Why I’m not a Republican

I'm sure the title of this blog is not surprising or disappointing for someone reading this blog. The title is merely a metaphor of what I learned this week about the distinct differences between the parties. Whether they want to admit it or not, political parties will change over time. For example, I'm convinced that the party of Lincoln from 1860 to 1870 was the best political party of all time. Today’s tea party version of the GOP is 180°and from that party.

It has always been my suspicion that the current GOP favors business over the interest of the middle class ant it was reaffirmed when I learned that the speakers mentioned business 87 times, Afghanistan once and our troops were never mentioned. I guess the theme was the failed economy, but all the speakers told stories out of their rise from poverty to success. They emphasized owning a small business. That's all well and good but what's wrong with praising the teacher, the nurse, the mechanic, and a plant worker who will buy the goods so that companies can hire more people. They marvel at American exceptionalism as if it's always an obtainable goal without the help of government. In his speech, the other night Chris Christie said, “our American seniors are not selfish, and they're willing to make a sacrifice." I'm not disputing that but their plan doesn't ask them to sacrifice because that would be political suicide. Their Medicare plan starts 10 years from now.

Another example is not really caring about the rising cost of health care because the insurance companies will do what’s right. Thursday night, Mitt Romney rolled out a third version of repealing Obamacare. He will now repeal and replace but didn't give any details on the replacement. I know in my inner being ,that Paul Ryan has not changed his stance on Medicare from a year ago. He doesn't like it. He doesn't think government should provide social services and in his first budget, which the Republican majority reluctantly voted for,  he intended to replace Medicare with a voucher. He then saw  it as a political mistake(polls) and changed it to a choice voucher or status quo program; knowing full well that his voucher system would drain funds from the government Medicare. He's a disciple of Ayn Rand, but he knows that's not a popular political ideology.

I got the inspiration for this blog by watching Friday’s Bill Maher and some clips from the Jon Stewart show. Last night the Panel on Bill Maher, Soledad O'Brien, Jason Alexander and former adviser to Dick Cheney, Ron Christie discussed the lies of Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney. The discussion came to a stalemate because the one Republican Ron Christie, wouldn't admit that while the president was dancing at his inaugural ball, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and 13 others were plotting to vote against all his proposals in order for him not to become a second-term president. The Republican representatives will always allude to President Obama's promise to restore civility back to the White House, but they will ever admit that it never stood a chance. Jon showed a clip of Bill O'Reilly telling his guest that Obama's policies were failing. There was one catch; it was only 42 days after he signed the piece of legislation. Mitt Romney said he was rooting for Obama to succeed, but Jon showed another clip of Mitt of not completely disavowing the remarks of Rush Limbaugh when Rush said he wanted" Obama to fail" just eight days after he was in office. Mitt said it was appropriate for not wanting failed policies of Obama to succeed.

The Republican Party will never fully embrace the safety net because of the belief that everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. There is now totally in lockstep by doubting the science of climate change. They think that taxing the well-off amounts to punishing success and is class warfare because they  all have aspirations of being wealthy. The party is not fully committed to diversity, and it shows. The party likes to paint the Democrats as being a party of ingrates, minorities, the poor and single women. They like to portray themselves as a party of successful people who pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, and you're only welcome if you're  not willing to do that. When will we see the Republican Party back a pro-choice president or vice president in the future? I think the chances of a pro life Democrat getting the nomination of their the party are a lot  better.

Mitt Romney tried to keep the GOP's reputation on national defense, but he was too vague and chose a country that we're not at war with (Russia) to act tough on. So, Mitt Romney became the first Republican since 1952 to accept his party’s nomination without mentioning war.

The Republicans are not my enemies per say; we probably share a lot of the same interests in sports teams, religion, movies, and in general beliefs but every four years  we will take that step to show that we're not totally compatible.