The Republican Party that I grew up with is no longer the Republican Party I see today. It has gone from a party that was moderately conservative and interested in lining the pockets of the rich, to a cesspool of gun nuts, conspiracy lunatics, and Bible-thumpers who were willing to take the country over the financial cliff simply because they do not want what Jesus would call “the least of these” to have access to affordable health insurance. This is a party that, 20 years ago, would have considered President Obama a moderate Republican and would have embraced most of the Affordable Care Act, because after all – it was their idea. People often ask why I’m so hard on the GOP. Well, let’s see. I happen to have read the Constitution and understand how government actually works, unlike many members of Congress. Government shouldn’t be dictated by the blind ideology of a few radical politicians who would risk the credit worthiness of the world’s largest economy and force higher rates on future loans, just so they can throw a temper tantrum over the Affordable Care Act I didn’t stop being a member of the Republican Party because I was indoctrinated by liberal higher education. No, the GOP decided that stopping two people who love each other from getting married was more important than fixing crumbling roads and bridges. My former party decided that it was more important to spend trillions on bombing goat herders and mud huts into oblivion to avenge 9/11 than it was to make sure that other Americans could have affordable access to things as simple as a medical checkup which could save their lives. The GOP screams about how asking someone to consent to a basic background check to purchase a firearm is an infringement of privacy, yet they have no problem trying to stop a woman from getting something as basic as birth control. I wasn’t born a liberal, I became one – because the party I grew up with ran so far to the right-wing fringe that there was simply no other choice. ~October 17, 2013 By Manny Schewitz forwardprogressives/i-didnt-leave-the-gop-it-left-me/
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 22:35:07 +0000