Why I Hate Being A Republican - Yet Joined The Party Anyway.
There is a lot of movement among voters this year. Republicans spitting one last time in disgust before tearing up their card and becoming democrats. Independents who needed to register democrat to vote for their candidate in the primary. New voters entering the fray because a candidate came along who asked them to do so.
I would hazard a guess that not too many people are joining the republican party, though.
I registered republican for the first time in my life in August, despite the criminals currently in charge of the party and their culpability in our country's horribly weak and vulnerable position. I registered republican because of people in my life who I respected immensely and didn't really come to understand until I stopped debating them over methodology and started listening to their actual long-term goals for the country.
Most of them believe in conservation and education and some sort of socialized medical system to make American businesses more competitive on a global market. These are smart and accomplished people with good hearts and high morals standards who are registered republicans nonetheless.
I registered republican because of my sister and brother-in-law who first supported Ron Paul and then switched to Obama for the general because of their belief in taking this country to a more state-centric union. That is what the Constitution was supposed to be, not an unaccountable and imperialsistic federal government. At least if you are a follower of the first republican president - Thomas Jefferson.
I joined because of people like stillidealistic and witty1 and the few others around TPM who claimed republican roots yet displayed uncommon wisdom and insight into the issues. They were dismayed by the same things as I am. They were passionate about many of the same things. They didn't offer anger and derission the same measure as those on the left-side of the spectrum did. There is something about your party going down in flames that makes a person humble and for those republicans in flux, there was a humility and willingness to forget the past that was refreshing.
Humility combined with confidence is something I respect.
I registered republican because Barack Obama seems to recognize that we need both liberal and conservative methods to institute sustainable changes. This country has been pretty evenly divided between conservative and liberals for much of its history. Sometimes those two halves come together and do something great, like in 1932. Sometimes it isn't so great, like 1980. But when it really works, America can do great things with both sides of our nature represented in our politics.
I registered republican because Barack Obama gave me the confidence and the awareness to realize I am much more conservative than I had originally thought. I don't want a revolution. I don't think we have time for that shit. 40 years ago? Perhaps, but a different generation of young people dropped the ball. Today we need evolution. We need to pursue many paths toward progressive changes, driven by smart and pragmatic thinkers on the left and right. We need to use all of our tools - public and private - in a way to maximise our effectiveness a nation. We need to quit using political parties as a way to bludgeon each other.
I became a republican because I think there is a movement in the GOP to be grand again. There is a movement to take Ike and Teddy and Abe as our examples instead of Nixon and Reagan and Bush. That movement should be encouraged. I also encourage moderate democrats to become republicans if they think the far left of their party is a little too eratic and not as results oriented as it should be. Together with the existing progressive movement in the GOP can allow us to craft more conservative methodology to attain our larger goals as a nation.
Perhaps the democrats could use more pragmatism when deciding how we are going to do all these huge and seemingly impossible tasks over the next ten years. Perhaps the fact that many republicans are also ones with access resources can help aid in that effort. They have a vested interest in America being great again and a case can be made that they need to step up to the palte and do the right thing.
It makes sense that the more people we have focused on the same goal, the more liekly our chances of success are.
The only way "they" win is we keep working at cross-purposes as a voting public. The only way that atmosphere continues is if we leave the republican party in the hands of neoconservatives. Progressive moderates of good will and common sense must register regpublican and get better candidates through the primaries. There is only about 18% turnout nationally for primaries, so the numbers aren't huge to make drastic change. This project is worthwhile and doable, so there is an obligation to try to change the GOP into something more productive than an obstructionist roadblock to political success.
That is why I joined the republican party, even though I hate everything that the brand currently stands for. All things change. Millions of republicans just like me can be the catalysts of that change. I am patient and can look out over the next five to ten election cycles. I am also tied of the anger and hate coming from the left-side of the country. They have preached tolerance and love and peace for all these eyars and a little blood in the water is allit takes for them to start stringing up "repugnicans" from teh nearst tree. No thanks. I want no part of such mindless vindictiveness.
I do ask that all the good republicans consider staying in the party. Without every progressive republican a really, really hard task becomes next to impossible. The democrats don't need you. They have started tossing the DLC stooges who kept them from making the progressive changes we needed. Right now the GOP is ripe for takeover, but only if all progressive republicans stay and the ones who left come back. Your country needs you to not leave the only other major political party in this country int he hands of zealots. It will make the changes Barack wants much harder to manage. He must have committed republicans pushing their representatives to support progressive reforms.
