"Can you give me one reason you're a Democrat?"

by Todd Beeton [courtesy of MyDD]

Yesterday, as I returned to my car after the Sarah Palin event, I was relieved to find that all the bumper stickers on my car (I have Kerry/Edwards on there still, Hillary and a few Obama ones) were still in one piece. Even the 'Bush's Last Day' magnet was still affixed to the trunk of my car. I literally had never seen so many McCain/Palin bumper stickers all in one place as I did yesterday, let alone ever in my life, so you can imagine how conspicuous my car was in that parking lot.

But while my car did escape vandalism, the day did not pass without confrontation.

I had just pulled out of the Home Depot Center and was waiting at a red light behind a few cars, my driver side window was open. As I waited, I heard a polite "Excuse me," it had come from a friendly looking guy who'd pulled up to the left of me with his passenger side window open. I thought he was lost and looking for directions. Actually, no. Turns out he had a different question for me entirely. Having seen my decorated bumper, he asked in an oddly friendly but still confrontational tone:

"Can you give me one reason you're a Democrat?"

I was stunned for a second. I was in my car. This is LA, my car is my castle, you can't do that, I thought. But after the shock had worn off from this odd sort of political drive by, I just looked at him and blurted out "Sure, I'm a Democrat because Democrats fight for the common good and fairness and I believe the government has a role in improving people's lives." Talk about a moose in headlights, this guy was just speechless. I guess he hadn't considered that he'd actually get an answer to his question, let alone three. Without even a reply from the guy, I turned back to the road, saw the light had turned green and drove off. I was pretty happy with my answer, not because it was the most eloquent thing I've ever said in my life or because it was even the best case I could have made for the Democratic Party, but because it came out of my mouth with such ease, the way something that you don't even have to think about does -- in a sort of pure unedited way.

So I thought I'd open up the question to you. I'm curious. Why are you a Democrat?