Why I can't hold the party line

I support disability rights.

That means a lot more then "I support disability rights" though. Or at least it is supposed to mean more then just supporting disability rights.

I'm supposed to:

• Support a woman's right to choose


• Support the Democratic, Socialist, or Green Party candidates in elections


• Believe in increasing taxes


• Be against any war most leftists are against


• Think that east or west coast cities have "progressed" while the south and midwest are backwards


• Support organizations such as the AARP


• And many others...

Basically, I'm supposed to fit nicely into the "left" checkbox as far as all of my political and personal beliefs - and anytime someone from the "right" supports disability rights, rather then being happy to have an ally, we meet it with suspiscion. After all, the right is simply trying to promote their pro-life cause and will use us to do it. You see, they don't hold the proper leftist view on a non-disability related subject, so they can't be an ally of ours.

I'm sick of it. I just got cussed out today by another disabled person for writing something about how certain types of assistive technology are very primitive and need much more research and work to get them closer to adequate for their users. The person didn't cuss me out about that - they cussed me out instead because of a personal view (I won't say what) that most people on the left don't hold - a view that had nothing to do with the message, nor anything to do with disability rights. But of course since I held this unrelated view, everything I say must be horse shit.

Well, I can handle being cussed out. It's not the first and, unless I become a happy-shiny disabled person, won't be the last. But I do wish we, as a group, would actually think about our beliefs rather then adopting the view held by most of us. This herd mentality isn't helping anyone. Sure, we might still lean towards the left - that's fine. But we need to do it with thinking and we need to approach all our allies, not just the ones that agree with us about non-disability subjects.

(For the record, I've voted for both Democratic and Republican candidates, for nearly every office, during my lifetime; I was split about 75% democratic, 25% republican on the last election, but I've voted the other way around at other times. I guess that makes me both a bad Democrat and a bad Republican)