Why be a Democrat - is it something you are born with?

[MaryMagdaline]

7. I was heavily influenced by my mother

She converted from boring Midwest Republican to liberal Democrat with Johnson’s Great Society. We were given a copy of the New Testament and my parents preached Sermon on the Mount. I was more conservative than my mother - more nationalistic and militaristic - but always an economic liberal.

Other influences: grandfather and older cousins who were involved in labor unions in Detroit; Jacob Riis “Making of an American” - about tenement houses and poverty in NYC.

in the 70s I saw the Democratic Party always voting for student loans, women’s rights. I know I only made it in this world because of those laws passed by Democrats. Democrats always pushed for national healthcare. Their policies always attracted me.