But first, a reminder of the good old days ->
Being a Republican isn't just joining a party, it's a point of view. And when you look at the issues Republicans stand for and then compare our elected officials to our beliefs, President Clinton and Al Gore are the one who is delivering what traditional Republicans are looking for. To me it's more important what a candidate does and what he stands for than what party label he runs under.
This isn't a sporting event where we pick a team to be loyal to. This is our future. We as a nation have to choose what direction we will take and what kind of a future we are going to have. It is important that we choose wisely...
I stand in utter amazement at the antics of the Republican Party. I can't believe it when I hear that Republicans are angry because Clinton fixed the economy. How can Republicans be angry at a good economy regardless of who did it? How can Republicans be angry because Clinton and Gore balanced the federal budget for the first time in 30 years and cut the deficit to zero? How can Republicans be angry because Clinton and Gore have cut the size of government? These are things that Republicans are for, and if a Democrat did it, then in my view that Democrat is a good Republican!...
I'm tired of the right wing extremists defining the Republican Party as a bigoted hateful intolerant party. That is not what the Republican Party stands for. Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, Ralph Reed, Jerry Falwell, Sun Myung Moon, and Oliver North do not represent the soul of the Republican Party. These are the people who have stolen the party from us. I want to make it clear to our party leaders that it is you who have left us Republican voters, and not us voters leaving you. We Republicans will not be defined by these extremists....
Real Republicans and Americans stand for civil liberties... The Patriot Act allows for greatly expanded wiretapping and other procedures that are for more draconian than anything any democrat in modern history has done to harm our constitutional rights.
Real Republicans and Americans stand for justice and the American system of fair trial President Bush does not, his administration has detained over 3000 people in Guantanimo without a trial, without access to a judge and essentially without explanation. Imprisoning people without charge is a violation of both US Law and International Law.
Real Republicans and Americans stand for support of our troops President Bush does not. Secretary Rumsfeld personally requested that Congress cut $1.2 billion in Veteran’s Medical benefits. Perhaps President Bush feels that he already had the (historically republican) military vote locked up, but an increasing number of military members and veterans are turning away from the President.
Real Republicans and Americans stand for less government President Bush does not, the expansion of laws that invade the privacy and rights of citizens and the gigantic war fiasco have nothing to do with the ‘smaller government’ we support.
Real Republicans and Americans stand for conservative spending Spending over $100 billion of taxpayer money on a failed war, is not only un-conservative, its entirely reckless....
Real Republicans and Americans stand for honesty and integrity President Bush does not. The President was caught giving blatantly false information about yellow cake uranium during an address to justify the war.... Perhaps most serious of all is the investigation into the leaking of a CIA operative's identity for political reasons.
Real Republicans and Americans stand for what is right for America over what is right for special interests. President Bush does not. This administration has placed no-bid contracts with its cronies. Halliburton, the former company of Dick Cheney (and one who still pays him a hefty pension) received a contract for over $7 billion before the war even started. Seven billion dollars is more than the entire budget of the National Endowment for the Arts, midnight basketball, condoms in schools....
Real Republicans and Americans are focused on improving the economy President Bush is not. The administration is focused on the tax and spend corporate welfare program called the war in Iraq, meanwhile the President has presided over the largest net job loss since Hoover. The harm of our relations with the international community due to our disregard of the wishes of our allies and the increased hatred from other groups will harm the US economically for a good deal of time to come.
WHY REPUBLICANS ARE SWITCHING FROM BUSH TO KERRY and why you, and the conservatives you love, should vote for Kerry, too!Why Obama?
Fellow Republicans,
When deciding which candidate is best to now lead our nation, we ask that you consider supporting Senator Barack Obama. The U.S. faces serious challenges that are not being addressed by our political leaders. Elected officials of both sides have found it easier to appease their parties’ fringes to win elections, and media companies choose to shock, amuse and divide us. In the meantime, the problems we face as a nation grow as they are passed on to future generations....
Issues A Unified America Can and Must Address:
National Debt The federal debt matters. We cannot saddle future taxpayers with having to service the debt we create with our irresponsible fiscal policies. Cutting the deficit will additionally decrease interest rates and increase private investment.
Trade Deficit Every year, the difference between what the United States imports from other countries and what it exports grows, and is likely to reach $1 trillion a year by 2010. The U.S.’s trade imbalance with China alone grew from just $10 billion annually in 1990 to well over $200 billion a year by 2006. Despite this increasing and extreme deficit, recent American administrations have been unable or unwilling to force China to revalue its currency and take other measures to strengthen our exports overseas.
Energy Independence As the world’s energy needs grow, it is critical that the United States be able to provide for its own energy requirements. By doing so we can deflate the power of dictators who are propped up by high oil prices, more effectively insulate ourselves from the world’s most volatile regions, and stimulate economic growth at home. Even without tapping into Alaska’s oil reserves or drilling offshore, we can dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil—we have not even begun to realize the possibilities of Iowa corn, South Dakota wind or Montana coal. Even a growing number of environmentalists support increased nuclear power production.
Global Warming Even those who still believe that global warming is a natural occurrence should agree that rising sea levels and other geological changes will be expensive to adapt to and probably impossible to undo. If we are able to reverse this dangerous trend, we must. No other nation has the economic and political power to take the lead on this issue.
Social Security If current trends continue, total Social Security income will begin to fall short of total outgo in 2019. In the words of Alan Greenspan, the U.S. will face "abrupt and painful" choices if our leaders do not move quickly to trim the Social Security and Medicare benefits the baby boom generation has been promised. The Social Security system needs to be reformed to bring it into the 21st century and beyond with the new financial knowledge and tools available to Americans. We need a reliable, sustainable retirement plan that combines mandatory retirement savings with flexibility, choice, and security
Healthcare Reform Our healthcare system is reaching a crisis. Rising healthcare costs are crippling business and putting millions of Americans, especially children and the elderly, at great risk. American families risk having a lifetime of savings wiped out from a single hospitalization or illness. Drug companies are reaping record profits as they promote new uses of old drugs. Small hospitals and doctors are closing their doors as malpractice insurance costs increase. We must reform healthcare to make it accessible and affordable for all Americans, while maintaining the competitiveness and innovation that has made our system the envy of the world.
Immigration Reform Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants enter our country each year and will continue to enter unless much more is done. Thousands of employers hire these illegal workers, often times to the detriment of American workers, and often times exploit the illegal immigrants themselves. Despite extensive talk by both Republicans and Democrats to solve this and many other problems we face, nothing has been done.
http://www.republicansforobama.org/Perhaps we are not as divided as our politics make us seem?
If we all agree that extremists (economic royalists and theocrats) hijacked the Republican party a few decades ago and we all recognize that 4/5 Americans have soured on the Iraq War and McCain represents more war, then why be shocked that a lot of moderate Republicans are registering as Democrats and voting in the primary for the candidate they want to see become President - a Democrat?
While I am 1000% certain that some Republicans are voting in Democratic primaries because they think they can hurt Democrats in some way in the GE, I think the majority of Republicans voting for Obama or Clinton in the primaries are doing so because they are waking up to the horror of what Bush has wrought.
Peace.
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