very successful after World War II. He was chosen as the Illinois Commander of the VFW in the 1950's and he was an alternate delegate to Democratic National Convention in 1948, 1952 and 1956.

My father was a precinct captain in the 18th Ward Regular Democrats in Chicago from 1952 through 1984. I remember wearing, what seemed to me at the time, a huge Kennedy for President button very proudly on my first grade school uniform in 1960. Dad's favorite Presidents were Harry Truman, FDR, and JFK. He was elated when JFK won, tolerated LBJ, and devastated when Nixon beat the "Happy Warrior" Hubert Humphrey in 1968.

He worked his heart out for George McGovern, even though he knew it was a losing cause, celebrated when Nixon resigned; Dad was an original Nixon hater because of what Nixon did Helen Douglas in their California congressional race in 1948; and was triumphant in 1976 when Jimmy Carter captured the White House.

1980 bewildered him, he couldn't believe that so many people he had known for years actually thought Ronald Reagan was a "good guy" and in 1984 again he walked and talked his heart out for Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, but he knew it was a lost cause.

Dad loved Harry Truman because he felt that the decision to use the atomic bombs on Japan probably saved his life. He told me once that among his buddies in the Pacific during WWII, their favorite saying was "the Golden Gate in 48".

He loved FDR for all the obvious reasons and JFK because he identified with him because they were the same age, born one month apart. When JFK died it was first time I ever saw my father cry.

Mom was a Democrat as well. Not quite as rabid as my Dad, but she grew up in the Depression and knew well that the government had to do something to help people out.

I also had an uncle, my dad's brother, who was Illinois Democratic State Senator in the late 1950's through the 1960's.

As for me, the first vote I cast for President was in 1972 and it was for the ever wonderful George McGovern. I haven't looked back since and I have never voted for a Republican and never will.

I'd be too afraid to anyway, Daddy would come back and haunt me...


:dem:

[Doohickie]

26. My pedigree:

Roots on both sides of my family point to the Democratic Party. My grandfather on my mom's side was a steel worker who helped bring the unions in. Most of my mom's five brothers worked at least part of their careers as union labor (until the massive Bethlehem Steel Mill in Lackawanna, NY, was crushed by Japanese steel in the 1970s). My mom has worked in various roles for the local Democratic Party and supported Kerry in the last election.

My dad was a Democratic councilman in the town where I grew up, serving as a delegate to the '68 Democratic convention. In the aftermath of Watergate, all politicians were suspect, and in our town the local Republicans used dirty tricks to get several Democratic politicians out of office. So from an early age, I knew that politics can get ugly, and that the Republicans were better at taking advantage of that ugliness than Democrats (which in my experience tend to be more trusting of their fellow man).

That heritage laid fairly dormant until this year. The presidency of W has made me very frustrated, and John Kerry awakened in me a desire to get involved and to do something to make a difference.

I am a Democrat.

[thefloyd]

27. probably 4th generation Democrat

My greatgrandfather, greatgrandmother history is really uknown but democrats. Grandfather did not finish elemetary school in Saint Joseph, Mo. His father died had to work to support the family. Ended up in WWII, was training for night manuvers hit by a truck screwed his back up could not operate for obvious reasons. Moved to independence, Mo teamster at city market, lifting 100 pound bags of potatoes with screwed up back.FDR/HARRY TRUMAN Democrat. Grandmother, picked 40 acres of strawberries with brother when young. Grandmother FDR/TRUMAN Democrat. Mothers side, Uncle 3 generations at Ford Motor company. Union.

All in all grandparents never complained about a god damn thing, never asked for a god damn penny. Things were as black and white as it god damn gets but NEVER EVER Judge others OR GOT IN THEIR GOD DAMN BUSINESS.

I became democrat on my own, parents never mentioned a GOD DAMN THING ABOUT POLITICS even when Reagan was in office.

Oh, GreatGrandfather WWI
Grandfather WWII
Great Uncle WWII
Father Vietnam
uncle Vietnam

All served and daddy did not GOD DAMN SAVE THEM.

That is why I get so God Damn pissed when Cons talk about Democrats have no values and are weak on defense.

[Liberty Belle]

28. Descended from Patrick Henry, according to a cousin

who got into geneology. Guess that's why I'm such a rabble rouser!