I know, I know, I’ve threatened it before. But as much as I dislike Chancellor W, there were always reasons more close to home that made me stick around.
Now the GOP is in control in my formerly “solid” yellow-dog Democrat state. And what do they do? Start meddling in citizens’ personal lives.
This morning I read that the state Senate has approved a bill to extend the waiting period for most divorces by months, impose state-mandated counseling, etc… as if people didn’t have minds of their owns, as if the government should have jurisdiction in our personal affairs.
This isn’t the cause of my leaving the party. It’s just the last straw.
I’m fed up with the whole 2-party system at this point anyway.
This isn’t meant to be a rant, so I’m not putting it in the pit. Just some mundane pointless stuff I must share.
Ole Zig-zag Zell may think his party betrayed him… well, his newfound paramour has certainly betrayed me. Whatever happened to the real small-government Republicans?
Thanks for listening.
Your arrogant Sample_the_Dog
Have another look at the other guys, then. It may well be that they represent the kind of government you prefer more closely enough to be worth your vote.
Did you read the OP? Sample was complaining that he thinks the Republicans are intervening too much in people’s lives. If he thinks this, why would he want to vote for Nader, a man who favors more govermental intervention?
OK, maybe it was a bad and pointless post. Sorry.
I hear you. Between Terri Schiavo at the national level and a certain animal rights legislation in my home state, I’m pretty disgusted with the Grand Ole Party as well. I want less government and less regulation, not more.
You Republicans who don’t like where your party is going have to fight back. You have to take back power from the rar-right fanatics and ultra-religious whackjobs who’ve hijacked the GOP and turned it on its head. Smaller government? Less interference in people’s private lives? Fiscal responsibility? Where is that in today’s ruling party?
I say this as a liberal Independent/Democrat (depends which side of the bed I get up on that day) who desperately wants to see a return of the Republican party that embraced Nelson Rockefeller, Leverett Saltonstall, Elliot Richardson, Barry Goldwater, and others of their ilk.
Believe me, ETF, we’ve tried, and many are still fighting the good fight. But part of my decision comes from reaching the conclusion that the best way to fight that fight is to reduce the base.
Paying attention to the base has been at the heart of the GOP’s recent successes. Someone in another thread that’s currently active – but I can’t recall which – recently pointed out that, despite liberal/leftist/Democrat complaints to the contrary, the party was very responsive in abandoning the very far right fundamentalist fringe represented by Robertson, Gingrich, and Buchannon when it was clear they had gone too far.
And there is open resistence in the GOP to Bush administration nonsense regarding the scope of tax cuts, for example, and Social Security “reform”, for example.
I think Democrats are a little bit angry to discover that the voting mainstream really is much less to the left than they are. (I hate these terms, btw, but gotta use the shorthand here.)
But what the party is not being responsive on is a fundamental philosophical stance regarding the role of government in individual lives. They talk the talk of small government, but they’re refusing to walk the walk. And if they won’t walk, I’ve finally decided that I will. When common sense has returned to the fold, then I am likely to return as well.
He who lives by the base dies by the base.
Yes PLEASE!
The Republicans haven’t been the party of smaller government and less spending in a long, long time. They seem to have switched with the Dems as the party of fiscal responsibility, since at least the Dems are willing to raise taxes rather than just borrow, borrow, borrow and spend some more.
I hear a lot of Republicans who claim to represent these things, but I fail to see where it’s being applied at all in the national leadership (I’m willing to concede maybe local governments are different.) I don’t understand how someone can continue to vote for a party that seems to so blatantly say one thing and do another. Just look at how the leadership treats anyone in their own party that dares to voice an objection to whatever their Agenda du Jour is… and the hypocricy (sp?) between wanting to protect the chiiiiiiiildren and overturning laws and/or ignoring all these environmental problems, with toxins in water and food and air, is enough to make my brain want to explode.
please old-school Republicans, vote Libertarian or reclaim your party!
::Hands jinwicked a roll of duct tape::
Keep them brains in, honey. It’s like toothpaste in a tube – hard to get them back!
Yeah, I think seeing the base disappear will change things a lot. Unfortunately, the truly active Republican constituency is the Religious Right, and they’ve got a bug up their butt about making us all live good Christian lives. I’ve seen a lot of Republicans get dragged grumbling along with them, and I think it just lets them feel like they don’t need to worry about your concerns.
Hmm. Maybe this is true of the left of the Democrats too, and I should do the same.
I have refrained from two lame jokes in ten minutes. I feel pretty good about that.
Don’t blame me. I voted for Pataki.
As someone who just goes based on what seems to make sense, the hell with any party, I would just comment that the problem with leaving the party system (while the parties is still exist) is that elections go from: “Wahahah! My guy’s going to kick your guys ass!” to (in the example of Gore vs Bush) “Well should I vote for Clinton’s putz or the Republican’s putz? Oh joy the options!”
It’s just great gobs of gooey happiness at each election.
I have seen plenty of Republicans around the 'net today who feel the same way.
You have to make yourselves known. I can write to my Congresspeople to express my displeasure–and I have–but I can’t tell them that they’re going to lose my support, because in my case none of them had it in the first place. (All of mine are Republicans, and I opposed them all when they were elected.) They need to know that while they’re trying to placate one end of their voters, they’re giving a final push-off to many on the other end.