There are so many reasons I choose to be a Democrat but I must say that I was galvanized to write about my choice by a recent letter to the editor of The Greenville News.

Franklin B. Robertson seeks the moral high ground by using Roe v. Wade as an example of the GOP’s ongoing battle of good vs. evil. Mr. Robertson and his Grand Ole Party want to save all the endangered fetuses so that in his words they can “run, jump, play and laugh.” Oh and also go on to “attend college, get married, and enjoy Christmas morning, Easter morning and their birthdays.” It’s not clear if Mr. Robertson or the Republican Party plan to adopt each of these fetuses after overturning Roe v. Wade convert them to Christianity, pay for their college education, health care and ensure their happy futures and as he puts in “protect them from evil.” Since the vast majority of the crisis pregnancies that end in abortion are among poor, uninsured single women, the foundation of much of Mr. Robertson’s premise is clearly a fantasy that lives inside many of the Grand Old Party’s middle class Christian minds. The one where everyone is insured, Christian, college educated a member of a nuclear family and no one has ever been to counseling or endured a major tragedy.

Instead of living inside a fantasy world I choose to live a reality based existence where I recognize how important it is to preserve personal privacy and individual freedom. Instead of talking about keeping government from intruding into our private lives, as a Democrat I support a party that supports the individual’s right to make personal and private health care decisions for themselves, not to have the state interfere with those decisions or have them forced upon them by unfunded mandates.

I support a political party that represents all of the people in America. The rich and the poor, all colors, all ethnic backgrounds. The Democratic Party is the party of the people. We are America. As Senator George Mitchell said, “The Democratic Party I’ve come to understand is an inclusive and diverse party whose principals are drawn from the same roots that guided men who wrote our constitution.” The differences between the two political parties are stark. Senator Tom Harkin summed it up, “Democrats and Republicans both say you should climb the ladder of success. But the Republicans say when you get to the top; pull the ladder up behind you. We Democrats say that you leave it down for others to climb too.” As the late great Texas Governor Ann Richards said, “As the modern champion of the rights of minorities, women and working families, the Democratic Party opened the door to me.” Let’s not forget the Democratic party opened the door to the first female speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, closing the door on one of the most corrupt periods in the House of Representatives in recent history led by former Speaker Tom Delay, who resigned in disgrace.

We are a party of diversity, individual choice, freedom, fairness, opportunity, equal justice and as Senator Ted Kennedy put it “the belief that the mission of government is not to stand on the sidelines, but to be active in pursuing these goals for the people.”

The irony of the Republican Party is that they say they want to downsize government except when it comes to issues of personal choice and moral beliefs. Then they are willing to go to great lengths and spend exhorbitant amounts of money of tax dollars on litigation and even knock down doors to impose their morality on your life. If they would spend as much time and energy on sex education, condom distribution and public health the abortion rate would plummet and the ongoing debate over Roe v. Wade would be moot. But then they would have to concede that people have consensual sex and that might rock their tidy little worlds and the Franklin B. Robertson’s of the world can’t handle that.