Why I am a Republican

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Independent Thinker
I am opposed to the war on drugs; we must focus our efforts on addiction.

While I hate abortion, I am also pragmatic. Abortion should remain legal during the first trimester. Reducing the number of abortions can be achieved through various reforms and incentives, such as more flexible adoption laws.

I want the government to stay out of the bedroom.

I believe prostitution should be legal, regulated, and taxed. Same goes for marijuana. And as a conservationist, I think the government has a legitimate role in preserving our natural assets for future generations.

I opposed the invasion of Iraq from the beginning. For the most part, I think America should mind its own business.

So why am I a member of the Republican Party?

First, make no mistake, the current GOP leadership does not represent the values of your typical, grassroots Republican. In my county chapter, I have several friends who are in agreement with me on the issues mentioned above. Some are in fact more libertarian-esque than I in their political views.

In other words, I am firmly convicted that the foundation of the party is dedicated to the advancement of individual liberty, even while the national leadership is not.

Secondly, I do believe there will come a revival of classical/paleoconservative thought at the national level, and I want to be a part of it when it happens. The Republican Party is the best, most realistic vehicle for this peaceful revolution.

Thirdly, where else have I to go? The only other realistic option would be the Democrat Party. But it would seem the only "freedoms" Democrats care about are abortion and homosexuality; I wish to be associated with neither. Furthermore, they've shown no commitment whatsoever to fiscal restraint; their only commitment is total enslavement of the American working and middle-class to the bureaucratic welfare/entitlement state, to which I am adamantly opposed.

Ultimately, I believe freedom works. Let people live as they please, so long as they do not harm others. Liberty is the foundation of our country and precisely what made ours the greatest, most powerful nation on the face of the earth. And it is my utmost hope, prayer and expectation that the Republican Party will return to these simple principles.

That is why I am a Republican, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
 
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You, like many others, have been left behind by the new & improved republican party.

Either the party needs to go back to its roots or a new party needs to be formed from what is left after the debacle of the last 8 years.
 
Yeah you sound like what the national party is most against. Many party switchers were because of your first few points.
I thought you were gonna say you were a fat white old dude or a redneck who hates blacks.
 
Tabasco said:
I am opposed to the war on drugs; we must focus our efforts on addiction.

While I hate abortion, I am also pragmatic. Abortion should remain legal during the first trimester. Reducing the number of abortions can be achieved through various reforms and incentives, such as more flexible adoption laws.

I want the government to stay out of the bedroom.

I believe prostitution should be legal, regulated, and taxed. Same goes for marijuana. And as a conservationist, I think the government has a legitimate role in preserving our natural assets for future generations.

I opposed the invasion of Iraq from the beginning. For the most part, I think America should mind its own business.
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This is the kind of thing that will get people into government.

Unfortunately you still have a civil war to fight with people like, to pick someone at random, Ice Dancer, who is convinced that you're just not conservative enough as a party.

Personally, i hope you lot win the battle and drag your party out of the 19th century. Let the bloodbath begin.
 
I think a lot of it has to do with what issues are pressing at the moment.

If we are afraid of being attacked (whether real or media hype), we look to the group that offers us a strong protective stance.

If our economy is tanking, we look to the group that claims to have the answers, or just to a new group because the old one fucked up so bad.

If Obama's policies don't cause a turn-around in the economy, I think the conservatives have a chance in 2010 & 2012.

Whether they use that chance to bring about fiscal responsibility or to continue to rant against homosexuality is what will decide whether they return to power or fade into history.
 
Solitary said:
You, like many others, have been left behind by the new & improved republican party.

Either the party needs to go back to its roots or a new party needs to be formed from what is left after the debacle of the last 8 years.
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"Improved"?

Are you serious?

Immie
 
I don't think Republicans of late have shown any commitment to fiscal restraint. The spending of the Bush years has been discussed at length, but even w/ the new Congress, I don't see their fiscal sense. One of their priorities for a stimulus package - which did get implemented somewhat - was large credits for new car & home buyers, which ends up giving 10's of millions to people who are buying a car or home anyway. They fail to see how making gov't buildings green creates jobs & saves money. Tax cuts are great, but they continue to insist that tax cuts are the only answer right now, when the vast majority of economists disagree - even those on the conservative side & associated w/ the Bush admin.

Their math & fiscal skills are abysmal.
 
Tabasco said:
I am opposed to the war on drugs; we must focus our efforts on addiction.

While I hate abortion, I am also pragmatic. Abortion should remain legal during the first trimester. Reducing the number of abortions can be achieved through various reforms and incentives, such as more flexible adoption laws.

I want the government to stay out of the bedroom.

I believe prostitution should be legal, regulated, and taxed. Same goes for marijuana. And as a conservationist, I think the government has a legitimate role in preserving our natural assets for future generations.

I opposed the invasion of Iraq from the beginning. For the most part, I think America should mind its own business.

So why am I a member of the Republican Party?

