Why I Left the GOP

Floridatexan wrote:
http://www.salon.com/2012/09/10/why_i_left_the_gop/

"I used to be a serious Republican, moderate and business-oriented, who planned for a public-service career in Republican politics. But I am a Republican no longer.

There’s an old joke we Republicans used to tell that goes something like this: “If you’re young and not a Democrat, you’re heartless. If you grow up and you’re not a Republican, you’re stupid.” These days, my old friends and associates no doubt consider me the butt of that joke. But I look on my “stupidity” somewhat differently. After all, my real education only began when I was 30 years old.

This is the story of how in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and later in Iraq, I discovered that what I believed to be the full spectrum of reality was just a small slice of it and how that discovery knocked down my Republican worldview.

I always imagined that I was full of heart, but it turned out that I was oblivious. Like so many Republicans, I had assumed that society’s “losers” had somehow earned their deserts. As I came to recognize that poverty is not earned or chosen or deserved, and that our use of force is far less precise than I had believed, I realized with a shock that I had effectively viewed whole swaths of the country and the world as second-class people..."

2seaoat wrote:It is the duty of every good Republican to return to the ideals of the party. It was the Republican Party who was the catalyst to free the slaves and bring equality. It was the Republican Party who busted the monopolies and trust which chocked America. It was the Republican Party who wanted free enterprise to shine and individual freedom to reign supreme.

How we evolved to the current perversion is a historical certainty, and rather than leaving the Republican Party, it is incumbent on good Republicans to stay and take a stand. Sure, good Republicans are being defeated in primaries as crazy thinks they are in control......but the people of this country are going to reject crazy. They are going to hand a number of elections over to the democrats who were the party who wanted to continue slavery....the party who did not have that much of a problem with the trusts....and a party who thinks individual freedom must be conditioned on what is good for big government. The racist Democratic party was most responsible for Jim Crow and the avoidance of the rights of some of our citizens.....but today those dixiecrat George Wallace followers have taken over the Republican Party, and America will reject their hate, and we will get our party back, but it will take years and the dedication of good people to defeat evil......do not leave the Republican Party........bring it back home.

Floridatexan wrote:
http://www.salon.com/2012/09/10/why_i_left_the_gop/

"I used to be a serious Republican, moderate and business-oriented, who planned for a public-service career in Republican politics. But I am a Republican no longer.

There’s an old joke we Republicans used to tell that goes something like this: “If you’re young and not a Democrat, you’re heartless. If you grow up and you’re not a Republican, you’re stupid.” These days, my old friends and associates no doubt consider me the butt of that joke. But I look on my “stupidity” somewhat differently. After all, my real education only began when I was 30 years old.

This is the story of how in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and later in Iraq, I discovered that what I believed to be the full spectrum of reality was just a small slice of it and how that discovery knocked down my Republican worldview.

I always imagined that I was full of heart, but it turned out that I was oblivious. Like so many Republicans, I had assumed that society’s “losers” had somehow earned their deserts. As I came to recognize that poverty is not earned or chosen or deserved, and that our use of force is far less precise than I had believed, I realized with a shock that I had effectively viewed whole swaths of the country and the world as second-class people..."

2seaoat wrote:I am waiting for them to shift back to the middle ground and towards true fiscal-conservatism so I can vote for them again.[/color]

ZVUGKTUBM wrote:

2seaoat wrote:I am waiting for them to shift back to the middle ground and towards true fiscal-conservatism so I can vote for them again.[/color]

How has this administration been "fiscally conservative"? They have never even had a budget.

nochain wrote:A party of moderates is what is needed. There are moderate democrats and republicans who probably find the last few years of radicalism on both sides distasteful. The "silent majority" is this group and hopefully they will help clean out the Congress and Senate and fill the house with reasonable and qualified replacements.

knothead wrote:

nochain wrote:A party of moderates is what is needed. There are moderate democrats and republicans who probably find the last few years of radicalism on both sides distasteful. The "silent majority" is this group and hopefully they will help clean out the Congress and Senate and fill the house with reasonable and qualified replacements.

A FRIGGIN MEN!!!

Floridatexan wrote:
http://www.salon.com/2012/09/10/why_i_left_the_gop/

"I used to be a serious Republican, moderate and business-oriented, who planned for a public-service career in Republican politics. But I am a Republican no longer.

There’s an old joke we Republicans used to tell that goes something like this: “If you’re young and not a Democrat, you’re heartless. If you grow up and you’re not a Republican, you’re stupid.” These days, my old friends and associates no doubt consider me the butt of that joke. But I look on my “stupidity” somewhat differently. After all, my real education only began when I was 30 years old.

This is the story of how in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and later in Iraq, I discovered that what I believed to be the full spectrum of reality was just a small slice of it and how that discovery knocked down my Republican worldview.

I always imagined that I was full of heart, but it turned out that I was oblivious. Like so many Republicans, I had assumed that society’s “losers” had somehow earned their deserts. As I came to recognize that poverty is not earned or chosen or deserved, and that our use of force is far less precise than I had believed, I realized with a shock that I had effectively viewed whole swaths of the country and the world as second-class people..."