Thursday, June 14, 2012

Another One Sees The Light


Dribs and drabs: surely not enough to make a difference. But, as we watch the country devolve into willful stupidity and denialism, buying into the lies and distortion of Fox "news," the RWS™, and their "he's all we got left so let's go with him" prevaricator in chief, it's nice to know that among those remaining conservatives with functioning brains, truth can still find a way:

I’m a life-long Republican. My political affiliation has been woven intrinsically into the very fabric of my being.

...

... As an adult, I continued to be a rock-solid Republican- I helped run my law school’s chapter of the Federalist Society and its Republican club. And after the election of President Obama in 2008, I served as an officer in my state Republican Party. ...

Today, however, I am a registered Republican no longer.

I came to the decision to leave the GOP not with a heavy heart, but with a broken one.

...

As a local GOP official after President Obama’s election, I had a front-row seat as it became infected by a dangerous and virulent form of political rabies.

In the grip of this contagion, the Republican Party has come unhinged. Its fevered hallucinations involve threats from imaginary communists and socialists who, seemingly, lurk around every corner. Climate change- a reality recognized by every single significant scientific body and academy in the world- is a liberal conspiracy conjured up by Al Gore and other leftists who want to destroy America. Large numbers of Republicans- the notorious birthers- believe that the President was not born in the United States. Even worse, few figures in the GOP have the courage to confront them.

Republican economic policies are also indefensible. ... one only has to look at Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget to see that.

In the end, it offers a dystopian vision of our future- a harsher, crueler and more merciless America starkly divided between the riders, and the ridden....
... Among all the difficult truths I’ve had to face, perhaps none has been harder than the realization that I, and those dissidents like me, are unrepresentative outliers far removed from, and largely unable to influence, the main currents of opinion within the GOP.

Ultimately, leaving the GOP was necessary in order to maintain my own integrity. Leaving is also a public act of personal protest. ...

Perhaps, one day, a reformed and responsible Republican Party will reemerge....


Well, one can hope. As I've written many times, the country needs a functioning conservative party, one that offers real ideas, is committed to finding solutions, and is willing to seek middle ground for the good of the country. What inhabits the corpse now, though, is entirely the opposite; and it's beyond my understanding that seemingly intelligent people try to defend it, refuse to see it, or just ignore it. Because, I assume, securing a future is less important to them than getting rid of the black guy, or because they can't stand the idea of marriage equality, even when none has shown any way it affects them personally. Or maybe it's because they long so much for the days of yore, when white folks reigned supreme, that they figure if they just wish everything else away, it'll go back to when everyone else knew their place. You tell me. I just can't figure it out.

The economic positions of the current R party are dishonest and based on falsehoods; their ballistic foreign policy -- at least that of the advisers surrounding The Rominee -- are dangerous. Their rejection of science and of all forms of expertise is a national embarrassment. And yet, when Republican readers of this blog -- who, by definition, are intelligent consumers of information -- brave the waters and leave comments, they show zero willingness to see the light, unlike the writer in question.
It's one thing -- a once noble thing -- to be a conservative; it's something altogether different to claim allegiance to today's Republican party, a party clearly gone mad, in a world where there's more than enough madness already.


5 comments:

  1. It's hard for you to figure it out because you're thinking with your brain, not your gut. Then you're compounding your error by assuming others are doing more or less the same thing.

    But being part of a cult, which is essentially what the Republican party has become, is so seductive because you can dispense with rational analysis, which is hard work. Much easier to go with your gut.

    Plus being part of a holy war, which is what passes for political discourse these days has become, gives one a sense of importance and virtue that can't be underestimated.

    Nice to see that someone managed to break away from the cult, but it's a little early in the game to declare that reason will hold sway this election season. I'd very much like to think so, but it's going to be way more interesting than it should.

    Painless

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Days of Yore when White Folk rained Surpreme"??????
    You mean like in YOUR Blue enlightened State??
    Which out of 168 US Senators/Congressmen/Governor/SurpremeCourt Judges/State Senators/State Represenatives..has a total of (wait for it)
    ONE AFRO AMERICAN(a State Represenative, Norm Rice)
    Thats right, one out of 168, wow, thats like less than 1%.
    And Seattle hasn't had a Black Mayor since back when you still had an NBA team.
    While MY Red-Neck State has more Black elected officials than you could shake a stick at(53 at last count)not that I'd actually shake a stick at any...
    and Atlanta hasn't NOT had a Black Mayor since Hammerin Hank Aaron hit #715 in 1974...

    Seriously, ONE black elected official in the whole state? I'd consider movin there if it wasn't for that whole 350 days of rain/year...

    Frank

    ReplyDelete
  3. I know it's hard to believe, Frankie, but you missed the point.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Frankie always does....Pat

    ReplyDelete
  5. But in missing Sid's point, he made mine.

    Painless

    ReplyDelete

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