First, make no mistake, the current GOP leadership does not represent the values of your typical, grassroots Republican. In my county chapter, I have several friends who are in agreement with me on the issues mentioned above. Some are in fact more libertarian-esque than I in their political views.

In other words, I am firmly convicted that the foundation of the party is dedicated to the advancement of individual liberty, even while the national leadership is not.

Secondly, I do believe there will come a revival of classical/paleoconservative thought at the national level, and I want to be a part of it when it happens. The Republican Party is the best, most realistic vehicle for this peaceful revolution.

Thirdly, where else have I to go? The only other realistic option would be the Democrat Party. But it would seem the only "freedoms" Democrats care about are abortion and homosexuality; I wish to be associated with neither. Furthermore, they've shown no commitment whatsoever to fiscal restraint; their only commitment is total enslavement of the American working and middle-class to the bureaucratic welfare/entitlement state, to which I am adamantly opposed.

Ultimately, I believe freedom works. Let people live as they please, so long as they do not harm others. Liberty is the foundation of our country and precisely what made ours the greatest, most powerful nation on the face of the earth. And it is my utmost hope, prayer and expectation that the Republican Party will return to these simple principles.

That is why I am a Republican, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
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To Paraphrase the great Msr. Jefferson, so long as it does not pick my pocket or break my leg what do I care what my neighbor does. If I don't care then neither should the government.
 
Solitary said:
You, like many others, have been left behind by the new & improved republican party.

Either the party needs to go back to its roots or a new party needs to be formed from what is left after the debacle of the last 8 years.
Click to expand...

The party will be faced with two options: return to its roots, or continue fading into irrelevancy. A new party isn't a bad idea, but only for the sake of influencing the GOP (a larger, more powerful LP might accomplish this). But I don't believe a new party will achieve any significant electoral success in the near future.
 
Well, Tab, the problem is that the south controls the Republican party. While the elect a majority of your reps, they will always control the Republican party. The only option I'd see for the more libertarian-esque Republicans in the west and north would be to institute IRV and make a splinter party, in coalition with either the Republicans or Democrats as you see fit.
 
Who knows, evangelical conservatism's got to go out of style eventually. It certainly doesn't seem to have a strong following on the internet (at least to the sites I go to).

And Watermark, I would have to say that George Carlin is incorrect. Everyone knows that the most pretentious set of political beliefs ever is Socialism: Elitist, exclusionist, condescending and miserably pessimistic. Ayn Rand was kinda messed up, but I have to give her props for her portrayal of Socialists in The Fountainhead. Elsworth Toohey personifies everything that's wrong with Socialism.
 
I fit into all four of your categories of a socialist, Famov, and I am a paleoconservative. I happen to believe that the American public is ignorant, stupid, petty, morally bankrupt, and generally unfit to govern itself, except through elected representatives who are as isolated from its scrutiny and influence as possible.
 
I do think that most people, in American society or any other, are uninformed. But I also think that it is their responsibility to make their own decisions, even if they're the wrong ones.

As far as the common person being in charge of public policy, I would say that our basic rights should be independent of public opinion and unchangeable by them (or our representatives). Hence, any law infringing on the Bill of Rights is automatically illegal. People could not vote guns or books illegal because of some mindless panic due to a school shooting or Harry Potter. In that sense it initially make the US constitution seem elitist because its most basic laws were created by a small group of old men a couple hundred years ago, and no one else has a say in it. But it isn't.

There is nothing elitist about having the ability to choose, or having laws that give the individual the ability to choose. The reason I labeled Socialism as I did is because the governing structure has complete control over what happens in the private sector. It makes decisions based on the perceived common good and what will help the most people (and that's only if this hypothetical Socialist government is acting ideally). The lack of faith that the individual can choose what's best for themselves is what makes Socialism such a miserable idealogy.

A paleoconservative doesn't seem like the type of person to believe that sort of thing.

Also, I'm sure that the average politician has made more morally ambiguous decisions due to his position of power than the average American. It's why everything they do should be subject to constant public scrutiny.
 
Which is why I love the Constitution. It guarantees people their rights and freedoms (chief goal of the American experiment) while, initially, isolating them from policy-making, and basically, the opportunity to vote their freedoms away in the pursuit of easy money.

Beginning with the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian revolutions in democracy, the protections of the Constitution to these interests began to crumble, and the American experiment began to fail. 172 years after Jackson left office, we sit upon the ruins of this experiment, very much debased and very far removed from the early Republic of 1789-1801.
 
Threedee said:
I fit into all four of your categories of a socialist, Famov, and I am a paleoconservative. I happen to believe that the American public is ignorant, stupid, petty, morally bankrupt, and generally unfit to govern itself, except through elected representatives who are as isolated from its scrutiny and influence as possible.
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The American public should be as isolated from the scrutiny and influence of its elected representatives as possible, not the other way around. Most people are very ignorant when it comes to policy matters but far more capable of running their own lives than some central decision makers.
 
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