Another thinking Republican takes a look at his party and heads for the door.
... I simply cannot stand with a Party where its most extreme element promote hate and division amongst people. Nothing about my platform has, nor will it change. The government shutdown was simply the straw that broke the camels back. I guess being an American just isn’t good enough anymore and I refuse to be part of an extremist movement in the GOP that only appears to thrive on fear and hate mongering of anyone and everyone who doesn’t walk their line. We’ve received some wonderful support by numerous leaders and members within the NC GOP, as the vast majority of Republicans are wonderful, hard-working people that don’t agree with those radical nut-jobs either but unfortunately the extremists in the party, with their ‘burn it all down’ philosophy, appear to be the ones turning out the majority of voters in the primaries and mid-term elections. And I want the people to know there is a choice.”...
What's amazing to me is how rare this is. True conservatives ought to be repulsed by what's happened to their party, in droves. It couldn't be more clear. And yet, stories like this remain rare. That judge, and this guy. Maybe there are more; North Carolina has become a parody of itself, if what's happened there could be considered humorous in any way. But in those districts that elect the typical teabaggR -- Bachmann, Gohmert, Braun, Foxx -- the farce is strong, and it'd take an unimaginable and impossible number of people to become unblinded for it to change.
I've said it a billion times: we need a conservative party. When there's been a sane one, willing to sell its ideas in that well-known marketplace, and when they've accepted the crystal clear concept that America has worked best when two parties find a place somewhere in the middle, we've managed to make progress. Tantrum throwing and threatening real damage to the country they claim to love when they can't get their whole pie is the opposite of America and its most central political values.
So we know of two people who've come to recognize that. Anyone else ready to step up? And, mind you, it doesn't require switching parties. Getting the current iteration of Republicanism back within the earth's gravitational pull would suffice. Might even be better.
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