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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.
Specifically, tell us what are your top 5 issues and what your stand is on them.
I'll go first to show you what I mean:
1. The federal budget - We need to have a balanced budget law where the only time it is broken is when Congress declares war.
2. The role of the federal government - I believe that the federal government should only be in control of the things spelled out in the Constitution and that everything else be the role of the state and local governments.
3. Federal taxes - I want our federal taxes to be shifted to a sales tax based system.
4. Local property taxes - much like our federal taxes, I want the property tax system replaced with a sales tax based system.
5. Immigration - I want to see our border secured prior to anything else and hold companies that hire illegals accountable by charging the people running the company with criminal charges and sending them to jail.
Now, based upon my 5 issues, neither party exactly fits what I want, but the Republicans are closer than the Democrats (even though they are still a long way off).
EDIT: I don't want to debate my points. The idea of my post if for people, specifically those who say they have switched voting to the other party, to show where their ideals fall to show why they vote for the party they are. Personally, I believe the vast majority of people who say they've switched their party allegiance is full of crap. I believe that most who claim to do it are liars or are so ignorant that they aren't voting for philosophy but for a team that they cheer.
It's probably not intended to make a point, but rather to serve notice. I left the GOP myself in 2003 after over 20 years of sticking with the GOP through thick and thin. I'm still in regular contact with friends I made while volunteering in the GOP. Some of them have left, too.
I understand leaving the party but these are all position and talking points of the Dem's. I've slammed the GOP over many things. I've refused to vote for their candidate for president over the last few elections.
But not because I was a conservative and the GOP supports conservative positions.
Wow, took only one post before one of their fellow conservatives threw the OP under the Bus, happens everytime a real conservative points out the lunacy so common in the GOP these days.
Which position that I've long held here make me a conservative? Is it my support for Occupy? How about the legalization of weed and gay marriage? Maybe it's my position against the death penalty and endless wars? Could that be it? No, perhaps my arguments for the end of welfare for Wall Street?
This is exactly what I'm talking about. When you people hear something you don't like you immediately claim insincerity or lable those who evolve in their positions as RINO's.
You can absolutely evolve your positions but none of these are or ever were positions the GOP held.
Obviously I am not a supporter of Obama and never have been. Having said that, it wasn't supposed to be like this. As much as Jimmy Carter was despised by many during the latter days of his term it wasn't because he was trying to be political. I do believe he was trying to do the right thing as he saw it.
What really gets my goat is when Obama talks (and I do listen to him) is that it seemingly one campaign speech after another. I've heard all of this stuff before. His long speech yesterday was rambling, and almost incoherent. I don't need to know how much he hates the Republicans or particular individuals. I don't need to hear about the Koch Brothers or these other boogiemen trotted out to trash. What I would like to know is how and when he is going to get the economy out of the ditch.
We have an economy that is sick. I've seen it in so many ways. An economy that is booming will cover a multitude of sins like a new coat of paint in a house. But right now all I see are the holes in the walls, the mess we have created for ourselves with a government that finds new and better ways to waste taxpayer money.
When 80+% of people say they fear the government we have a problem. This is not America as I knew it in previous years. An average citizen should have the expectation that they are being told the essential truths and they don't need to hear others being castigated for the nation's wrongs. We have a problem right here in River City and this isn't going to cut it.
I was thinking the other day that perhaps the Republicans just ought to throw in the towel and give Obama everything he wants. Just end it. Then he will own it. And if and when Obamacare becomes so unmanageable and destructive, the 2014 elections will straighten things out. If it is hugely successful, he will rightly get the credit. If it blows up in his face he will see the results when the Democrats are wiped out in the mid term elections.
A little history is worth noting. In 1980 Reagan was overwhelmingly elected. In 1984 he was given a 49 state sweep with just the home state of Minnesota voting for Mondale although I have always considered Mondale to be an honorable man. When FDR took over in 1932 the economy was awful; horrible. And he made a lot of mistakes but when he died and at the end of the war we were at 1/2% unemployment. That's why he is regarded as a great president, even by those who didn't agree with him. He was OUR president during perilous times. Can we say the same of Obama?
This was not his promise. There is an old saying worth repeating. Over deliver and under promise. He would do well to tend to his duties as president and spend less time on the campaign trail. It is getting a little shopworn I should think.
There are a litany of reasons liberals are unhappy with Obama. I would imagine that the list varies from liberal to liberal as well. But I think this thread is about the Republican Party, how it has changed over the past several decades, and how those changes have eased out lifelong Republicans. Newberry listed particular changes that he personally did not agree with. I added a change to the list because I felt it was pertinent. Ideological purity is not a characteristic of a majority party. Logically, it cannot be.
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.
McCain was firmly behind Iraq. This is something I don't understand. How can you say you left something because of a position but then say you support someone that held the same position?
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.
congrats...
it will take people like you to actually change the depraved devolution of the Republicans. they have to realize there are political costs of their nihilism.
too bad that so many repugs are repugs mainly because of hate (you know of blacks (thugs and welfare queens), hispanics (illegals with calves the size of cantelopes), gays, women (who choose to take charge of their healthcare), etc) which allows them to wholly subscribe to bumper sticker slogans that really have no specific meaning.
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