Life-Long Republican

I’m usually proud to admit this.

I’ve been a Republican since I knew what political parties were.  I mean, there’s a lot to be proud of in the Republican Party.  Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.  So were Bill McKinley, “Teddy” Roosevelt, Bill Taft, “Silent Cal” Coolidge, Dwight Eisenhower, Gerry Ford, and Ronnie Reagan.  Jack Kemp’s a Republican.  So’s Rudy Giuliani.  Robert Taft, Thomas Dewey, Bill Clements, George H.W. Bush, all Republicans.  Probably the one I’m proudest of is my dad.  This man, who taught me to be strong, fair, caring, thoughtful in my decisions, who taught me to think before I spoke or, even more importantly, acted.  My dad, whose patience is legendary even in the face of the utmost stupidity, he’s a Republican, too.

Lately, though…lately, it’s been awfully tough to identify with what has become of the Party I’ve been dedicated to.  The “Christian Right”, the “Tea Party”, the “Social Neocons”, these are the groups that have come to dominate the perception of the modern Republican Party.  This is a Party who thinks it’s more important to make sure that taxes don’t go up even though they can’t find a way to fund their obligations.  This is a Party who thinks that making sure women have ultrasounds before they can get abortions is more important than making sure we have a lavishly-funded public education system.  This is a Party who thinks that millionaire yacht-owners are more important than poor schoolkids.  This is a Party that I’m having more and more trouble finding common ground with.

Teddy Roosevelt would have spat in their faces.  Bill McKinley and Abe Lincoln would have been terribly dismayed at their willingness to risk the future of the greatest country in the world just to make sure that a few multi-millionaires could become bigger multi-millionaires.  William Taft, a Supreme Court Chief Justice in addition to being a President, would have openly wept to see them sacrifice our rights to privacy and freedom on the Altar of the Religious Right.

Now, I’m aware that these ultra-right views don’t represent the majority of people in the Republican Party.  I know that most of this country is neither right-wing or left-wing.  Most of us live somewhere quite in between these two extremes and most of us are willing to prioritize what we need over what we are willing to give up.  These guys aren’t willing to do that.  To them, compromise is a foreign concept.  The realities of lawmaking escape them because they want everything.

They have stopped supporting the majority of the people that make up the big tent that is the Republican philosophy.  They want small government when it comes to taxes, but big government when it comes to enforcing a Christian religious agenda, just to make sure that everyone falls in line.  They want the freedom to express their own views, but want to shut up the ideas of anybody else.  They want fairness and equal time when the other Party’s in charge but are willing to silence the other Party when there’s a Republican majority (okay, that last one’s more the Texas Legislature than the U.S. one, but still…)

Which leads me to ask one question of those who feel like they represent the leadership of the Republican Party.

When the loudmouth far right has run off the moderates and you’re not conservative enough for them anymore, when they break away and formally create a Tea Party to run their own candidates, who’s going to support you then?

Perhaps that’s when you come back to the moderates and the moderate conservatives and find out that they’ve all been scared away.  Because you signed a deal with ……. well, I’ll let you figure that out.