Former Reagan voter bids adieu to GOP, will vote Dem in next election

http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070909/OPINION/709090310/1037/NEWS97

I'll take a Democratic ballot, please
Former Reagan voter bids adieu to GOP


By Ken Braiterman
For the Monitor


I'm an independent voter, undecided so far in the presidential primary. But at what the media laughingly call the "start of the political season," I've chosen a party because I am deeply concerned about the country's future, and the importance of this election.

All Republican candidates but one are pandering to people who claim that their most uncharitable political beliefs come to directly from God and that I'm going to Hell. (Giuliani thinks he is God.) Barry Goldwater, who moved conservatism into the political mainstream in 1964, said before he died that conservative evangelical Christians are turning his inclusive, secular Republican Party with Main Street values into an exclusive religious organization with Wall Street values.

No national Republican candidate will get my vote this year. I will vote for a Democrat in the primary and support the Democratic nominee in November.

...

Since Reagan earned the power legitimately in 1980, Republicans have held on to it by polarizing the country on "wedge" issues like stem cells, evolution and pledging allegiance. As another great president said, "You can fool all the people some of the time (Iraq), and some of the people all the time (30 percent approval today)." But you can't fool all the people all the time. Republicans need to be kicked out this year, like the Democrats in 1980, and forced to earn their way back.