Decision Day

I came to a decision today. It is unfair for me to continue to be a registered Republican.

My very first vote was for Barry Goldwater. I’ve had to swallow hard at times since then to vote Republican, and have found myself sometimes voting for Democrats or even a third party (Perot). It’s been a long time, but I might vote Republican again someday.
 
I was fine with Ronald Reagan.  He gave me some tax breaks and broke the air-traffic controllers union – both of which pleased me. But I was uncomfortable with his promotion of religion in government. I thought that was taken care of by the Founding Fathers, most of whom were not what we’d call Christian, but deists.

Still, I wanted a leader who would balance the budget like I balanced my checkbook and would save for hard times, like I did. Reagan failed me there – and I was uncomfortable with the direction my party was taking.
 
Still, times were good – mostly – and I credited that to Reagan, until the Crash of ’87. It wasn’t too hard to trace the fault for that back to his tax cuts and deficit spending. I began to figure out that the Republicans were not really for small businessmen like me, no matter what they said. They threw us a crumb now and then, but it was the very rich who raked in the benefits of “trickle down.” None of it ever made it to me, someone making six figures at the time, let alone Joe The Plumber.
 
It was George W. Bush who pushed me over the edge when he said that he always asked himself, “What would Jesus do?” – and then went on to do exactly the opposite of what Jesus would have done. I’ve voted often for the opposition since.

This time I am voting a straight ticket: Democratic. I feel sorry for the good Republicans who will be defeated because of their party’s abuses of power over the past eight years. But hey, they tied their wagon to the shooting star, and will just have to go down with it.
 
As for John McCain, I wanted to be able to vote for him in 2000, but George W. Bush and his cheats stole that from me. Now I’m not so sure it would have been a good vote even then. I’m very sure it would not be a good vote now. McCain has sold out to the extreme Right, both religious and political. Sorry John – your day has passed.
 
Hypocrisy has a price. I believe the bill is past due and collectible on November 4.