Growing up on the Iron Range, there was always talk about the relative merits of political parties and candidates. Rarely was anything positive said about the Republican Party.
My dad told me many times, "Always vote Democrat, son. If the Republicans gain a majority, they'll take everything away from you. If the Democrats gain a majority, they'll take almost everything away from you, but they'll leave you a little bit."
So, based on my father's advice, I voted the Democratic ticket until Jan. 2, 1973, when the Supreme Court rendered its Roe v. Wade decision, legalizing abortion on demand. I couldn't believe it when my Farmer-Labor party, the party I had come to respect, became a pro-abortion party.
Since I was totally against abortion on demand, it was time for me to stop being a Democrat.
And although I have nothing in common with the Republican lifestyle or the Republican way of thinking, I was forced by my convictions to vote for some of the worst scoundrels the Republican Party ever endorsed for political office. Voting the Republican ticket hurt so badly that I continued to hope there was some way I could become a Democrat again.
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Prior to each election, I observed the Democratic Party candidates closely. I was amazed at the number of candidates who were publicly in favor of abortion on demand while privately disagreeing with it. Some of them openly admitted that was the case.
It caused me to doubt the double-thinking candidates' credibility on other issues. "Are these people," I thought, "nothing more than actors following a script the Democratic Party writes for them?"
I also was amazed at the number of Democratic Party members -- church-going, devout Catholics -- who continued to vote the Democratic ticket, when their conscience and their religion clearly told them abortion on demand was wrong.
I thought, "Don't these double-thinking party members realize that by continuing to vote the Democratic ticket they have empowered the party to endorse even more barbaric treatments of the unborn?" To this day I'm unable to understand how otherwise intelligent people -- candidates, party members and officeholders -- can repress their convictions, turn their brains over to the Democratic Party and let that party do their thinking for them. Someone needs to explain this to me, and it better be good.
The day before my dad died, I was lucky enough to spend about six hours with him.
We talked. Most of the talk was about how much he loved his family. Some of the talk, similar to the days of my youth, was about politics.
"Ya know," he said during that conversation, "before and after [World War II] I voted Democrat like most other Rangers. Then it got harder and harder to believe in the Democratic Party's agenda. They were starting to be just as bad as the Republicans, worse in some ways. I never told anybody this, but in the last few elections, I tried to figure out which candidate, regardless of party, most closely agreed with my way of thinking. Then I voted for that person. Turned out that each time I wound up voting for the lesser of two evils."
How I admired my dad at that moment. If all people did their own thinking and had the courage of their convictions, Hitler wouldn't have made it to first base; Roe v. Wade would have been aborted by 1975, and Patrick Kennedy's new church wouldn't be the Cathedral of the Democratic Party.
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Joseph Legueri of Gilbert is a writer, retired educator and lifelong Iron Range resident.
