Posted on 04/30/2007 6:20:56 AM PDT by kellynla
Have you ever been in one of those destructive long-term relationships that, at some point, you really just needed to end?
I'm not referring to my marriage to my lovely wife of 23 years, but to my 25-year relationship with the Republican Party. In recent years especially, I have found fewer things in common with the party. I feel used and abused. We've obviously grown in different and incompatible directions.
It's a groan-inducing cliché, I know, but it applies here: I didn't leave the party; the party left me.
I grew up in one of those East Coast Democratic households, where FDR, JFK and even LBJ were lionized, and where the GOP wasn't so much loathed as ignored. I never met an actual Republican at least anyone who admitted as much until I went away to college. I became a Republican during Ronald Reagan's first term, having been inspired by his appeals to liberty, to his recognition of the freedom-stifling aspects of big government, to his unabashed embrace of the traditions of America's founders.
Reagan never actually rolled back government, but I can forgive a failure to achieve lofty aims. I cannot forgive abandonment of those aims. And it has been obvious for years, especially under the leadership of our current Republican president and our previously Republican-controlled Congress, that the "pro-liberty" stance has become nothing more than an applause line at those syrupy Flag Day dinners.
Under Republican leadership, the federal government has expanded without even including war-related spending far more quickly than it expanded under Bill Clinton. And when it comes to security matters, Republicans have been zealous in giving the feds additional powers to trample our privacy and liberties. Republicans have been unwavering in their support for embarking on nation-building experiments
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
ping
Welcome to the club.
Expect all you want. Neither of them will pull any votes. Might as run as a libertarian!
When are the 100% Whiners going to quit doing the Democrat’s PR work on EVERY single thread and finally discover the guts to attack the Left on anything???
Want to help the Conservative Movement Freeper Whine All the Time Cacus? GET OFF OUR SIDE.
Sounds like it’s time for Greenhut to cut and run.
OK, good luck signing up enough Hispanic Catholics to make up the difference. ;)
Hunter will not run 3rd party. But he sure as hell should be getting all conservative’s support in this primary.
At this point I’m willing to accept real border enforcement and real punishment for illegal employers combined with an increase in deportations. Removing the incentives for illegals and employers will send a lot of them on their way.
People need to understand we are at war for the very soul of this country. In order to begin the purge of the RINO’s, we absolutely need to win one more major battle. We MUST take back the supreme court. Once that is done, i can stop holding my nose, and begin the purge. Please guys and gals, we the supreme court first. This is the one thing GWB has gotten right ( he tried once to screw it up, but we, the base, caught him ) so, hold your noses one last time, and we will get the court back. Those old geezer libs are gonna retire or die from old age soon. One more time, please....

Steven Greenhut: Archives
It’s a distinct possibility, and a worrisome one. Giuliani as the GOP nominee stands a very good chance of shearing the right wing off the party, especially once more people see past the initial glow of “yeah! he’s kicking ass!” and realize that his social stands are much closer to the Democrats’ than they are to those of the Republican mainstream, much less to those of conservatives like us.
The Republicans CANNOT win the Presidency by nominating a liberal. You can’t out-liberal Hillary or Obama. Nominate a conservative, stick to the basic core principles that made the party great under Ronaldus Magnus, and then get out there and fight. Sell the product.
}:-)4
Ronaldus Maximus had a Democrat-controlled Congress to work with. The GOP had all the pieces in place, for the first time, going into 2000. But the GOP power brokers got the worker bees to nominate a big-government, moderate POTUS candidate once again.
The GOP is a one-trick pony. All they know how to do is run against extreme liberals, not for principles. Every campaign season, it's the same mantra: "We not as bad as the Democrats!" You'd think by '06 they would have learned how sick we folks in flyover country are of that pablum. But they still drew the wrong lessons, and let the MSM convince them the '06 defeat was all about the war in Iraq. Oh well. .
I stopped being a GOP enabler several years ago. If Fred Thompson is not the nominee, then I'll "waste" my vote on the Constitution Party, and I'm not alone. If enough people believe as we do, maybe a viable third pary will arise. Maybe not. But maybe what the country needs is another lesson in the stark, practical differences between liberal and conservative principles, as per Carter and Reagan. The momentary discomfort of a Dem govenrment would be better than continuing to march towards socialism, as we have been under GOP "leadership."
That's your song and dance now but the closer we get to election day I expect your tune and the tune of other kool-aid drinkers to start saying that disaffected conservatives will cost the GOP the election.
Which will it be?
No votes, or cost the election?
Hunter or Tancredo, this years Patrick J. Buchanan. And they will have just about the same effect on the outcome of the election.
And now all we hear is, "don't blame me for Reid and Pelosi" and “show me the evidence that Conservatives/Republicans didn’t show up for the mid-terms”.
Good grief. Another brilliant "lets teach em a lesson" political move by rightwing constituencies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.