Pagans for Bush

I am a Republican. I am also a witch.

The two terms are not as mutually exclusive as many would have you believe. I started a website on the subject a couple of years ago and expected ridicule from both sides. Yet just the opposite happened. I've received an overwhelming amount of email from like-minded people expressing relief that they are not alone.

I found a group who, like me, feel that Freedom is the perfect solution to the human condition. We feel that our Constitution has done more to raise the baseline of human existence than any other document in the history of humanity. We also feel that our religious beliefs are in perfect harmony with these ideals.

There was never a moment when I had to adjust my way of thinking to accommodate either label. I was already a Republican and a witch-I just needed to discover the names for them.

I was 12 when I knew I was a Republican. Reared in a military family, I was brought up understanding the value of freedom and self-determination. I've come to believe that government entitlement programs are nothing more than a redistribution of wealth--which is socialism. Socialism is incompatible with capitalism and the American way of life. Winston Churchill once said that the inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

I realized I was a witch about ten years ago. When I was 27, I picked up a book that described Pagan/Wicca; the more I read the more amazed I became. I had been brought up Catholic, and I had even attended 12 years of Catholic school. I could never fully comprehend or agree with the Catholic beliefs I was taught. That experience left me with far more questions than answers.

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