12 September 2012

Didn’t you used to be a Republican? How can you turn your back on family values and embrace the things that are polar opposite from your core and your religion?

Hmm. Well. Yes, once upon a time I was registered as a Republican; I was also a teenager whose political viewpoint was still far from being fully formed, and it was a time when being a Republican didn’t mean being someone so willing to squash the freedoms of those who might have a life viewpoint different than mine.

Last of the True Republicans?

The Republican Party today and the Republican Party before 1980 are two completely different things. In the Reagan era and before, the Party stood for things I believed in: separation of church and state, where the Bible does not govern policy; fiscal conservatism, where government is kept small and the budget is balanced; social liberation, where it’s perfectly reasonable to have the stance that just because you don’t believe it’s moral or ethical, you accept that a woman should have the legal right to choose for herself; where religious freedom meant allowing everyone else the freedom to embrace their own beliefs, even if not remotely close to your own, because freedom of religion also means freedom from religion.

A REALLY good Republican

Today’s Republican Party is so far removed from those ideals that I can’t fathom why anyone reasonable, anyone with a modicum of education, still clings to it. I’m not interested in the extremist views of today’s Republicans, which is becoming more and more exclusive, catering to the wants of rich white men who seem to want to protect what they have more than they want to serve the people from whom they beg support. It’s become a party of extremists, who no longer value the freedoms for others that they demand for themselves. There’s an overwhelming cacophony of noise coming from the bowels of the Party, shouting loud and long that this is a Christian nation, and by God, we’re all going to practice their brand of Christianity, and to hell with what anyone else thinks or believes in.

There seems to be an ignorant—or perhaps arrogant— willingness to forget that many of the founders of this great country were atheists, and those non-believers were more than willing to protect the freedoms of others to embrace belief and live the religions of their own choosing.

But worse, if it can be worse, the Republican Party of today doesn’t appear to be acting in the best interests of the country, but rather in its own interests. Party above all, screw the country. It seems that they will do and say anything to keep President Obama from being re-elected, no matter how many lies that have to be told or truths that have to be skewered to get it done. They’re blocking bills they themselves initially supported, stumping jobs-creation that leads to higher unemployment, and they’re pushing to default on debt, which has led to the downgrading of the U.S. credit rating…and it’s all being done to forward an agenda that is not for the greater good, but for the good of the special few.

Look, you know the lies are over the top when even Fox News feels it has to point out the glaring untruths in Ryan’s convention speech.

Maybe she should run next...

So yes, I was registered as a Republican in my teen years, but you couldn’t get me to go near it with a fifty foot pole now. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t vote for a Republican; I’ll vote for the person best for the job, party affiliation notwithstanding. In the 2008 Presidential race, McCain had my vote until he brought Palin on board as his VP choice. Romney had my attention until he picked Paul Ryan. He didn’t have my vote—up to that point no one did—but he had my attention. I was far more interested in Ron Paul as a candidate, but he didn’t have the pull for the party that Romney did, apparently.

As for Romney, he seems like a personable guy. I think he’d be a lousy president and he flip flops like a fish out of water, but I’m not a fan of the way the media jumps on stupid things about him. Like his tax returns. So he won’t release them. Big deal. We all know he’s rich as hell, there’s no news to be found there. I don’t think he’s hiding money from the government or covering up unpaid taxes. If anything, he doesn’t want the LDS church to see exactly how much he’s got, because there’s that pesky tithing thing and he just might not have coughed up 10% of every single dime he’s made.

I’m just guessing on that, though. And I doubt it would be intentional, but why stir up the pot when it doesn’t need to be?

He needs to stop the borderline apologies for his wealth and stop trying to make like he and his family really know what it’s like to not have a lot. We all know his life has been more comfortable than most, even in his youth. So what? I don’t begrudge anyone their wealth. Do good things with it, be a good person, that’s all that matters.

Still…I no longer trust what the Republican Party stands for. Because from where I sit, it’s now a party of we’re right, you’re wrong, and if you don’t embrace how far to the right we now lean then you’re going to hell, and like it or not we’re taking this country back to the 50s where our women belong in the kitchen, and all those faggoty people need to go the fuck away.

It’s become—to me—a party of people who claim to be Christian and want to take the U.S. to Christian extremes, yet I see very little true Christian principles in these people. There’s a meanness there that just makes me sad. There’s a level of fear-mongering that leaves me bewildered, and—I hate to say it—a lack of education that scares me. Ignorance embraced—if you honestly believe that our President is a Muslim (not that it should matter, not if one truly believes in freedom of religion) and he was born in Kenya, yeah, you’re not the brightest bulb in the pack—terrifies me.

None of that means I’m a Democrat, either. It only means that in the post-Reagan era, the Republican Party lost my trust, and it would take a hell of a lot to get it back.

Oh, and the core of "my religion?"

Yeah, so not an organized religion kind of person.  Been there, done that, hate the hypocrisy, never again.