Disillusioned Republican: "My Party Has Abandoned Its Principals"

[BurtWorm]

Interesting that he leaves Reagan out of his list of great Republicans...


http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/06/26/ed.col.chaney.0626.html

My Republican Party was the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, and George H.W. Bush. It was a party of honesty and accountability. It was a party of tolerance, and practicality and honor. It was a party that faced facts and dealt with reality, and that crafted common-sense solutions to problems based on the facts as they were, not as we wished them to be, or even worse, as we made them up. It was a party that told the truth, even when the truth came hard. And now, it is none of those things.

Fifty years from now, the Republican Party of this era will be judged by how we provided for the nation's future on three core issues: how we led the world on the environment, how we minded the business of running our country in such a way that we didn't go bankrupt, and whether we gracefully accepted our place on the world's stage as its only superpower. Sadly, we have built the foundation for dismal failure on all three counts. And we've done it in such a way that we shouldn't be surprised if neither the American people nor the world ever trusts us again.

...

Our greatest failure, though, has been in our role as superpower. This world needs justice, democracy and compassion, and as the keystone of those things, it needs one thing above all else: truth.

Republican decisions made in 2002 and 2003 have killed almost 2,000 of the most capable patriots our country has to offer - volunteers, every one. Support for those decisions was gathered through what appeared at the time to be spin and marketing, but which now turns out to have been deliberate planning and falsehood. The Blair government's internal documentation only confirms what has been suspected for years: Americans are dying every day for Republican lies first crafted in 2002, expanded and embellished upon in 2003, and which continue to this day. This calculated deception is now burned into the legacy of the party, every bit as much as Reagan's triumph in the Cold War, or Nixon's disgrace over Watergate.

[GeekMonkey]

1. that calls for a giant

WELL DUH!!!!

[stevans_41902]

2. at least he finally gets it...

and there are more and more like him who are coming to their senses.

[moobu2]

3. Well we tried to tell em.

[FreedomAngel82]

14. Of course

But they can't bring themselves to say a democrat was right and they were wrong. It's always that way. So instead of blaming themselves for not seeing it and listening to us they turn around and blame the other republicans for THEIR stupidity and blindness.

[barbaraann]

4. Death, destruction, and greed have always been the basic GOP principles.

What is happening now is not new and anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional.

[sweetheart]

5. There was a time when johnson was running a secret viet nam war

and the situation was practically reversed from what it is today.

Change is the one constant in the universe. Both of the corporate
parties have been extremely deceptive, warmongering and undermining
civil liberties for a long time now. It is disingenuous to simply
say it was the repukes.

[barbaraann]

8. The GOP has never had good leaders like JFK or Carter.

Or Conyers or Kucinich, just for example.

[sweetheart]

9. You're right on that count

The progressive "democratic wing of the democratic party" is filled with
brilliant goodwill. That said, i have good feelings for the old
dead republican party that Jim Jeffords once belonged to. There was
a trace of wisdom in eisenhower's party, goldwater's demand for honesty
with the american people.

At the end of it, i am not THAT partisan, and see liars on both sides
of the aisle... and i agree that in today's reality, the best and
brightest are all on the dem side. That the mainstream party ignored
kucinich is also a sad note, on reflection. Perhaps they'll grow some
common sense in future.

[barbaraann]

11. We do have all the good people now.

Although Sam Reed, the GOP Sec. of State in Washington, does seem to have a "trace of wisdom." But the Washington State Republicans were trying to recall him, I think.

[FreedomAngel82]

15. If they try to recall one of their own

surely that's a sign.

[mcctatas]

13. Don't forget Feingold...

I love that man!:smoke:

[barbaraann]

17. Definitely.

And the late Paul Wellstone in the deceased category, for sure.

[Selatius]

6. You should depend on your principles, not political parties

That's the message I would leave for this guy. Your principles remain like a rock, but politicians too often bargain away their principles in order to win and hold power.

[FreedomAngel82]

16. I agree

Also check someone else before you vote for them.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

7. Wonderfully said and a rec to the front page.

[Eurobabe]

10. I know MANY disillusioned Repubs, but somehow

these fuckers still keep getting into office.

Blackwell anyone?

[OKDem08]

12. my God, that is powerful!

[Hamlette]

18. very powerful, I especially liked this:

We're poisoning our planet through gluttony and ignorance.

We're teetering on the brink of self-inflicted insolvency.

We're selfishly and needlessly sacrificing the best of a generation.

And we're lying about it.

While it has compiled this record of failure and deception, the party which I'm leaving today has spent its time, energy and political capital trying to save Terri Schiavo, battling the threat of single-sex unions, fighting medical marijuana and physician-assisted suicide, manufacturing political crises over presidential nominees, and selling privatized Social Security to an America that isn't buying. We fiddle while Rome burns.

Enough is enough. I quit.

[mzmolly]

19. Notha recommendation.

Thanks BW, nice article. I plan to forward to the Republicans I know.

We're poisoning our planet through gluttony and ignorance.

We're teetering on the brink of self-inflicted insolvency.

We're selfishly and needlessly sacrificing the best of a generation.

And we're lying about it.

Indeed.

[HomerRamone]

20. And they're not great to teachers, either ~(_8^(|)

Remember, the princiPAL is your PAL...