(no subject)

[pearwaldorf]

The fact is that today’s “Republican” Party is one with which I am totally unfamiliar. To me, the word “Republican” has always been synonymous with the word “responsibility,” which has meant limiting our governmental obligations to those we can afford in human and financial terms. Today’s whopping budget deficit of some $440 billion does not meet that criterion...

Responsibility used to be observed in foreign affairs. That has meant respect for others. America, though recognized as the leader of the community of nations, has always acted as a part of it, not as a maverick separate from that community and at times insulting towards it. Leadership involves setting a direction and building consensus, not viewing other countries as practically devoid of significance. Recent developments indicate that the current Republican Party leadership has confused confident leadership with hubris and arrogance.

John Eisenhower, Dwight D. Eisenhower's son

Please understand, I do not have a kneejerk antipathy towards Republicans. My parents are Republicans. Old-school Republicans, who understand that fiscal responsiblity and small government (in the right incarnations) are what the party should be fighting for, not whatever the fuck the GOP has become. My mother, for the first time in memory, is voting (and no, she did not vote for Bush) for a Democratic candidate because she is furious with what the party has become. It's like some sort of personal mental Rubicon that illustrates how bad things have gotten. And I don't think it's just me. There have to be people all over the country like my mother.

Comments

[twoweevils.livejournal.com]

Your mother is definitely not the only one. My uncle, who is a WWII veteran, is one of a group of buddies who all hang out at the local McDonalds, drinking the senior coffees and shooting the breeze. Most of them have been staunch Republicans since Eisenhower, if not before.

All of them are voting for Kerry this year. All of them.

If that doesn't say something about what Bush has done to this country, then I don't know what does.

K.