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Farewell, GOP
I joined the GOP when I turned 18, just weeks after Ronald Reagan’s re-election. Since I was unable to vote in that race, I accompanied one of my conservative friends to the polling place as a kind of silent vote. I had become a big Reagan fan in high school and began learning more about conservatism through Goldwater, various books on the Cold War, and National Review. (That made me quite the hit with the ladies, as you might imagine.)
These early studies of policy, patriotism, and civic virtue led me to enlist in the US Navy and, once I got to college, challenge my ex-hippie professors. For years I voted along party lines, donated to Republican candidates, and volunteered for their campaigns. I was proud to belong to the party of Abraham Lincoln, Calvin Coolidge, and, of course, Ronaldus Magnus. Even when Bush Sr. raised taxes, some GOP congressman floated bizarre conspiracy theories about Clinton, and Tom DeLay’s House spent us into oblivion, I still identified with the party’s higher ideals. Limited government. Peace through strength. Personal freedom.
Nominees like Bob Dole, John McCain, and Mitt Romney were all way down on my list of preferred primary candidates. (Both Bushes were as well, come to think of it.) But considering the odious Democrats running against them, I voted for the half-a-loaf GOP standard bearer.
But today, after an acrimonious intraparty trench war, I see the GOP as defined less by Reagan and more by Trump. Obviously, a large number of his voters agree. I don’t need to bore you with a catalog of Trump’s personal and policy failures. What’s most distasteful is his contempt for the history and underlying structures of our republic. Ignoring the Constitution while promising easy fixes by a strongman. The majoritarian rule of the “democratic” mob. The base appeals to tribalism.
So the night of the Indiana primary, when Ted Cruz suspended his campaign and Trump’s nomination gained nearly unstoppable momentum, I wondered if the GOP represented me any longer. I obviously was out-of-step with the plurality of its voters and directly opposed to the party’s new leader. I considered waiting until Trump’s nomination was official at the convention, but figured that would merely add two months to the grieving process. Why draw out the disappointment when I could just pull off the Band-Aid and get it over with?
One person changing his party affiliation will make few if any waves among the cubicles at the RNC. But if thousands made a similar decision, I figured it would send a message to Reince Priebus, et al. Maybe over the next month, we’ll see how the party rolls changed.
So, as of Tuesday, May 3, I am an independent voter. I no longer feel the need to champion the GOP’s myriad flawed candidates or spin their horrible decisions once elected. And, although it was rather sad to leave the party of my youth, it’s liberating not to be burdened with their metric ton of bad decisions.
Has anyone else here left the GOP and, if so, why?
Published in Politics
Except for a short bong resin induced 6 month flirtation with Clinton’s 92 campaign, I was Republican since being naturalized in ’89.
I re-registered Independent 3 months ago.
They can take my party but they won’t take my ideology.
I was never a true believer, just a nominal Republican. In my youth, I was a registered Libertarian, but re-registered Republican when I realized voting Libertarian was kind of pointless. I have always told my kids that the only good thing about Republicans is that they’re not Democrats. The fact that the party is now leaving us with the choice between Satan and Lucifer for President of the U.S. doesn’t really change that. If the party actually becomes the party of Trump, however, I will be gone. It will be some time before we know that, though, and regardless of who wins the presidency, it is important to keep as much control of everything else out of the hands of the Democrats as we possibly can.
Then write to him directly and send a clear and unambiguous message.
The best fundraising letters are where they pretended that they want your opinion on the direction of the party and send a questionnaire for you to fill out, along with an envelope for your donation of course. My husband and I laugh about how they probably immediately throw away the donor’s carefully filled-out questionnaire and deposit the check!
so what do you do if you want to change parties?
Yep. Insulting our intelligence would be putting it mildly. I got ticked enough during the attempted Dubya amnesty to include one of these in a fundraising “questionnaire” reply:
I always thought they deposited the check and then did the opposite of your opinions.
For what it’s worth I don’t have a problem giving money to actual conservatives causes. I donate to the NRA all the time.
I was an Independent for a brief time when I jumped ship from Democratic party – then went on to Republican. I am having a debate in my head whether I should go back to Independent – what is the benefit of that? I’m not a Libertarian –
On the night of the Indiana primary, the party left me.
That said, I haven’t officially de-Republicanized myself and won’t until I see how the dust settles after the election.
In the meantime, I will never vote for Trump, but will be voting for Republicans down-ballot. I hope most conservatives will do so.
Just because we shot ourselves in the foot on Trump doesn’t mean we need to hand the Senate and House to the liberals on a silver platter.
Just vote for a different party’s candidate in the next election. There is no party registration.
I was a registered Republican until 1992. George H.W. Bush and the “Americans with Disabilities” act, the ADA, drove me away. (Some have joked that “ADA” actually stands for “Attorneys Dreams Answered.”) I vowed I would switch my registration back when the GOP does more than pay lip-service to limited government every two years…I still haven’t switched back…and am unlikely to.
