Why I am a Republican

[Minister of Truth]

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.

I agree with that as well. The Constitution should isolate the people from policymaking and the officials from the people's daily lives.

 

[Cancel 2018. 3]

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.

yeah, look at arnie in ca praising a budget that raises taxes....

 

[Mott the Hoople]

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

I agree. I public health approach to addiction as a disease is more sensible, humane and cost affective.

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.

Let's not forget better and more comprehensive sex education including birth control as well as respecting the right of physicians to protect their patients. Legislatures shouldn't be practicing medicine.

I want the government to stay out of the bedroom.

I guess that would depend on how freaky they are?

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.

Couldn't agree with you more.

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

Iraq was not a clear and present danger to our national security. We failed to remember the hard lessons of Vietnam again I agree.

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.

that depends on where you live. The views expressed by the present Republican party are very popular at the grass roots level in several areas I've lived, i.e. rural south and rural midwest.

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.

You would be a candidate to provide the kind of leadership the Republican party needs to reform itself. You're my kind of republican and if there were more like you I would have remained in the party.

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.

I don't know about that but I am for a lot more pragmatism and a lot less divisive ideology. The present talking heads commuincating the the Republican message who are using the Joeseph Goebbels propaganda method have to go (Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, etc.), they are an embarassment to Republicans not to mention this nation.

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.

That's a tough decision. I thought of staying in the party and changing it from with in. I gave up. Iraq was the last straw for me.

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.

Again, I couldn't agree with you more. But this is a problem that the far right has. Walking the talk. Liberty and Freedom cannot just be slogans. You have to tolerate it when it is practiced with in the law. The Republican party needs to learn that conformity at the cost of individual liberty is tyrany. They need to open their doors and be a big tent party like the Democrats or what use are they to me from a practical stand point? By being excluse and less tolerant they are rendering themselves ineffective and politically impetent.

Great Post Toby!

 

[Mott the Hoople]

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.

I don't think a new party is viable. I think the Republican party is going to be like an alcoholic who has to hit rock bottom before they go to rehab. The fact that the Republican party has lost people like me, you, topspin and are marginalzing people like Tobasco is not a good sign for the party.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

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.

OH I agree. They have made caricatures of themselves over tax cuts.

Have a bad dose of piles? Tax Cuts will fix that!

You're kids are on drugs? We'll fix that with a tax cut.

Teenage daughter pregnant? Nothing a tax cut couldn't fix.

Dog has flees. Son! Get a tax cut!!

 

[Mott the Hoople]

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.

Naa we tried that with Perot and the reform party. Remember how that turned out? No, I learned my lesson. Third party is a bad idea.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

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.

Nope. Won't work. As Tobasco pointed out, they will have to reform or become irrelevent and if they become irrelevent we won't need a third party, well need a new second party.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

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.

Errr I don't think you understand Carlin. He thought they were all full of shit. I also must point out, though also a big fan of Rand, that she convienantly misses out on the much that is wrong with aristocracies/oligarchies, authoritrainism and totalitarianism. Personally, I see no difference between a socialist, a lazzies-faire capitalist and a supply sider. They all share a commonality. There all failed economic systems and taken to extremes are evil.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Naa we tried that with Perot and the reform party. Remember how that turned out? No, I learned my lesson. Third party is a bad idea.

The reform party was basically nothing. No one ever figured out what they stood for besides protectionism, and besides, starting a third party while still using a voting system that has the vote-splitting flaw wouldn't be too smart, since you'd simply insure that you'd both lose.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Nope. Won't work. As Tobasco pointed out, they will have to reform or become irrelevent and if they become irrelevent we won't need a third party, well need a new second party.

I think it'd be a good idea for the fiscal and social conservatives to split up into two different parties and go their own way. As long as we had IRV in place, of course. Vote-splitting would kill any such attempt under our current system.

If there were two parties, then they'd both have their regional bases, and they'd both have to depend on each other, or risk the other side going into an alliance with centrists rather than stay with the other side. As it is, one side is constantly the slave to whichever is the stronger of the two.

 

[ib1yysguy]

 

[midcan5]

This made me laugh, it is reminiscent of child, eyes closing, feet dragging, but still won't go to bed. There's really nothing in the republican party for the poor soul but like the child he clings to what he knows, afraid to venture into some other place that may hold something new.

 

[Cancel10]

I think it'd be a good idea for the fiscal and social conservatives to split up into two different parties and go their own way. As long as we had IRV in place, of course. Vote-splitting would kill any such attempt under our current system.

