I am a white heterosexual male who falls into the highest tax bracket and am an unabashed liberal, and perhaps as important a reason as any for it is that I cannot ever agree with the discriminatory/oppressive platform of the GOP with regard to social and civil/human rights issues. But I have always admired and respected certain aspects of the conservative ideology, especially when it came to fiscal conservatism. I may not always agree with all of it, but I respected it.
With that, I wanted to share my thoughts as to what I think is most wrong with the Republican party, and why I have come to actively and profoundly dislike the GOP in recent years. From my standpoint, it comes down to the point that I believe the GOP has for the last decade or so, from a collective action and blueprint standpoint, solely been focused on acting in a fashion that expands its power. Domestically, it has focused all action on attempts to set up "a permanent political majority" and internationally, it has focused on becoming the sole permanent world power with military dominance over key and fleeting world resources as part of the "Project for a New American Century". This is the teaching/script of Karl Rove and the Neo-cons at American Enterprise Institute and is evident in the Republican's stated domestic and foreign agenda; and unfortunately, this has resulted in selfish action aimed at furthering that goal without regard to principle or consequence.
The GOP of today is not interested in carrying out its elected function as a government, or staying true to its stated conservative pricniples, or to tending to the needs of the electorate; More to the point, it is not interested in fixing the actual problems that plague or threaten the country; it is solely interested in figuring out how best to present and repackage a problem as a launching point to settle a score or undermine a potential threat to its desire to stay in power and build its permanent majority. There are many case studies to support this thesis, but nowhere is this more manifest than in looking at how the GOP has responded to three recent crises during the Bush presidency - the most elections (2000-08, including mid-terms) and real issues of voter disenfranchisement/suppression/fraud, 9/11 and the "War Against Terror", and the recent economic crisis. In each instance the response by the GOP was transparently hypocritical and not designed to solve the actual problem, but to further its own selfish interests.
With regard to voter issues - rather than try to fix issues of gerrymandering, suppression, fraud or disenfranchisement, the GOP chose to repackage this real issue and present it as a problem solely caused by ACORN. It's one thing to hear Mark Levin and the right wing nut jobs talk about this - but to hear John McCain call ACORN the greatest threat to the fabric of democracy is beyond the pale. The ridiculousness of this assertion has been debunked numerous times, including recently by Governor Crist of Fla, and Attorney Generals from various States. Voter registration fraud is not equivalent to voter fraud (Mickey Mouse ain't showing up to the polls). And any fraud perpetrated is a statistically insignificant issue (NY Times has an article on this today: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/opinion/17fri1.html?ref=opinion  and Josh Marshall covers it all the time in TPM). The real problems that we need to deal with is redrawing electoral maps, voter suppression, and voter fraud b/c of faulty voting mechanisms - but none of those will help the GOP. So instead, we have this incessant railing on about ACORN. And no one mentions that the true reason the GOP wants ACORN out is because it's very successful at enabling a group of unattended and disenfranchised voters to exercise their constitutional right to vote - and they tend to be overwhelmingly democratic.
With regard to 9/11 - it's now well documented, but the problem and the issue to address with 9/11 was a way to defeat Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda and handle Islamic Extremism. What the GOP instead decided to do was to distract us from Al Qeda, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and instead sell us a bill of goods on Iraq (and they're trying hard with Iran) because of their desire to defeat hostile governments and set up permanent bases or a presence in those places as the world continues its desperate fight for the limited natural resources still left. And the consequences of that have obviously been disastrous - whether it be in undermining our security, allowing Al Qaeda to rebuild, devastating our economy, inflaming tensions and helping recruitment for Islamic Radicals, etc.
With regard to the Economic Crisis - no one truly understands the entirety of what's going on, but we all get that the issues related to greed and unregulated/unfettered actions by banks/firms on Wall St., and the spread and multiplication of derivatives and mortgage-backed-securities and other instruments that were repackaged, bundled and resold time and again without any regard to their relationship to the actual tangible thing of value to which they were supposedly tied. The Stock Market had stopped trading on capital and actual goods, and was now solely speculating based on ascribed value. What the GOP did in response to the crisis was not to try to fix the underlying problems - but they affixed blame on Democrats and Fannie and Freddie; again, all a transparent ploy to try to keep their power. Everyone who has looked at the issue understands that Fannie and Freddie have really the most remote connection to the actual problem at hand, but the GOP needed to focus there because blaming the Dems and those institutions allowed them to argue for staying in power or getting rid of institutions that helped empower folks who had democratic leanings.
The most astounding aspect of this whole thing is that no one is pointing it out. Their playbook of hypocrisy is transparent - we're just not paying attention or calling them on it.
We have seen the ACORN thing tried before - that was the whole genesis of the Attorney Firings Scandal because Bush-appointed State Attorneys looked into this issue pushed by the GOP and decided rightly that there was nothing to the voter fraud allegations (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/237825.php). But because they told the truth - they were fired. So now the GOP is at it again.
With regard to Iraq - anyone who reads the writings and thesis of the AEI and Project for New American Century -
(Read it and see who the project members were: http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf it will literally send chills down your spine") -
will see that Iraq and Iran has been what they've been after all along and the travesty of 9/11 is that the unforgettable tragedy dulled us to the neo-cons and allowed them to get their "pearl harbor" (see p. 63) and enact their agenda.
With regard to the housing crisis - it's no secret that Republicans have been after these institutions for years, and now they're trying to use it as the scapegoat to get rid of the institutions and blame the dems. A good analysis, here: http://www.delawareliberal.net/2008/09/28/republican-talking-point-smackdown-freddie-mac-and-fannie-mae-are-not-responsible-for-the-meltdown/.
So where does that leave us?
I'm disgusted with the Republican Party. I'm disgusted that politicians elected to serve our interests don't actually do anything to help us, but only focus on their power-grabbing agendas. Mostly, I'm disgusted that we have let all this happen even though the playbook is right before our eyes.
I have hope though. I hope the polls are right. I hope that I'm right. I hope that that the Conservatives who are starting to see the light and repudiating the Bush/Cheney/Rove tactis stick to their guns. I hope that we have a landslide victory -not only because I believe in Barack Obama and his policies - but because it may drive the GOP to self-examination and abandonment of Rovian politics - a return to the commendable conservative principles that I can disagree with on an ideological perspective. The country needs both parties - we will be better off for it.