Posted on 07/17/2005 7:46:15 AM PDT by joe_oak
June 26, 2005
Guest Viewpoint: The party's over for betrayed Republican
By James Chaney
As of today, after 25 years, I am no longer a Republican.
I take this step with deep regret, and with a deep sense of betrayal.
I still believe in the vast power of markets to inspire ideas, motivate solutions and eliminate waste. I still believe in international vigilance and a strong defense, because this world will always be home to people who will avidly seek to take or destroy what we have built as a nation. I still believe in the protection of individuals and businesses from the influence and expense of an over-involved government. I still believe in the hand-in-hand concepts of separation of church and state and absolute freedom to worship, in the rights of the states to govern themselves without undo federal interference, and in the host of other things that defined me as a Republican.
My problem is this: I believe in principles and ideals which my party has systematically discarded in the last 10 years.
My Republican Party was the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, and George H.W. Bush. It was a party of honesty and accountability. It was a party of tolerance, and practicality and honor. It was a party that faced facts and dealt with reality, and that crafted common-sense solutions to problems based on the facts as they were, not as we wished them to be, or even worse, as we made them up. It was a party that told the truth, even when the truth came hard. And now, it is none of those things.
Fifty years from now, the Republican Party of this era will be judged by how we provided for the nation's future on three core issues: how we led the world on the environment, how we minded the business of running our country in such a way that we didn't go bankrupt, and whether we gracefully accepted our place on the world's stage as its only superpower. Sadly, we have built the foundation for dismal failure on all three counts. And we've done it in such a way that we shouldn't be surprised if neither the American people nor the world ever trusts us again.
My party has repeatedly ignored, discarded and even invented science to suit its needs, most spectacularly as to global warming. We have an opportunity and the responsibility to lead the world on this issue, but instead we've chosen greed, shortsightedness and deliberate ignorance.
We have mortgaged the country's fiscal future in a way that no Democratic Congress or administration ever did, and to justify the tax cuts that brought us here, we've simply changed the rules. I matured as a Republican believing that uncontrolled deficit spending is harmful and irresponsible; I still do. But the party has yet to explain to me why it's a good thing now, other than to say "... because we say so."
Our greatest failure, though, has been in our role as superpower. This world needs justice, democracy and compassion, and as the keystone of those things, it needs one thing above all else: truth.
Republican decisions made in 2002 and 2003 have killed almost 2,000 of the most capable patriots our country has to offer - volunteers, every one. Support for those decisions was gathered through what appeared at the time to be spin and marketing, but which now turns out to have been deliberate planning and falsehood. The Blair government's internal documentation only confirms what has been suspected for years: Americans are dying every day for Republican lies first crafted in 2002, expanded and embellished upon in 2003, and which continue to this day. This calculated deception is now burned into the legacy of the party, every bit as much as Reagan's triumph in the Cold War, or Nixon's disgrace over Watergate.
I could go on and on - about how we have compromised our international integrity by sanctioning torture, about how we are systematically dismantling the civil liberties that it took us two centuries to define and preserve, and about how we have substituted bullying, brinksmanship and "staying on message" for real political discourse - but those three issues are enough.
We're poisoning our planet through gluttony and ignorance.
We're teetering on the brink of self-inflicted insolvency.
We're selfishly and needlessly sacrificing the best of a generation.
And we're lying about it.
While it has compiled this record of failure and deception, the party which I'm leaving today has spent its time, energy and political capital trying to save Terri Schiavo, battling the threat of single-sex unions, fighting medical marijuana and physician-assisted suicide, manufacturing political crises over presidential nominees, and selling privatized Social Security to an America that isn't buying. We fiddle while Rome burns.
Enough is enough. I quit.
James Chaney is a Eugene attorney who has been in private practice for more than 20 years, and who has been a registered Republican since 1980.
GUEST VIEWPOINT
Funny, no mention of Reagan.
"We have mortgaged the country's fiscal future in a way that no Democratic Congress or administration ever did"
Uhh... where was he in the mid-60's when all of these disasterously expensive programs were started?
Let me make sure that I understand this correctly. We are being asked to consider as valid the thoughts of a LAWYER ? ? ?.
Worse yet, we are asked to ignore the fact that this is a lawyer from Eugene, Oregon ? ? ?
