Yay!  It’s my first political post ever!  Are you excited? – You’re excited, I can tell.  Everybody loves politics right?  The way it brings people together, reminds us all of our common humanity, and…oh wait, that’s Thanksgiving.  Scratch that.

Most people barely tolerate politics.  I can understand that and I don’t blame them.  ”I’ll take: ‘Things that piss people off and tear people apart for $200, Alex.’ ”  But in my family, debating politics was how we bonded.  Thankgiving, Christmas, the 4th of July, Sundays before church – they were were mostly an excuse to get together, eat a bunch of carbs, and argue politics and religion.  I remember one specific holiday at my sister’s house when my brother sat down at the kitchen table after all the dishes had been cleared and everyone’s naps taken, and said, rubbing his hands together, “Okay, what are we going to debate about?  Religion or politics?  I’ll play devil’s advocate.”  When mild-mannered Lukus first joined our family, he thought we all hated each other the way we constantly argued and debated and how we occasionally told each other, “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!”  Okay, I can see how he might have thought we hated each other, but it was our own particular dysfunction which we all understood and accepted.

I grew up in a Christian conservative home – unapologetically Republican.  I believed (though it was never specifically stated to me) that no true Christian could possibly be a Democrat.  Democrats were for the killing of unborn babies, they looked down on stay-at-home moms, they’d sue me if they saw me praying over my lunch at my public school, they hated the American flag and they wanted to control everyone through big government.  So I voted for Bush – both senior and W. and I was proud of it.

Then 9-11 happened.  W went to war with a country that had not attacked us, he secretly surveilled American citizens, and he started the Department of Homeland Security which seemed mostly concerned with placing restrictions on Americans (no taking pictures of your first subway ride in New York and other such nonsense).  Then he placed a federal mandate on public schools across the nation with No Child Left Behind, and by the end of his presidency, committed the height of big government arrogance – he used American tax dollars to bail out big corporations that had taken stupid risks but weren’t willing to suffer the consequences of those risks.  I became less and less enthusiastic for having voted for him.  Slowly, very slowly, I began to realize that George W. Bush was not for smaller government at all, and neither were the Republicans who supported him.  My passion for politics drastically waned as I became disillusioned by the empty rhetoric of both parties.

Fast forward to a hotel room in 2007 (can’t remember why I was in a hotel room, but I remember watching cable t.v., which Lukus and I don’t have).  The Republican debates were on and an alarming number of candidates stood on stage telling cutesy stories that began with such trite pandering as, “My daddy was a hard-working _________, and he always told me, ‘Son, in America, you can be anything you want to be.’”  It sounded like a Miss America pageant, but less interesting because there were no wardrobe changes.  I suspect that if there had been a swimsuit competition, Mitt Romney would have been the Republican hopeful and not McCain.  Let’s be honest, politics aside, Romney’s a hottie.

I sat on that luxurious hotel bed, completely bored with a political debate for the first time in my life – except for one guy, an old dude that sounded completely crazy - entertaining, but crazy.  I couldn’t stand him because he kept talking about these strange principles that had nothing to do with the usual Republican policies.  Each time he spoke (which wasn’t often), I gave a disgusted look toward Lukus, who finally said, “You know, I kinda like him.  He’s a bit strange, but I like him.”  I rolled my eyes.  And thus was my introduction to the man who would ultimately amputate my blind allegiance to the Republican party and introduce me to the basic principles of “liberty and justice for all.”  The debates with my family members would become more serious and heated, new friendships would be forged under intense pressure, and an old passion would be renewed.

This is how I came to know about Ron Paul.

To be continued.