The moderate Repubs are really starting to jump ship.

[Odin2005]

At least on this game forum I post at.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=154315

I Am No Longer a Republican ...


... because I simply got tired of how the control freaks — especially the religious right and neo-cons — have taken over the party at all levels: national, state and, most distressing, local.

I registered as a Republican as a senior in high school, during the first President Bush's buildup during Desert Shield (which, as we all know, later became Desert Storm). I wasn't as wise then as I was now, but even then, looking back, there was still a possibility that the moderate Republicans could hold their own, or even stage some sort of comeback. Well, the passage of 16 years has proven me wrong. The religous right and neo-cons are firmly in control and likely will remain so into the foreseeable future. There's no room in the "big tent" for former Republicans like me — conservative when it comes to fiscal issues, but more moderate on some social issues, including abortion and gun control.

In recent years, I've also grown more and more alarmed at the ever-increasing role of the federal government in the daily lives of the average man, woman and child — especially since the nightmare that was Sept. 11, 2001. I'm getting nothing but bad vibes, with one example being the "signing statements" that Bush has used on legislation Congress has sent his way. He has used them *hundreds* of times, the most of any president, and I fear that's damaging Congress, and institution already being undermined by the majority of the Republicans there who seem to be content playing lapdog to the executive branch of the federal government.

My disappointment with the Republicans runs deep, but by no means does this mean the Democrats get a free ride in the sympathy department. Hardly. To me, they're just the flip side of the same coin. Regardless of party affiliation, it seems there are very few statesmen and stateswomen anymore. It's all about keeping the bases happy — and more often than not, the bases are the extremes — raking in the money for re-election campaigns and schmoozing with interest groups. All of these elements have a role in democratic system of government ... but, damn, it seems it's all out of whack, that these elements are taking bigger chunks of the pie than they should be.

Maybe it's silly, but I implore my fellow Americans to become more active in how they're governed. Read the newspapers! Listen to the newscasts! Follow developments on the Internet! In a word, *know* what your leaders and the interest groups — at *all* levels — are doing! Don't let them pull the wool over your eyes with non-issues while the city is burning down around you! Become educated and informed, because it's those two things that will save you from a future where America becomes a velvet-gloved police state of sorts.

If you're a foreigner, the above advice applies to you as well.

*sigh* OK, enough from me for now. I needed to get this off my chest; if you've read this far, thanks for wading through. You're home free, now.

Gatekeeper

P.S. Oh, and I registered as an independent ... although I was tempted to go Libertarian for a minute or two.

Welcome to sanity!

Now you don't have to be a dirty filthy communist pinko (etc etc) hippy(ALWAYS include hippy!) but once you admit that the Republican party are filled with douches who have betrayed their own constituents to big buisness and don't follow a single value they promote.... once you've done that, you've joined American Democracy.

[tabasco]

1. I never saw anyone spell hippie with a "y."

I thought I was a dirty liberal commie hippie, not a commy hippy.

[Old and In the Way]

2. All good and well.

But anyone stupid enough to join and remain a Republican for 16 years is not bright enough to comment on the leadership in the opposition.

Sorry, but he should have have simply said, "I was duped by Republicans....I guess I'm not really bright enough to comment on the whole idea of politics." This seals it: "To me, they're just the flip side of the same coin" Well, duh, the coin is politics, what the fuck side are Democrats supposed to be on? Yeah, we have warts in our Party....but I can think of a hell of a lot of Democratic leaders that I am proud to be associated with. Just because he picked a Party that picked his pockets doesn't mean we all have the same problem with understanding the difference between the Party of Public Service and the Party of Personal Interests.

[Skip Intro]

3. If they're still with him, it makes me wonder how moderate they really are

at this point, you know?

sheesh, evidently some people vote like they're buying toilet paper.

a remaining moderate repuke about to bolt: "well, I guess its suddenly too much for me to stay, now...I must leave the party..."

I mean, was there some recent "straw" that broke the mod-repubs' camel's back?

[Old and In the Way]

7. I'd be too embarrassed to admit it.

"I am no longer a Republican" = I finally woke up and got a clue that I've been eating the shit of people like Rush Limbaugh and, recently, I've started to taste it before I swallowed. It was cool to bash Democrats before Republicans really got control of our government.....

[LittleClarkie]

10. There were "Republicans for Kerry" during the election

who hadn't given up on getting their party back yet. Their mascot was Teddy Roosevelt. Alot of them were worried about the environment in particular. Others were looking for fiscal conservatism, and not getting from Junior.

So maybe this person is giving up that fight. Maybe this person is saying that they can't even call themselves Republicans anymore. Abandoning it to the neocons, as it were.

Or maybe they're not moderates at all. This one sounds like a Conservative, esp. since they toyed with the idea of going Libertarian.

[Old and In the Way]

12. Labels are pretty meaningless today. Party ID is more relevant.

What's a conservative and a liberal in our current political environment today? I call myself a liberal, but I don't like government snooping in my bedroom, fighting elective wars, or helping corporations destroy the environment. That used to be a reasonable definition of conservativism.

My contention is that the current national Republican Party is neither. They are uniformly criminal. The Democratic Party, on the otherhand, sweeps from liberal to conservative. But we are, as a Party, a lot cleaner than the GOP-Syndicate.

And people who call themselves Libertarians are kidding themselves. They dearly want to own the Republican franchise, but they've been shut out. And they have too much pride to accept the fact that they are probably a helluva lot closer, politically and socially, to the typical Democrat than they are to the typical Republican.

[samsingh]

4. but not fast enough. they enabled evil for too long

Odin - are you are Thor fan?

[susanna]

5. Good grief, I jumped ship about the time he was getting going.

i.e., Desert Storm. I knew back then the GOP religionists were gonna raise hell (pun intended). I got out then and have voted Dem ever since.

[Odin2005]

6. Most people have a lot of political "inertia," though.

Many good people just don't realize these things untill it has been piled on enough to become obvious.

[Old and In the Way]

8. Many good people think of Party ID like they identify to their favorite

sports team. In baseball, I'm a diehard Red Sox fan. I hate the Yankees. I'd rather lose than root for the Yankees. In politics, I'm a Democrat. I hate the Republican Syndicate. The difference is, if the Democrats were winning like these current Republicans, I'd become a die-hard fan of the opposition. Because sports is entertainment and politics is reality.

[Hobarticus]

9. Technically, these fascists aren't even Republicans...

These ain't your daddy's Republicans, that's for sure.

[LSK]

11. ive seen tons of "independents" and "libertarians" all the sudden

There are lots of ex-Republicans out there.

[RagingInMiami]

13. Fuck him or her

He's still a dumbass.

[Vogon_Glory]

14. A Good Start

It's a good start towards a return to political sanity when Republicans of Gatekeeper's sort walk away from the GOP.

What I'm still waiting for is the sea change where the people who have voted Republican since John C. Fremont ran the first time until 2002 have this overpowering compulsion to tear down GOP yard signs or "key" cars with Banana Republican bumper stickers.

I still think that we Democrats have to get better organized. What happened in the Bilbray election shows just how far we'll have to go to oust--those people.