A Republican No Longer

[kpete]

A Republican No Longer
SEPTEMBER 13, 2011 BY MARIO PIPERNI

I recall the tipping point, watching the Republican National Convention. Rudy Guliani was speaking, and I very vividly remember the hate and vitriol that was being spewed. Not only by Guliani, but by everyone who came up to the podium. It’s was very interesting yet disgusting, I had never seen that kind of unabashed ugliness. Guliani was literally bashing on Obama for having previously been a “Community Organizer”. He laughed every time he repeated the words. Maybe 3 or 4 times he said it while chuckling. What?? Are you kidding me? Is it now a folly to have human compassion and try to improve one’s community without seeking gain? I could not believe what I was watching.

From that point forward I started looking more closely at everything. I woke up and paid attention. Paid attention to what their true message was, and paid attention to the incredible spin and deceit required to dupe the other 99% of their voting base. I felt like a dupe. I also became much more introspected, and realized that I never truly aligned to their ideals. A was a misinformed, low-information, one or two issue voter. Now I feel tremendous guilt. Embarrassed that I hadn’t seen the light earlier. My voting record for the past 20 years was a huge mistake. I was arguing for the WRONG side.

And now, three years later it is even worse. The right has slid so far off to the extreme, it makes the 2008 election look gentle. They’ve gone off the rails, and people are cheering this on. It’s like so many people just wanting to pour gasoline on the flames of hate and fear.

I am now trying so hard to spread this message. It’s my personal repentance.

more:
http://mariopiperni.com/comments-2/a-republican-no-longer.php

[southernyankeebelle]

1. There was a time the republican party was a great party. After Reagan it has

gone down hill. Just be glad you saw the light. I have always been interested in protecting our social benefits. I don't care about things that are bedroom issues. To me that is a personal issue.

[Rageneau]

4. The Republican Party has ALWAYS sucked, but it sucks even more now.

The Republican Party has never done one single thing to improve the lives of anyone except the world's weathiest. Not one. It's been around 150 years and, except for its initial liberal position on slavery, it has been on the wrong side of every issue and every movement. The GOP's inability to contribute anything good to America is astonishing. They couldn't do worse if they tried. Which they do.

[rurallib]

5. I will disagree. Once there was a 'Rockefeller Republican' side

that dominated the party but has since been driven out.
As years go by General Eisenhower seems to become more and more something of a prophet. The interstate highway system is still the largest single public works projects ever.

I could go on and on. The point is is that there are no absolutes. Some of us old codgers even look back at a Nixon who had a liberal side that pushed for title IX. On the other hand, Lyndon Johnson was on the verge of greatness had it not been for a little war in SE Asia.....

Those folks have been driven from the republican party and all that is left in the controls are the crazy right wingers.
My personal feeling is that the old Rockefeller Repubs are now the blue dogs.

Since Reagan repugs have gone crazy to the point that they would boot the real Reagan out.
What is really sad is to see the Dems follow them to the right thinking that is the new middle.

[WinkyDink]

7. Nixon, of "find the Jews" and Watergate and John Mitchell, looks okay ONLY IN COMPARISON.

[rurallib]

9. oh, really I did not say Nixon was a great man. Don't put words in my mouth

He did espouse some liberal policies that only a few Dems would go anywhere near now.
And of course he was a paranoid crook war monger etc. The once again is that there are no absolutes.

What about Eisenhower?

[Hawaii Hiker]

10. Some of the old school republicans like Rockefeller, Javits

were probably more liberal than some of the Dixiecrats at the time....

Now, Rockefeller and Javits types would be kicked out of the GOP.....The GOP is now way past mentally unstable and crossed into the schizophrenic state...

[WilliamPitt]

13. Lincoln was an OK guy.

[zippytheplatypus]

16. Teddy Roosevelt, the Trust-Buster started the Progressive Party

And Eisenhower was the one that warned us all of the ascent of the MIC. it wasn't always like this.

[Bandit]

18. Almost all of our environmental laws were passed under a Republican Administration

:shrug:

[WinkyDink]

6. "There was a time the republican party was a great party." That would be NOT.

Lincoln. That's it.

[misanthrope]

8. Teddy Roosevelt's trust busting...

...and conservation initiatives weren't bad either.

[DavidDvorkin]

14. "After Reagan"?

Reagan is one of the reasons it went downhill.

[Ineeda]

2. I also never understood the concept of Log Cabin republicans.

The LGBT community is despised by the rethugs, just for being who they are. If their fundamental identity is not accepted, how can they possibly be rethugs? Frankly, I find it downright creepy.

[Cognitive_Resonance]

3. I think this is a more widespread experience than most people realize. Reasonable people come to

their senses under the right circumstances.

[gratuitous]

11. I agree

And it's really important to have folks like the author of this piece to write it down. Reasonable people, shocked to find yourself in a political party that's so petty and heartless? Get out. You can leave the party. It's not a permanent choice. Quit this freak show.

[m1049]

12. ex-republicans

My grandfather voted GOP for 50 years before they got so far right that he gave up.

I call him a Charles Barkley independent, after Barkley's 2006 quote: "I was a Republican... until they lost their minds."

[UTUSN]

15. K&R #27, but

To “convert” away from being a Rethug, the person would have to have a conscience to begin with. This person voted Rethug for 20 yrs and never saw the hate and vitriol before, never heard what LIMBOsevic has been saying every day, didn’t see the THUGS (why I call them Rethugs) in Brooks Brothers suits storming the Dade County elections office in 2000, not to mention everything else that somebody who VOTED yet did not PAY ATTENTION to happened every day. Oh, well, there are seldom any converts FROM Rethugism, while there have always been many more going the other way. Think “RAYGUN ‘Democrats’.”

Sigh, have to keep waiting for that long declared demographic boom, supposedly Hispanic that doesn’t VOTE a lot and 20-35% of whom who *do* vote Rethug because some immigrants like Ahhhhhnuld tend to be Rethug for "capitalistic" reasons. And then there's the Catholic influence for "traditional" values.

[FSogol]

17. K & R. n/t

[HappyMe]

19. k&r nt

[LeftinOH]

20. The Republican party was started by anti-slavery expansion activists;

times have sure changed, though.

[lindysalsagal]

21. My parents mailed their torn up GOP party cards back to them in 2004

after voting republican their entire lives. They knew it was up when no one could find the weapons of mass destruction, and they found out Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11.

I told my Dad: If you want to vote for the conservative, you've got to vote for Kerry. Bush is no conservative. He did, but he promised not to tell my 4 sisters!

One day I came home and there was a magnet on the refrigerator that said: "Somewhere in texas there's a village missing its' idiot."