I posted a Facebook status about Tea Party Republican darling Allen West yesterday. A good friend of mine mused that I didn't strike him as a Republican much anymore, based on many of my recent position pieces. I wrote him a reply, after which I re-read my response to him, and it seemed like a good blog post, as several of my friends had observed something similar in me. And Lord knows the GOP hasn't given many people reason to support them in the last couple of decades. So why would I still be a Republican?
For starters, the
Republican party isn't what it used to be. I believe in generally
small government. Big government has dipped its wick in too many unnecessary
wells (usually as a means of appeasing those selling their vote), and
charged us for their misadventures - or stole outright from other wells (Social Security, for example), putting our financial security at risk. The
party differences have historically been mostly fiscal. In recent decades,
social issues have taken the forefront, when they really don't belong
there, and that has largely been at the behest of the religious right. I
have never agreed with this, because too much of the country isn't of
the same religion, and our constitution forbids catering to one
religion or establishing one on a national scale. Yet here we are.
Despite my belief in smaller government, I do believe in helping those in need, even though the scope and breadth of our system has gotten completely out of hand. We could very easily support those in need and not fiscally squeeze the life out of our economy. It may hurt people's access for a year, but we could fix it. I am in favor if fixing the system so people aren't abandoned, but our fiscal health is protected.
As social issues go, I hate the hypocrisy of my party. Republicans preach about freedom - everything they fight so ruthlessly against is in defense of liberty and freedom... unless you are a woman, in which case your freedom is how we dictate to you how it will be. You WILL submit yourself to your rapist and birth his child. You WILL NOT use contraception, lest you are a whore who enjoys sex. Sex is for your husband's pleasure and reproduction purposes only. You are a receptacle and an incubator. Live with it. GOP pols will swear to their dying breath that's not what they mean, but let's face it - unlike Democrat politicians, who wave one hand in your face while stabbing you in the back with the other, Republicans just punch you in the mouth with their attitudes. No hiding, no misdirection, just straight up misogyny, and they really don't care whether you like or agree with it. Gays should be sequestered to an island where we don't have to look at them, because they are gross. Unless it's two gorgeous women in our favorite lesbian porn - and so long as they don't want to get married. Cause how will they have children? Unless God blesses their happy home with a rapist - as God sometimes wills...
Despite my belief in smaller government, I do believe in helping those in need, even though the scope and breadth of our system has gotten completely out of hand. We could very easily support those in need and not fiscally squeeze the life out of our economy. It may hurt people's access for a year, but we could fix it. I am in favor if fixing the system so people aren't abandoned, but our fiscal health is protected.
As social issues go, I hate the hypocrisy of my party. Republicans preach about freedom - everything they fight so ruthlessly against is in defense of liberty and freedom... unless you are a woman, in which case your freedom is how we dictate to you how it will be. You WILL submit yourself to your rapist and birth his child. You WILL NOT use contraception, lest you are a whore who enjoys sex. Sex is for your husband's pleasure and reproduction purposes only. You are a receptacle and an incubator. Live with it. GOP pols will swear to their dying breath that's not what they mean, but let's face it - unlike Democrat politicians, who wave one hand in your face while stabbing you in the back with the other, Republicans just punch you in the mouth with their attitudes. No hiding, no misdirection, just straight up misogyny, and they really don't care whether you like or agree with it. Gays should be sequestered to an island where we don't have to look at them, because they are gross. Unless it's two gorgeous women in our favorite lesbian porn - and so long as they don't want to get married. Cause how will they have children? Unless God blesses their happy home with a rapist - as God sometimes wills...
The gay argument is particularly hilarious, considering the most ardent supporters of the anti-gay movement seem to have a habit of turning out to be gay. Love the Catholics, but just once I'd like to hear a GIRL say a priest molested her...
I guess my point is that the Republican party is barely Republican anymore. They are greedy hypocritical bastards who want big government when it's THEIRS. I believe government's role is supposed to be for the fiscal and military security of the nation, while the states and localities can manage the rest. Welfare, Social Security and Medicare are not anti-Republican programs. Their operations and management are, and they need to be fixed. But they should be part of the fiscal purview of the federal government, because their financial needs are too big for state to state management. The party has become a bastion of absolutes, with compromise and pragmatism being blasphemous. These days I would probably be chastised as a RINO (Republican In Name Only), but I'm waiting for my party to re-acquire the asylum from the inmates... otherwise I'll end up an independent. I voted Green party this year because Jill Stein is my kind of pragmatist, even if she's a little more liberal than I would like. I've never believed that absolutes were a good way to run a country, so my party affiliation is peripheral at best, maintained solely for the ability to vote in the primaries. I am probably more center-right than true right, and I vote based on who I think exhibits the best combination of ideas, methodology, and judgment. I wasn't sure if Barack Obama was that person in 2008, but in 2012 I was more sure that he was not. But I sure as heck know Mitt Romney wasn't, and he was never going to get my vote.
I guess my point is that the Republican party is barely Republican anymore. They are greedy hypocritical bastards who want big government when it's THEIRS. I believe government's role is supposed to be for the fiscal and military security of the nation, while the states and localities can manage the rest. Welfare, Social Security and Medicare are not anti-Republican programs. Their operations and management are, and they need to be fixed. But they should be part of the fiscal purview of the federal government, because their financial needs are too big for state to state management. The party has become a bastion of absolutes, with compromise and pragmatism being blasphemous. These days I would probably be chastised as a RINO (Republican In Name Only), but I'm waiting for my party to re-acquire the asylum from the inmates... otherwise I'll end up an independent. I voted Green party this year because Jill Stein is my kind of pragmatist, even if she's a little more liberal than I would like. I've never believed that absolutes were a good way to run a country, so my party affiliation is peripheral at best, maintained solely for the ability to vote in the primaries. I am probably more center-right than true right, and I vote based on who I think exhibits the best combination of ideas, methodology, and judgment. I wasn't sure if Barack Obama was that person in 2008, but in 2012 I was more sure that he was not. But I sure as heck know Mitt Romney wasn't, and he was never going to get my vote.
Things are going to change for the GOP in the next four years, because they have no choice. They are so close to permanent insignificance that they can't afford the same old outdated thinking. Whether I remain a member of the party will be dictated largely by what I see in the next two years. In the meantime, I will be dedicating some time to trying to eliminate the electoral college that has completely corrupted out political system and pushing for the emergence of a third and, possibly, fourth party, and eliminating soft money that has rendered smaller parties in this corrupt system insignificant. It is pure corruption, sanctioned by the Supreme Court, and it will ruin this country if we are not careful.
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