Eugene, Oregon - as in "The People's Republic of Eugene?
I vote ZOT now!!
"We're teetering on the brink of self-inflicted insolvency."
Hmm.. I'm willing to bet this guy felt the exact opposite way in 1994 when the Republicans were bold in trying to elminate the deficit. By the way, didn't the deficit just cut in half because of economic growth?
On foreign policy I took the position that the Administration was justified in manipulating the evidence to take us to war, that a long line of war-time Presidents going back at least to Polk had done just that. But he would have none of it. He said his ancestors, all the way back to Revolutionary days, had fought for a government which was honest with its citizens and he was not going to break with them. He thought the Arabs were a weak people, easily controlled with sanctions and inspections, and that the price we would pay for breaking our international commitments and reneging on our obligations would permanently damage us.
The problem is if this guy believes what he does on each of the issues he lists in this piece, he could not possibly have ever voted for a Republican unless the Republicans in Eugene are Democrats. Either that or he hasn't a clue as to how the Republican Party evolved after Nixon, or even Goldwater.
My guess is this guy reads "law" stuff and not much else. In Minneapolis we have some sports writers that have talk radio shows. They spend a good deal of time on the shows talking politics. I find a couple of them to be superb sports writers. It's obvious when they venture into other venues they are illiterate. Perhaps our friend from Eugene is of the same ilk.
Marks of a troll:
1. Post an article on the first day of membership.
2. Post a REALLY STUPID article on the first day of membership.
3. Do not interact with replies to REALLY STUPID article on first day of membership.
Looking bad.
Dan
That was my reaction as well, particularly since it was posted by somebody who just signed up today. However, a little Googling demonstrates that the article at least is real and that the author is in fact who he is alleged to be. So, the question boils down to how real a Republican he ever was and whether Republican values have in fact changed in some significant way.
Eugene as in Oregon?
Yeah, right. After glancing at the article I noticed a bunch of lies.
Don't let the door......
Did I get in before the ZOT?
BLAH BLAH BLAH.
So who will he vote for? Teddy and Hillary..there is some honesty there for him.
Someone who claims principles and ideals isn't going to "cross over" at least not to the demonrats. If a person was truely a Republican or conservative, and believed in the values of our founding fathers, they might become disillusioned at the Pubbies since Ronald Reagan, but they would also realise that the demonrats have been systematically discarding principal and ideals for the last 75 years. With increased vigor the last 20.
Anybody who would voluntarily associate themselves with the party of Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, Tom Daschle, Howard Dean, and others, OBVIOUSLY knows nothing about priciples and ideals.
And what happened 10 years ago? Oh that's right--the Republicans took control of both the House and the Senate, sending the Dems into a tailspin from which they have yet to recover. (And some would argue that they have already crashed.)
Well, there is something to be said for fiscal discipline and "Peace through strength". The problem is, the people who are complaining about that now are the same people who would oppose Republicans on budget cuts also. Also, peace through stregth only works if you prove that you will use your stregth when necessary.
This is your really big mess up! Anyone claiming to be a Republican and his list of Republican is this list is very suspicious to me.
How many of us would put GHWB in our list and omit Ronald Reagan?
I, too, vote ZOT!
Eugene? As in Eugene, Oregon? Say no more. This is pure BS
I dreamed I saw Joe Oak last night,
Alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten minutes banned"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.
"In Salt Lake, Joe," says I to him,
him standing by my bed,
"They framed you on a insanity charge,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead."
"The Admin Mods Zotted you Joe,
they zot you Joe" says I.
"Takes more than kitties to kill a man"
Says Joe "I didn't die"
Says Joe "I didn't die"
And standing there as big as life
and smiling with his eyes.
Says Joe "What they can never Zot
went on to troll,
went on to troll"
From San Diego up to Maine,
in every mine and mill,
where girly-men defend their rights,
it's there you find Joe Oak,
it's there you find Joe Oak!
I dreamed I saw Joe Oak last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten minutes banned "
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.
I have to admit that I happen to know someone who was really a life long republican but now, because of hatred for the Iraq war, spouts every democratic talking point. A complete 180 in every category. Of course he is a journalism professor so perhaps it was in the cards all along.
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