Why I'm a Republican in my head but a Democrat in my heart: A Love Story

Head over to ChicagoNow where a posting explains how she may agree with Republicans on some issues but remains in fact a Democrat:

Why stay in a party that promotes flawed economic policies and makes renewing my driver's license so painful?

I stay because the Republican Party gives me no choice.

In fact, they make it too easy to stay.

Time and time again, election after election, they deem themselves more concerned with protecting arcane notions of what it means to be "American" rather than accept the fact that the face of our country is no longer predominately white and male.

I stay because I don't think that government should have a say in who I, or anyone else, marries and what I do with my uterus.

I stay because I don't agree with allowing people to sneak across the border to clean our homes but force them to go back when they want to attend our schools.

Most of all, even with all its flaws, I stay for a reason that our President expressed on Tuesday night during the State of the Union address:

"I’m a Democrat. But I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed, that government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more."

We cannot negate the impact that institutionalized racism and bigotry has had on many in America. For that reason, I believe that it is all of our duty to continue to lift up others who cannot lift themselves out of their situations. And though we may be far from the perfect solution, we owe it to the dream of what our country can be to keep trying, to keep helping, and to keep believing that we can be better.

A lot of things here I can get with. What I wish could be explained was what's with the thing about who one marries or what who has say in who's uterus? Are those slaps against gay marriage and abortion?

If you want to know my thoughts, I'm very much pro-life. I think that's a long way from telling a woman what to do with her uterus, my thing would be to encourage a woman to seek other options such as birth control. And surely there are many who even scoff at that!

As for marriage, while I don't agree with gay marriage my thing is to get government out of marriage. Government shouldn't tell a church that they must marry homosexuals. In that case, OK perhaps government shouldn't dictate who can or can't get married. Some will insist there must be equal protection on the other hand I would say marriage should be a primarily religious matter than a civil governmental matter.

Also I can understand where she's coming from. There are ideas I can agree with on the Republican side, however, it's difficult for me to believe there is a home for me in the GOP. At the same time I feel the same way about the Democrats.