Barack cannot do this with democrats and independents alone.
That is why I registered republican.
I would hazard a guess that not too many people are joining the republican party, though.
I registered republican for the first time in my life in August, despite the criminals currently in charge of the party and their culpability in our country's horribly weak and vulnerable position. I registered republican because of people in my life who I respected immensely and didn't really come to understand until I stopped debating them over methodology and started listening to their actual long-term goals for the country.
Most of them believe in conservation and education and some sort of socialized medical system to make American businesses more competitive on a global market. These are smart and accomplished people with good hearts and high morals standards who are registered republicans nonetheless.
I registered republican because of my sister and brother-in-law who first supported Ron Paul and then switched to Obama for the general because of their belief in taking this country to a more state-centric union. That is what the Constitution was supposed to be, not an unaccountable and imperialsistic federal government. At least if you are a follower of the first republican president - Thomas Jefferson.
I joined because of people like stillidealistic and witty1 and the few others around TPM who claimed republican roots yet displayed uncommon wisdom and insight into the issues. They were dismayed by the same things as I am. They were passionate about many of the same things. They didn't offer anger and derission the same measure as those on the left-side of the spectrum did. There is something about your party going down in flames that makes a person humble and for those republicans in flux, there was a humility and willingness to forget the past that was refreshing.
Humility combined with confidence is something I respect.
I registered republican because Barack Obama seems to recognize that we need both liberal and conservative methods to institute sustainable changes. This country has been pretty evenly divided between conservative and liberals for much of its history. Sometimes those two halves come together and do something great, like in 1932. Sometimes it isn't so great, like 1980. But when it really works, America can do great things with both sides of our nature represented in our politics.
I registered republican because Barack Obama gave me the confidence and the awareness to realize I am much more conservative than I had originally thought. I don't want a revolution. I don't think we have time for that shit. 40 years ago? Perhaps, but a different generation of young people dropped the ball. Today we need evolution. We need to pursue many paths toward progressive changes, driven by smart and pragmatic thinkers on the left and right. We need to use all of our tools - public and private - in a way to maximise our effectiveness a nation. We need to quit using political parties as a way to bludgeon each other.
I became a republican because I think there is a movement in the GOP to be grand again. There is a movement to take Ike and Teddy and Abe as our examples instead of Nixon and Reagan and Bush. That movement should be encouraged. I also encourage moderate democrats to become republicans if they think the far left of their party is a little too eratic and not as results oriented as it should be. Together with the existing progressive movement in the GOP can allow us to craft more conservative methodology to attain our larger goals as a nation.
Perhaps the democrats could use more pragmatism when deciding how we are going to do all these huge and seemingly impossible tasks over the next ten years. Perhaps the fact that many republicans are also ones with access resources can help aid in that effort. They have a vested interest in America being great again and a case can be made that they need to step up to the palte and do the right thing.
It makes sense that the more people we have focused on the same goal, the more liekly our chances of success are.
The only way "they" win is we keep working at cross-purposes as a voting public. The only way that atmosphere continues is if we leave the republican party in the hands of neoconservatives. Progressive moderates of good will and common sense must register regpublican and get better candidates through the primaries. There is only about 18% turnout nationally for primaries, so the numbers aren't huge to make drastic change. This project is worthwhile and doable, so there is an obligation to try to change the GOP into something more productive than an obstructionist roadblock to political success.
That is why I joined the republican party, even though I hate everything that the brand currently stands for. All things change. Millions of republicans just like me can be the catalysts of that change. I am patient and can look out over the next five to ten election cycles. I am also tied of the anger and hate coming from the left-side of the country. They have preached tolerance and love and peace for all these eyars and a little blood in the water is allit takes for them to start stringing up "repugnicans" from teh nearst tree. No thanks. I want no part of such mindless vindictiveness.
I do ask that all the good republicans consider staying in the party. Without every progressive republican a really, really hard task becomes next to impossible. The democrats don't need you. They have started tossing the DLC stooges who kept them from making the progressive changes we needed. Right now the GOP is ripe for takeover, but only if all progressive republicans stay and the ones who left come back. Your country needs you to not leave the only other major political party in this country int he hands of zealots. It will make the changes Barack wants much harder to manage. He must have committed republicans pushing their representatives to support progressive reforms.
Barack cannot do this with democrats and independents alone.
That is why I registered republican.
