I've been a life-long Republican. I cried when Reagan died. Unfortunately, the conservatism that brought me into the party died with him. I had such great hopes when my party finally gained control of both houses of congress in 1994. Even with a Democratic president we had such great opportunity to return this country to the values of the founders and of the constitution. If it hadn't been for Ross Perot, Bush Sr would have been re-elected and continued the Reagan legacy. Clinton was elected with only 45% of the vote.
However, shortly after taking control, 2 sex scandals forced 2 speakers of the House of Representatives to resign. With the resignation of the last one, Newt Gingrich, the party was lost. Corruption, pork spending, and failure to vote to indict Clinton destroyed what was left of the fiscal and social conservative mantles of Reagan.
I voted for George Bush both times only to have him not use his veto pen in 6 years until the Democrats took over congress again. He signed protectionist legislation in the form of steel import tariffs. He signed the largest highway spending bill in American history. He signed bill after bill put up by the flagrant, pork spenders of his own party. (The "bridge to nowhere" was for Senator Ted Stevens (R) AK). He failed to campaign hard enough to privatize social security. Admittedly, he really needed the help and courage of his fellow Republicans but they did not have the spine for it. Yes, I was very happy with the tax cuts but again the Republican majority did not have the spine to make them permanent. They compromised with the socialist Democrats and put an expiration date on the cuts. Even so the Republicans, including Bush, did not cut spending at the same time as they cut the gov't revenue. So gov't grew enormously under their watch.
I confess that I believed him when he told us that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. I believed that Hussein should not be allowed to thumb his nose at the whole world. I trusted that the President had the best intelligence available in the world. I no longer believe that. I do believe that a new brand of Republican, the NeoCon, had taken over the Administration and was trying to conduct a new "Manifest Destiny" in the world exporting our values everywhere. Don't get me wrong I do believe wholeheartedly in the values of our constitution but I don't believe that we are that country anymore.
George Bush and the Republican party of the last 14 years have been a disaster and have set the stage for a Democratic party sweep this November and a return to the socialist values of the Great Sociey. It is very likely, that the next congress will be filibuster proof. That is, that the Democratic party will have enough senators to terminate any attempts to filibuster to stop a bill or stop the appointment of judges. We will see continued redistribution of wealth from those who work hard and make good choices in life to the lazy, the sexually flagrant, the irresponsible, the substance abusers and the like.
I no longer have a party of any substance to support. The Libertarian party still has some attraction but has no chance to rise to power. The Republicans have left me as they are no longer the party of Ronald Reagan. There is fundamentally little difference between the parties now. John McCain's values are not much different from Joe Lieberman's. The fact that there are so many Americans who know more about American Idol contestants than how much they pay in taxes or what rights they have in the constitution shows how truly shallow and ignorant this country has become. I am frightened at the growing number of Americans who don't know what the constitution says. How many people believe that healthcare is a right? Show me that in the constitution. If that is a right why not a right to housing, or food, or a car, or a job? Why wouldn't anyone have a right to build their house in a disaster prone area and expect the rest of the country to rebuild it when the inevitable happens?
Where did I put that Constitution? Our Constitution has been lost and replaced from disuse.
I love the idea of America found in the Constitution and the writings of Thomas Jefferson. We are not that country anymore. We have found that we can "vote ourselves money from the treasury" and that will truly be our downfall. Success is no longer admired except as a well from whom we can draw revenue to redistribute to the failures among us.
I am a man without a party and without a country he can believe in.
7 comments:
HERE, HERE!! Where does this leave the truly patriotic? The citizens that love our Nation, our Constitution, our liberties (for as long as they last), the founding principals? Why don't we feel we have a voice anymore?? How do we get our voice back, or is it too late?? Anything short of revolution?
I am not hopeful of returning to the founding principles. Americans are too ignorant.
The declaration of independence says that when the gov't becomes "destructive" of these ends the people have a right to alter or abolish it. What happens when the majority of the people become the means of the oppression and set the country on a path of destruction?
I'm buying a gun.
Good luck with that in the "People's Republick of MA".
Vote for someone you actually agree with, whether s/he's with the Libertarians, Constitution Party, whatever. That's the only solution I see.
like we have discussed, intelligent, hard-working, wealthy individuals are expating in DROVES! It has to be a sad day when we leave the country we love because the atmosphere here are nauseating to say the least! For someone like me, who still gets chills when the flag is raised and our National Anthem is sung, that would be a hard pill to swallow!
If the people with talent, money, drive and integrity leave the country the socialists that remain behind will find that they have no one with resources left to tax and their system will implode like every other socialist experiment in history.
It's a sad commentary that even our constitution did not protect us from the self interest of the lazy.
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