How the GOP Purged Me - Chris Currey on Frum Forum

[RamboLiberal]

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Then something happened in the 1990s. The leaders of the GOP grew belligerent. They became too religious, almost zealots. They became intolerant. They began searching for purity in Republican thought and doctrine. Ideology blinded them. I continued to vote Republican, but with a certain unease. Deep down I knew that a schism happened between the modern Republican Party and the one I grew up with. During the fight over the impeachment of President Clinton, the ugly face of the Republican Party was brought to the surface. Empty rhetoric, ideological intolerance, vengeance, and religious zealotry became the common currency. Suddenly, if you are pro-choice, you could not be a Republican. If you are for smart and sensible taxes to balance out the budget, you could not be a Republican. If you are pro-civil rights, you could not be a Republican.

It started with minorities: they left the party. Then women; they divorced the GOP and sent it to sleep on the couch. Then, the young folks; they left and are leaving the Republican Party in droves. Then, someone stood up and told my niece and my grandchild that they are not fully Americans — just second class Americans because they are homosexual. They wished hell and damnation upon my loved ones just because they are different. Are we led by priests or are we led by rational politicians? Now, we have became the party of the Old Straight White Folks. We should rename the Republican Party the OSWF rather than the GOP.

Recently, since the election of Barack Obama, common sense has left the Republican Party completely. We are in the era of craziness. As David Frum has written, a deal was there to be made over the healthcare bill. Instead, this ideological purity blinded the GOP. As LBJ said it, instead of being inside the tent pissing out, we choose to be outside the tent, pissing against the wind. And we got splashed by our own nonsense. Why did we do that? Well, when a political party shrinks its electoral based to below 30% and is composed by one demographic group, all that is left are a bunch of zealots. We shrank it by kicking out of the party those who believe that abortion should be legal but limited. We shrank it by kicking out those who believe that an $11 trillion economy, like ours, needs a strong government, not a government that can be drowned in a bathtub. We shrank it when we sanctified Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck, and canonized Sarah Palin. These are the leaders of my party nowadays. How did we go from William F. Buckley to Glenn Beck? How did we go from Eisenhower and Nixon to Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann? I do not know. What I do know, however, is that these leaders remind of me of the leaders of the Whig Party. And if they continue on their nonsense, they will bring the collapse of the GOP.

I do not recognize myself in the Republican Party anymore. As someone said it before, I did not leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me. I have the same ideological positions on most of the issues that I had when I voted for Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan and George W. Bush in 2000. However, I just cannot trust the reins of our government and nation, of this formidably complicated and complex gigantic machine that is the USA, to the amateurish leadership of the Republican Party.

http://www.frumforum.com/how-the-gop-purged-me

[RKP5637]

1. Excellent!!! The Eisenhower republicans could be worked with to come up with good

solutions for the country. You could have an Eisenhower republican as a good friend. I find the NEW republicans, frankly, un-American, ignorant and destructive, and dangerous to the well being of the country.

[ixion]

2. Actually, it happened in the 80's, in the beginning of the Neo Dark Age

brought on by Ray-Gun himself.

[RKP5637]

3. I remember the feeling so well, soon after he became king, it was akin to

a dark cloud settling on the country... Never did I realize at that time it was the beginning of a new age to last decades... I thought it would pass... how naive of me. Brainwashing a populace is so effective...

[yurbud]

4. I would have stopped that continuum at Nixon--Reagan marked the beginning the legitimizing of the

idiot fascist branch of the party.

Remember his interior secretary James Watt who said we didn't need to worry about the environment because the rapture was coming soon? He would have been perfectly comfortable in the Baby Bush administration, a Palin administration, or as a guest host for Glenn Beck.

[southernyankeebelle]

5. It started when Newt Grumbie became leader and DeLay both telling their collegues toe the line and

do what I say. As you can see they had a couple of good republicans leave because they were actually looking out for their states. Funny the north won but you wouldn't know it today by the bullying the republicans are doing as a minority. I want to know when the hell the democrats are going to start shocking them back.

[Doctor_J]

6. This could work out for us

If Fox were to be truck-bombed, for example, it could be reasonably blamed on a disgruntled Eisenhower Repuke.

[LongTomH]

7. Love that "sent it to sleep on the couch" line!

"It started with minorities: they left the party. Then women; they divorced the GOP and sent it to sleep on the couch."
:yourock: