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Imagine where our country would be today with energy independence if Ronald Reagan hadn’t torn down the photovoltaic solar panels that Jimmy Carter put on the White House, and if he hadn’t followed that by racking up one of the biggest deficits in history.
Imagine where we’d be now with energy independence if Vice President Al Gore, who won the popular vote in 2000, had become president instead of George W. Bush, who was so stuck in the past that he invaded Iraq at the expense of the real task at hand and then went on to top Reagan’s record high deficit.

Since I’ve been a voting adult, I have heard the constant derogatory variations of labels put to Democrats by Republicans, such as “tax-and-spend, bleeding-heart liberals.” But in my lifetime it’s been Republicans who have not been fiscally wise and Democrats — like Bill Clinton nationally and Mark Warner locally — who have balanced our budgets.

When I first registered to vote in my hometown state of Massachusetts, I registered as an independent. Today, as a Virginian, I consider myself a fiscally conservative independent who votes Democratic because the party represents my views on civil rights, labor rights, women’s rights, human rights and environmental protections better than its counterpart. So when someone tries to pin the “liberal” label on me without any wiggle room, I find it limiting and oppressive.

The “liberal” name-calling that Rush Limbaugh and others like him have modeled over the years has worked to stop constructive debate and further divide Americans. Crying over what Limbaugh characterizes the “liberal media” and “elitist” Democrats is, in my mind, a linguistic gimmick meant to take pot shots at those who demonstrate thoughtful intelligence or simply have differing views. If Democrats are so “elitist,” how is it they are the party that has consistently stood up for blue collar and middle class families while Republicans have largely championed corporate America?

We continue to hear conservatives spout the Reaganomic’s refrain, '“get government off our backs.” But Reagan’s economic policies (sometimes referred to as “trickle-down economics”) were so questionable that his vice president, George H. Bush, at one time called them “voodoo economics.” Many have faulted Reagan for ignoring poverty and social justice issues while the richer got richer during his presidency. Some economists believe his economic policies contributed to the Savings and Loan scandal, another big taxpayer bailout.

The banking crisis and bailout we’re facing today could be viewed as example of what smaller government gets us. John McCain and most Republicans consistently vote against regulations in the name of “smaller government,” wrongly thinking that businesses will regulate themselves. Privatization is the party line cure-all that most Republicans tout, but all too often it ends up paving the way for an inroad to monopoly and corruption.

The response to Hurricane Katrina is another example of what small government can translate into. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was known to be a solid agency under Clinton. When George W. Bush got into power, he deemed it something of an entitlement program, demoted its status and allowed inexperienced cronies to run it. The rest is (shameful) history.

And so, this fiscally conservative independent will vote Democratic once again. I trust that Barack Obama will not entangle us in a costly and unnecessary war, and that he would not have packaged and marketed the reasons for war by tying them to charged but false claims (such as that Iraq had something to do with 9/11). I trust that under his leadership we will make real progress on energy independence through sustainable and non-polluting sources, and that the drunken sailor-like chants of “drill, baby, drill” that we heard at the Republican National Convention will fade into the background.

With an Obama administration, I’ll feel assured that my civil rights and my rights to privacy won’t be rewritten and that government will indeed get off my back when it comes to those cherished rights.

In the end, it isn’t about the outdated labels we can pin on each other, or what new labels we give ourselves and wear like sound bites (like maverick).

Whether government is small or big isn’t the pertinent concern. I want a government that is smart. I believe electing Obama is the first step in that direction.