There wasn't much political interest or commentary in my family. My parents and aunt had a running joke about FDR: "I hate wah. [war]. Elinor hates wah. Fala [their dog] hates wah."

My father had a Raleigh route in Florida for awhile when I was a child and I went to black households with him. By my senior year in high school in Virginia I was pro civil rights and was known as the class "n***** lover". My classmates, in an all white school, were not. They thought I just didn't get it. I knew the underdog was always right.

My politics are mostly from the 1960s. I was part of the antiwar New Left. That's when I learned what was wrong with liberals, who were supporting the war. We started calling ourselves "progressives", because we were clearly not liberals. I voted for Bill Clinton in 1992, abandoned the Democratic party after he signed the so-called welfare reform bill, with Hillary's approval. Have never voted for a Democrat for president since. They're the enemy of poor people.