"Why This Lifelong Republican Will Be Voting For Obama" by Phillip Geurtz

[applegrove]

Why This Lifelong Republican Will Be Voting For Obama

From guest writer, Phillip Geurtz at Addicting Info

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/06/25/why-this-lifelong-republican-will-be-voting-for-obama/

"SNIP....................................

For the first 15 plus years of adulthood I was a staunch Republican supporter. Even as far back as the ’92 election, when I wasn’t old enough to vote, I voted for Bush 41 in my high school mock elections. I voted for Dole in ’96, Bush 43 twice in ’00 & ’04, and McCain in ’08. I’ve typically voted Republican in most off-year elections. I am the son of a retired army Colonel. I was baptised by my Catholic uncle priest and raised going to church every Sunday. I am a 36-year-old hard-working white father of 3 from the south. I was the heart of the GOP base for the last 15 years.

I will be voting for Barack Obama this coming November.

Not long after the Occupy Wall Street protests began, and 15 months into my unemployment, I started to really pay attention to politics. I did my own research, checked out sources when I had questions, and paid attention to the news. I even went to my local Occupy demonstration, brought my wife & kids, and listened to what they had to say. I realized something in those early days of questioning my political leanings. I realized that the ‘Trickle Down’ financial model our country has used is fundamentally flawed and has been for nearly my entire life. I’m not an economics major so I can’t tell you how its flawed, but it is flawed. I look at most everyone I know and I see how hard they are struggling just to live week to week, like me. I see friends remaining unemployed for months trying to find something that pays better than their unemployment benefits. My last two vacations were in 2007 & 2008 to take the kids to see the grandparents.

I was more of a fiscal conservative. I never subscribed to the social conservative aspects of the GOP. I referred to them as those right-wing nut jobs, even while I was pulling the same lever in the voting booth. Now that I have renounced the party I’ve identified with for 15 years, I find those same right-wing nut jobs horribly offensive to anything Christian or even just decent in the world.

.........................................SNIP"

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Another Republican sees the light...

I can only hope that many more of them join him.

Great catch, my dear applegrove!

[Solomon]

2. kick

[ellie_belly]

3. Ignorance is the enemy.

"I started to really pay attention to politics. I did my own research, checked out sources when I had questions, and paid attention to the news. "

This is why he changed his mind.

[vlyons]

4. The republican brand is bankrupt.

Congratulations on using your mind to figure out what's in the best interest of you and your family. I hope you find a decent job and stay plugged into politics. It's a dirty shame that the Republican is so completely bankrupt, but it is.

[SunSeeker]

5. He was just a "fiscal conservative."

Which is just a decent person brainwashed into thinking trickle down economics works. Once they've figured out it doesn't--and it's bound to happen eventually, short of mental illness--they will leave the Republican party. The real problem is the "social conservatives," i.e. the religious nut-bags, racists, homophobes and misogynists. Their hate is not open to rational thought. That is why they vote against their economic self-interest, and plutocrats depend on these nutters to stay in power.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

6. I was a libertarian that saw the light... pretty damn quick.

All it took for me was to get lied to by an employer, stating that the job was not seasonal and that I would not be laid off after the holidays. I was laid off the DAY AFTER Christmas. I got to thinking how wrong it was for businesses to do whatever they wanted and walk over people like that and started sliding to the left.

The slide was effortless, as I was already agnostic and socially liberal.

[SunSeeker]

9. Glad to have you on DU, McKenzie.

[ffr]

7. Congrats.

I've always considered all perspectives at each election.

Sounds like we've come to the same conclusion.

[BlueToTheBone]

8. My neighbor who is very apolitical

suddenly has lots of facts about Rmoney and what is happening. He actually knew what the story is all about. I was rather stunned.

[Doctor_J]

10. Sounds like he might not go back

[Ikonoklast]

11. Another Republican who was clueless...until events turned against them.

Empathy is a meaningless word to them, until they are in dire need of some.

[Skittles]

12. good except the "fiscal conservative" bullshit

there's no such thing as a fiscal conservative - just repukes who think trillions for war is A-OK but actually helping people is not.