I originally started this blog as an outlet for my "coming out" escapades, that period of time during and right after law school where I struggled with coming out and all the highs and lows that go with it.
My life has changed dramatically in the last few years - I found my life partner, I bought a "grown-up" house, and I settled down in my career. And the focus of the crap I deal with on a daily basis has changed completely. I no longer lay awake at night figuring out how to come out to my relatives or fret about the daily comings and goings of my single friends who hit up the bars.
Now, I spend most of my time balancing my family life with my work life. And in the wake of the upcoming elections, I spend a lot of time trying to reconcile my fiscally conservative ideals with my socially liberal agenda. As a former military officer and a current small business owner, I have many fiscal conservative ideals. I write "socially liberal," but quite honestly, I follow only a few socially liberal principles: I believe in equality across the board for GLBT Americans, I think that tort reform is abhorrent, and I think that men should stay out of the abortion discussion. But the "gay thing," as my parents call it, and tort reform are non-negotiable items for me.
As a small business owner who employs three people, I absolutely hate the concept of big government fueled by constantly higher taxes on small business owners.
I've bought a ton conversative books, three by Ann Coulter, one or two by Sean Hannity, and stacks by other conservative pundits, and I'm going through them now, and what I find interesting is that most conservatives care about the fiscal issues such as trickle down economics, cutting entitlement programs, and putting more power in state government. Most of them could care less about the "gay thing." But when you have politicians like Rick Santorum who, as recently as two months ago, vow to reinstate the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, it makes it hard for me to support them. Although I'd love to back a Republican in the 2012 election, because I truly believe it'd be in the best interest of my business, such support would likely put my rights as a gay American on the back burner for another decade. And there lies my conundrum.
Right now, I am planning on voting for Obama, but I'd love to find a reason not to. I'm going to use Urban Insanity, this blog that has been my outlet, my friend, really, for all these years, to help me - and hopefully others - to navigate through my conflicting political views. And I'm going to try to predict exactly what the Democrats will do for us if Obama is elected again. No one has promised marriage equality, or even equality under the Federal Tax laws, but do we even want that? More topics for the blog....
I'm going to commit to publishing this weekly, if not more than that, until the election.