Very clever!
I don’t know how to officially be a Republican in Michigan, but after the Republicans lost interest in doing anything about the Clinton corruption, I told the local Republicans to take me off their lists. They obliged.
In 2003 when they passed Medicare Part D. I naively thought a Republican President and Congress would be true to their pledges as the party of small government. Fool me once. It was enough (though I did campaign for Romney, but not McCain).
I will stay “registered” as GOP for at least the time being. Wyoming is so solidly GOP that the election of real consequence is the GOP primary/caucus. That other election, the one with the Marxocrats, is almost always a foregone conclusion.
That being said, I believe that the GOP is dead. And it is not dead due to Trump, Trump is merely a last terminal symptom. The GOP is dead due to twenty-eight years of Bush Globalism-Over-Liberty policy, at least thirteen years of Bush/GOPe Play-Nice-With-The-Brass-Knuckle-Marxists policy, and more than seven years of GOPe The-Base-Are-Always-Embarrasing-Reprobates-To-Be-Impugned-And-Ignored policy.
Obama should have been impeached. Period. Members of his administration, if not he himself, should be in prison. Period. Despite recent protestations to the contrary, the GOP pursued neither of these actions (for the previously cited policy reasons) and now there is no longer any chance of making it right. The GOP has irreversibly abused and lost our trust.
Only then did the hurricane which is the Trump campaign come, and it pushed over the dying, rotted tree which is the GOP.
Here is what I think people are failing to understand…
–Continued–
Here is what I think people are failing to understand. When Bill Clinton began his PC policy which is now our current cultural nightmare, I began shouting from the rooftops for people to wake up and understand what the Left was doing. I was labeled as a nut. I lost friends. I lost lovers. I lost standing in my personal and professional circles. Then, after the Marxist Left went into high gear to vilify GWB during war, there was a slow but steady change. People who had previously written me off were approaching me in public and apologizing. They were amazed at my “foresight.” And now, here we are today. Every comment section of every Internet article is filled with people who are now saying the same things that I was saying way back in Bill Clinton’s first term.
This is what has brought about Trump. The everyday person who does not follow politics is waking up, and they are afraid. They see one party which is “All In” in destroying the country. They see the other party doing nothing to stop it other than sniff and snoot. They had nowhere else to go.
And now, neither do we. Yet.
While I plan to stay GOP for convenience, that’s actually what I have always done. But when, not if, but when a third party rises out of these ashes to represent the disaffected American against both the Marxists and the Bushes, I will support them to the fullest.
I never officially joined any party. For a few years I was in a religious order, and it would have been impossible. Later, I became disenchanted with the whole party system anyway. Why would I limit myself to the candidates pushed forward by two groups, neither of whom fully represented my views? And who wanted me to conform my views to whatever was winning that year, regardless of any philosophical convictions?
I really do think that this year, if you’re a conservative, you’re experiencing first hand how a party system forces you to surrender your own beliefs and chain yourself to someone else’s agenda.
Still have to vote in the primary. Wondering if leaving the party just abandons the field. But if this is what the party is going to be, I don’t want to be here.
If good people don’t stay in and fight, we don’t have a right to complain about the bad people who do. I admit that it’s much easier in NC than it would be in some places, but I give credit for that to people like my husband who have worked long volunteer hours to make the NCGOP what it is.
I’ve been without a party for around twenty years now. The benefit to me is that I didn’t feel any responsibility for being a member of a party that contributed greatly to the destruction of the American constitutional republic. Even as cynical as I am about the American ruling class and their two parties, even I’ve been surprised as how quickly the GOP party leaders have gone supine for Trump. I really thought there would be more resistance if for no other reason than self-preservation and self-interest.
Your husband is right.
You’ve heard the saying, “I’m taking my marbles and going home.”
I can’t.
I’ve lost my marbles.
This pretty well describes my arc as well. The day I started thinking of myself as a conservative instead of a Republican I began to see many things differently.
You’re right, as I think about it.
I’m just not sure where to stage that fight. Sometimes it’s just not clear whether this is a passing thing in the party or it’s time to reorganize someplace else.
Let’s give it a few weeks and see what happens. In the meantime, write to Speaker Ryan and express your support.
Jon,
I am very sorry to hear this. You are a leader here. Your voice is listened to and looked to for guidance. I know how dark it looks. You must remember 2010 and 2014. Don’t let this corporate takeover job turn your stomach so much that you give up on what you know and love.
Hate Trump if you like but stay the course. However long the road is, stay the course.
Regards,
Jim
Independent since May 4. Feels good
Will donate to his campaign if he doesn’t endorse Trump. Too many people I liked have yielded already.
Maybe writing is a good idea.