"The Day I Left the Republican Party was Today"

The beginning of the opposite of Reagan Democrats:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/9/14548/78617

The Day I left the Republican Party was Today
by Cardinal96
Tue Feb 8th, 2005 at 22:45:48 PST

There comes a point for everyone in their life when they begin to question core beliefs/affiliations they have always held, which beliefs/affiliations were often passed down to them by their family. _I have been a faithful Republican for all 30 years of my life. _I have voted Republican in each election since 1992. _I have supported the program of limited government, tax cuts and rewarding and encouraging hard work. _

I have gradually come to this decision over the last few years and don't even feel as if I am leaving the party. _I feel like the party has left me.
_

Diaries :: Cardinal96's diary ::

It was the Iraqi war that initially made me start to question whether I was supporting the right party. _I was an initial supporter of that war. _I trusted the Bush Administration and that they had access to intelligence that I didn't. _I was fearful of Saddam's regime acquiring nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction and felt as if force may have been our only option given how close we were told he was to getting those weapons. _I am an avid reader of the NYT, and Friedman's editorials helped to assure me.

Fast forward several months. _We discover that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction and was nowhere close to having weapons of mass destruction. _I wasn't sure whether the Bush Administration had made an honest mistake based on intelligence (which can be imprecise) or whether the Bush Administration knew from the get-go that the intelligence didn't support the WMD claim but went ahead and marketed the war on that basis regardless. _I used to think the former was the case. _Now, I think it's the latter.

The next chink in the armor came with the medicare prescription drug benefit bill that Bush got through Congress. _I am no expert on Medicare and get confused by the jargon easily. _But I understand numbers. _They were projecting costs of $400 billion over the next ten years. _That dollar amount floored me. _How can the party of limited government be supporting a bill that is so freaking expensive at a time when we are running budget deficits and passing tax cuts? _I figured there must be a reasonable explanation. _Perhaps this bill was the most efficient way of providing benefits to our senior citizens. _If that was the case, why (as my friend pointed out to me) did they insert a provision forbidding the HHS Secretary from negotiating with drug companies to lower prices? _Surely, that is in the interest of all taxpayers as it would lower the costs of the prescription drug benefit. _I am no medical expert but the only possible reason I could see for agreeing to that provision (which runs against the interest of the general public) is that the drug lobby had disproportionate influence on the legislation.

At that point, I had seen the leader of my party get our country into war based on faulty intelligence (not knowing whether it was intentional or not) and I had seen him push through a bill that would significantly expand the size of our federal government while at the same time inserting provisions that were against the taxpayers' interests. _Two chinks in the armor.

During the election, I was looking for candidates other than Bush to support and was intrigued by Dean. _Here is a guy that was right from the get-go on the Iraqi war and was not afraid to speak truth to power. _I loved this guy. _He had so much passion when he spoke and he really gave you the impression that he had this country's (and not his) best interests at heart. _Hell, it got me to donate money to a Democratic candidate for the first time in my life. _I don't want to dwell on election 2004. _Suffice it to say that I was really bummed when Dean lost the Iowa primary to John Kerry. _In November, I still had some misguided loyalty to the Republican party and held my nose and voted for Bush. _Dean would have had my vote in a second but I could not bring myself to abandon the Republican party to support another politician like Kerry.

Fast forward to November 3rd. _Bush won the election and a strange thing happened. _I wasn't happy. _Not one bit. _I tried to make a show of being happy to my parents and friends but my heart wasn't in it. _

I began to read up more on Bush's second term agenda. _First stop: Social Security. _This is what got me close to leaving the party. _Unlike Medicare, I have a good understanding of how social security works as I have read a lot about it. _As I understand it, Bush believes that social security is nearing insolvency. _Reasonable minds can disagree on that point. _I have yet to meet one reasonable mind, however, that agrees that a way to prolong social security's solvency is by cutting one-third of its funding sources. _Social security currently collects payroll taxes at the rate of 12.4% on the first $90k of income (half from the employer and half from the employee). _By allowing workers to divert up to 4% of the payroll taxes to personal accounts, that means that social security will only be able to collect 8.4% of payroll taxes, which is a 1/3 drop in social security's income. _I am missing something here...

My jaw dropped at how brazen the Bush Administration was in marketing this. _They were praying that the American public would be confused by the jargon and not realize how this would harm social security. _I believe they also want to appeal to our greediness by giving us the belief that we can get these huge returns from these private accounts. _I am convinced that the Bush Administration is doing everything they can to avoid having an honest debate about this. _Unlike the Iraqi war (where a select few Americans make any sacrifice), social security reform will impose sacrifices on many Americans. _I am also convinced that if the facts are presented before the American public at large on these proposals, they will vote against it in droves. _It is for this reason that you are seeing Republican pushback.

The straw that broke the camel's back was reading in the New York Times today about how the Administration is now saying that the prescription drug benefit won't cost $400 billion over 10 years. _Nope, it will cost $720 billion over 10 years. _This fits a pattern of intentional deception on the part of the Bush Administration that is impossible to ignore. _I sense a pattern here. _The false marketing of the Iraqi war, the false marketing of the prescription drug benefit and the false marketing of social security reform right before my very eyes.

That was it. _I can no longer in good conscience defend this Administration to my friends and colleagues. _I am convinced that this Administration is willing to say anything and manipulate data to get policies implemented which will be harmful to this nation.

Tomorrow I am going to call my state's voter registration office and begin the process of changing my party registration from Republican to Independent. _Sometime this week, I am going to break the news to my parents that I am out of the Republican Party.

I know that many on this site will consider me the enemy as I voted for Satan not once but twice. _To that, feel free to hate me. _I knowingly supported Bush and own up to mistakes I have made.

That suport ends today. _I don't care that I lose the chance to vote in the 2008 primary. _I don't want to be associated any more with this party. _I am not ready to join the Democratic party as I want to take a break from parties. _Hell, it was my misguided loyalty to the Republican Party that kept me in it longer than I should have. _Nope, I am going to focus on issues and support those candidates that raise and push those issues. _I want to help (i) make sure as hell we are not going to invade another sovereign country this term (i.e., Iran), (ii) stop the Bush proposals for reforming/dismantling social security, (iii) see the recent slate of Bush tax cuts rescinded (we can't afford them), (iv) stop any amendment to banning gay marriage from becoming effective and (v) repeal all or part of the medicare prescription drug bill.