'Today I'm leaving the Republican Party'

[babylonsister]

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/29/10924140-today-im-leaving-the-republican-party

'Today I'm leaving the Republican Party'
By Kent Jones
Video @ link~
Thu Mar 29, 2012 2:25 PM EDT



How sexy is the Republican Party right now? How's this for an answer: a rising political star and decorated Iraq War veteran says he's leaving the party because he's sick of the "games."

California Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, a candidate for mayor in San Diego who served for a decade in the Marine Corps, has developed the exasperating habit of actually working across the aisle with Democrats to achieve results. You can guess how popular that makes him in of today's GOP, where compromise is another word for treason. So today, Fletcher posted this video on his blog saying he's had enough and is running as an independent. Among the highlights?

"It’s become evident to me that actually focusing on a solution, of actually trying to get things done, isn't the preferred method of political party insiders."

"I believe it is more important to solve a problem than to preserve that problem to use in a campaign."

"I don't believe we have to treat people we disagree with as an enemy . . . I've fought in a war and I've seen the enemy. We don't have enemies in our political environment here."

"In today’s political environment, you're expected to play the game. . . I've been told by many in the Republican Party I'm not very good at this, and there's a reason: I could care less about playing games."

"I fought in a war, I put it all on the line for my country. I didn't go through all that to come back home and run for office, to play games."

Come on out, moderate, goal-oriented Republicans. We know you're out there.

[GopperStopper2680]

1. My heart just skipped a beat!

I'm ecstatic to hear the words of a REAL PATRIOT running for office. My God, I almost forgot that real Americans still existed in the halls of government. Can hope yet be far away? Would this man perhaps care to run for president?

[KamaAina]

13. Americans Elect might be interested

Hmmm...

[eridani]

22. You mean the pimps for making online voting acceptable?

You're kidding, right?

[Land Shark]

28. yeah, online 'voting' is impossible if one values free elections

[tjwash]

2. Been getting grief from the repugs for not toeing the party line to end pensions for city workers

Those fucks can't wait to get their greasy mitts on that money. They've been trying to steal the city workers pensions for about 10 years now.

[KamaAina]

12. That's one of ALEC's pet issues

those wonderful folks who brought you "stand your ground" laws and Wisconsin-style union-busting.

http://www.alec.org

[BeyondGeography]

3. He's telling them to grow the fuck up

Valuable advice.

[Mariana]

10. My guess is that he's told them to grow the fuck up many times.

He's leaving the party because they refuse to do so.

[Chorophyll]

4. K&R for reasonableness!

[arthritisR_US]

5. +1! n/t

[WillyT]

6. K & R !!!

[SamG]

7. We need 1000 more elected officials nationwide to do...

the same damn thing, then only the racists and the sexual perverts like O'Reilly and Limbaugh and their followers and wannabe's will be left there.

[freshwest]

21. +1,000

[chervilant]

24. INDEED!!!

From you lips to their ears...

[Alcibiades]

8. Probably never a die-hard pug in the first place

The GOP went shopping for war heroes to run in places where the GOP stalwarts couldn't win, and this guy probably fit the bill at the time, but apparently that was before he knew much about actually being a Republican.

[cynatnite]

9. My inlaws left the repub party after Katrina...

That was the last straw they said. They were against the Iraq war and Katrina was the last straw. They call themselves independents now and are much happier about the decision.

[Carla in Sequim]

16. Ah yes...Katrina

In the year and a half I protested with Code Pink in 'red-as-blazes' Orange County, Ca., more people showed up After Katrina than any other time. Truly amazing.

Also, my favorite from the original post:

"I believe it is more important to solve a problem than to preserve that problem to use in a campaign."

Amen.

[TahitiNut]

17. Do (Ba)tell(e)!

It's no accident that the "golden age" of American politics was in the aftermath of WW2 All those returning GIs who knew war "up close and personal" alongside guys of differing religions, politics, and accents were disabused of the notion that disagreement makes one an 'enemy.'

[janx]

40. True.

[Liberalynn]

11. Powerful

[CaliforniaPeggy]

14. Good for him!

We need a lot more folks just like him!

[truebrit71]

26. +1

He did the right thing by leaving, there is no room for compromise in today's gop...

[littlewolf]

15. K&R

[Leftist Agitator]

18. See, it's people like this man who make me wonder...

If my beliefs about (some) Republicans are perhaps unwarranted.

[iemitsu]

19. actually your beliefs are warranted.

this guy is not a republican.

[freshwest]

20. An improvement. Needs to resonate.

[The Wizard]

23. The Republican Party

has left the mainstream and inhabits the fringe. No self respecting American identifies with the far right, fanatical radical, reactionary, goose stepping crackpots that are the current Republican Party. Hatred is not a family value.

[JNelson6563]

25. He could be talking about some on the left too.

For instance, here at DU many seem to think any kind of a compromise is to sell-out. All or nothing seems to be the mindset of certain folks on both sides. The R's are now mired in the tar pits by their all-or-nothing people, so glad that hasn't happened to the Dems, in spite of the efforts of some.

