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I've been either a conservative or a libertarian leaning conservative my entire life.....but I'm leaving the party because it has gone off the deep end. Since i'm a huge fan of lists I've decided to expound upon why I belive the party is a shell of it's former self.
1). They're irrational. Obamacare is the law. Throwing a temper tantrum and shutting down the government (and yes, basically everyone blames the GOP) is a terrible idea. Just suck it up...meet with the Democrats...agree to fund the law...fund the government...move on.
2). Using political theatre for these debt ceiling talks every few months is a joke and irresponsible.
3). The religious wing of the party is absurdly annoying.
4). Reaganomics is a joke.
5). The deficit isn't THAT big of a deal right now...All CBO estimates show that our debts/deficits are sustainable.
6). The military really doesn't need to be this large.
7). It's blind aversion to scienfitic consensus.
8). Gay marriage is GOING to be the law of the land one day in the very near future. Get over it. If you aren't gay...don't marry someone of the same sex.
9). They're wildly hypocritical. The party of fiscal restraint....really? See GWB budget 2001-2008.
10). They're war mongerers when their guy is in office...peacenics when the other guy is.
Other reasons exist but these are the primary ones that are leading to me taking off my bumper stickers and withdrawing my name from the GOP call lists. Enjoy your journey into mediocrity.
I'm going to add another point to your list. And that's the growing exclusivity of the party. The idea of ideological purity dooms a political party in our system of government. You cannot ask a party to represent the majority of people in a nation, when that same party requires its membership to be ideologically pure. That is the nature of the RINO philosophy. To require members to be ideologically pure. It's a top-down philosophy. But political parties are supposed to generate their policies and proposals from the bottom upward.
My wife and I were both firmly in the conservative camp. William Buckley types true and true. I was the first in line to buy 'Dereliction of Duty' about Clinton.
However as the GOP morphed into a social issue driven machine I became far less interested in them. Then we both became firmly independents after Bush threw McCain under the bus on his path to the presidency. As the truth about Iraq emerged I was pretty much done with GOP and the Neo-cons.
Being a veteran I could not ever forget Bush dodging his responsibilities as a soldier, or the fact that none of his 'dream team' including Cheney ever served. Just a bunch of hypocrites as far as I'm concerned.
Then came the tea-party. Buckley is rolling over in his grave.
I'm no fan of liberalism, I'm still very fiscally conservative. I don't buy into Gov't run and mandated health care but I do buy into regulated care and tort reform.
I agree with the OP. I'm never going back unless they can become less socially driven and more fiscally minded. Playing chicken with our debt ceiling IS NOT fiscally responsible. Convincing voters that next election cycle they can fix the economic maladies and reform health care IS. And I ain't seen NONE of that.
This fish ain't buying any of their bait in the water.
No political party is perfect or ever will be. While we can all agree that the strategy employed by the GOP during this period has been flawed the fundamental fact that is inarguable is that our nation is going to be bankrupted in the not too distant future. That is a principle worth fighting for.
yep rmissourimule, no party is perfect and for anyone to believe any party is perfect is naive but Obama supporters believe Obama and his administration can do no wrong. That is very dangerous.
After WWII the US was able to tax its way out of enormous debt -- whose share of GDP continued to decline almost uninterruptedly until it reached a historic low in 1980. And we all know what happened then.
It's the extremeists who give the parties a bad reputation. We see that the red states are doing well. If we can apply the fiscal side of the righties and the openness that the lefties carry, we have a moderate country. The majority of the country is moderate. We'd be just fine.
We could get rid of Obamacare and just expand Medicaid. I don't see the point in Obamacare if Medicaid is available.
I'm going to add another point to your list. And that's the growing exclusivity of the party. The idea of ideological purity dooms a political party in our system of government. You cannot ask a party to represent the majority of people in a nation, when that same party requires its membership to be ideologically pure. That is the nature of the RINO philosophy. To require members to be ideologically pure. It's a top-down philosophy. But political parties are supposed to generate their policies and proposals from the bottom upward.
That is a very interesting paragraph. I think your opinion has real validity. I have been rather astonished over the past few years at how many stalwart Republicans are summarily dismissed by the 'pure of thought' of being RINO's. I mean, many present-day Republicans dismiss past conservative giants such as Barry Goldwater.
yep rmissourimule, no party is perfect and for anyone to believe any party is perfect is naive but Obama supporters believe Obama and his administration can do no wrong. That is very dangerous.
Actually, that is incorrect.
I'm a liberal and I believe that President Obama and his administration have done plenty wrong. I think most Obama supporters believe the same as I do.
I've always been an independent, but over the years I've vote for more Republicans than Democrats. For many of the reasons you cite, I'll probably vote straight ticket Democratic from here forward.
I have been voting mostly "R", even for president, but I don't think the nation can afford these people anymore. They have to change, or leave. I don't think I'll vote at all in 2014.
Last edited by Finn_Jarber; 10-09-2013 at 10:48 AM..
Obama supporters believe Obama and his administration can do no wrong. That is very dangerous.
Wrong. As far as I can tell, there is only one blind Obama-worshipper here on this forum. The idea that anyone who supports anything Obama does automatically supports everything he does is a classic example of projection from the cons, who have perfected the idea of "party above country." As evidence, I present the cons' reaction to the OP.
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