If there were two parties, then they'd both have their regional bases, and they'd both have to depend on each other, or risk the other side going into an alliance with centrists rather than stay with the other side. As it is, one side is constantly the slave to whichever is the stronger of the two.

What you are proposing worked well in Australia (where, coincidentally, they have IRV) with the Liberal-National coalition. However I don't think it would work in the United States. Our two-party tradition is too strong.

 

[evince]

I'm one of the 'many others.'

I saw you support everything Bush did.

It just blows me away how many Rs all of the sudden now claim they did not help create this mess with their idiotic support of everything the republicans did over the last decade.

You and many others are still saying Tax cuts solve everything.

You and many others are still saying Deregulation is a great thing.

You spent years calling others here unpatriotic and other crap because we KNEW the war was an idiot move.

You created the party you now have.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

I saw you support everything Bush did.

It just blows me away how many Rs all of the sudden now claim they did not help create this mess with their idiotic support of everything the republicans did over the last decade.

You and many others are still saying Tax cuts solve everything.

You and many others are still saying Deregulation is a great thing.

You spent years calling others here unpatriotic and other crap because we KNEW the war was an idiot move.

You created the party you now have.

Well you do have some good points. I'm in the frame of mind that the Republican party has committed a sin which is very hard for me to forgive. They've been grossly incompetent.

As such, I've now become a Democrat because I expect competent governance from them as I've given up on Republicans pretty much for the reasons you've stated above.

But you are on notice. Just because I've become a Democrat does not mean the I'm going to rubber stamp a far left agenda.

 

[Cancel10]

I saw you support everything Bush did.

It just blows me away how many Rs all of the sudden now claim they did not help create this mess with their idiotic support of everything the republicans did over the last decade.

I was not one of them; I've been a firm critic of Bush since 2002. That said, I do not share your hatred for the man. I do believe his intentions were noble.

You and many others are still saying Tax cuts solve everything.

You are correct that tax cuts won't solve everything. That is why we need tax reform. Enacting a flat tax would produce more revenue and create more jobs than fiddling with the current system.

You and many others are still saying Deregulation is a great thing.

Specifically which deregulation are you referring to?

You spent years calling others here unpatriotic and other crap because we KNEW the war was an idiot move.

I did no such thing; I was against the Iraq war from its inception.

You created the party you now have.

Nonsense. The neocon establishment (i.e. PNAC) is what hijacked the party. Grassroots Republicans are an entirely different breed.

 

[Cancel10]

But you are on notice. Just because I've become a Democrat does not mean the I'm going to rubber stamp a far left agenda.

Unfortunately, the far left views Obama's victory as a mandate to do exactly that: push their far left agenda on America. They ignore survey after survey which reveals only 19% of Americans as liberal, and 35% as conservative; the plurality are centrists such as yourself which aren't interested in liberal extremism.

 

[Topspin]

you should check the percentage of democrats vs repukes

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Unfortunately, the far left views Obama's victory as a mandate to do exactly that: push their far left agenda on America. They ignore survey after survey which reveals only 19% of Americans as liberal, and 35% as conservative; the plurality are centrists such as yourself which aren't interested in liberal extremism.

That's just the base saber rattling. I just heard that raw meat shit from Old Lardass himself on CNN. Talk about not getting it. Rush sure doesn't, but then again, he doesn't have to, he's not running for office.

I didn't pay to much attention to the wingnuts when I was a Republican cause us mainstreet dudes pretty much ran the party. Now the wingnuts do and the party is screwed.

Most of the evidence I see from Obama is he's running from the center. I'm not to concerned about the far lefts saber rattling until such time as I see the Dems go off the deep end and they prove incompetent. It's too soon to see that and Obama is straddled with cleaning up the Republicans mess and it is one hell of a mess he's inherited from them.

To be honest, I'm at my wits end with Republicans. They have put us in the worst mess since Harding and Cooledges day and they are coming up with no solutions to the problem. They just rationalize there right and anyone who disagrees with them is a bleeding heart commie pinko liberal. I think it's time for them to shut up and get out of the way as I don't see anything constructive coming out of their party and they sure as hell don't have any credibility and to this day refuse to accept accountability for their fuck ups.

Maybe it is time for this nation to come up with a new party to Replace the Republican party and to end their charter and put them out to posture. Maybe they are or have become an irrelevent artifact incapable of adapting to changing times and conditions.

Don't get me wrong, the Dems are no angels and have their own faults but that does not excuse the Republicans for the messes they have largely created.

[/soapbox]

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

I'm actually not so angry at Obama anymore, seeing his new budget. It looks like this isn't going to be Clinton II after all.