Julie

[Jamaal510]

33. You may be correct.

For example, just the other day while watching the Young Turks, I heard Cenk tell Obama to "never agree with the Republicans". I thought that sounded a little extreme because not every Republican is messed up like that, and I'm sure there are some Republicans out there who are willing to at least entertain the interests of the other side and possibly reach a compromise.

[janx]

37. YES, Julie.

Again, we agree.

I admire this guy because he seems sane in an environment so politically charged that people of another political party are referred to as enemies. That is ridiculous, and it is fueled by media that make money by scaring people and pitting them against each other to a ludicrous extent.

[Vogon_Glory]

27. A Quiet Political Shift Is Going On Beneath The Lamestream Media's Radar

A quiet political shift is going on beneath the corporate lamestream media's radar. The remaining non-reactionaries in the Senile Elephant Party are waking up and walking away.

There won't be much corporate news commentary on this shift, of course. The corporate news critters and their owners are just too cowed and intimidated by the Republican Party and its "Conservative" bosses to notice what moderate-conservatives are doing. Even daring to notice this shift will bring down threats, bullying and (Oh, the horrors!) "liberal bias."

The moderate-conservatives may not do what Ripon Society Republicans and Rockefeller Republicans have often done and become Democrats. But they won't feel nearly so obliged to pull the Reactionary Right's freight anymore.

[janx]

39. I hope you're right. n/t

[cbrer]

29. 'Bout Fuckin' Time

This is a nationwide phenomenon. The one percent and it's couple of hundred major contributors are making it abundantly clear what they're about.

And who is excluded...

[Honeycombe8]

30. And vice versa? How many in this forum like Democrats who work across the aisle?

Let me think. Hmmm. No, I don't recall seeing many posts extolling the virtues of compromise and working toward solutions by working with the Republicans.

I and a few others have, but most...that's a big no no, and a cardinal offense.

[DFW]

32. Might you be confusing two different things?

Barack Obama was the great hand-extender after the election. He tried working across the aisle,
and himself extolled the virtues of it. Once it has been tried, and crowned with rejection and
scorn from the other side of the aisle, one either quits or moves on.

I think very few would deny the virtues of trying to compromise. But by the same token, when the
hand extended is bitten or cut off at the wrist, the message at some point has to be taken for what it
is: "the answer is NO." It has been "NO" since Barack Obama took office. It's not that the offer was
never made. It was made (repeatedly) and refused. It's not a cardinal offense. It's not an offense at all.
It just didn't work. Like we say back home, "dat ain't da same."

[Honeycombe8]

34. I'm not talking about that. There have been plenty of posts...

criminalizing any number of reps and senators for not taking a hard left stance, and for considering a compromise of whatever.

There is a time for taking a stance, of course, but you get gridlock and nothing gets done, and you don't advance, if you don't compromise on anything.

Look at all the posts, still, angry that the ACA doesn't include a public option, and that Obama and Reid and others didn't draw a line in the stand on that. If they had, there would have been no reform. Many posters think that's fine, as long as they took a stand. They chose to get a reform bill passed, though.

[Zalatix]

36. I'm with you on that. The Democratic Party has done nothing BUT compromise.

And look at the mess we're in now. No Medicare for All, no Public Option, instead we have RomneyCare 2.0, we're teetering on the brink of Medicare and Social Security cuts, and now we've got DRONES carrying out summary executions on American citizens without any semblance of due process.

I'm utterly burnt out on Democrats "reaching across the aisle".

[DFW]

31. "We know you're out there." Who's we?

I keep waiting and waiting for one to show up.

I think I'd have more luck waiting for Godot.

[haele]

35. The cynic in me says he knows he can't win the 'pubbie field outright-

So he thinks he might be able to pull off the moderates from both the Republican field and the contrarian Democrats (and there are a lot of them in San Diego - basically libertarians who aren't religious) who might not want to see Bob Filner as Mayor because they're scared of having a "raging liberal" in charge.

As a politician, he is an okay moderate, but he's still a bit leery of being "progressive".

Haele

[bluestate10]

38. Sadly, republicans like Fletcher is the type of republican that started the GOP.

Yet, those people would not stand a chance in a republican primary in the modern republican party. They have no place to really go if they want to be part of solutions other than try to become part of the center-right wing of the democratic party. Being from the center-left wing of the democratic party, I am not sure that I would welcome them, but I would not attempt to keep them out or silence them and would look forward to discussing rational ideas they their wing of the party has.

There are some on DU that rip the democratic party for being at the center. Those DU members never criticize even the more rightwing republicans, saving the ire and venom for democrats and our President.

Liberal and moderate republicans reading this, you have no where to go, your party doesn't want you. That reality won't change. The party that you loved is gone, it has been taken over by extremists. If you want to have real say in the future of this country, you must leave the republican party now. You are no longer in the party of Lincoln, as a matter of fact, Lincoln would have a problem even getting elected to Congress from your party today, less yet elected President. You aren't bad people, I am politically distant from you, but I have met some of you and call some of you friends. You are thoughtful, you don't hate, you have some good ideas and some that aren't so good. Save yourself before you sacrifice your soul.

[Tarheel_Dem]

41. K&R