Mona LaVine
Wed, 13 Jul 2005 23:22:45 -0700
If you know a Republican , please send this to them. This may be a way to change their minds for next election. ---------------------------------------------- >Guest Viewpoint: "The party's over >for betrayed Republican " > >By James Chaney www.registerguard.com >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 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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