(Mass.) GOP icons lament party's drift, head for other side (endorse Deval Patrick)

[Zenlitened]

This lament is not limited to Massachusetts, either. Many people of conscience are no longer willing to call themselves Republicans. That's not to say they're all becoming Democrats. But they recognize that the GOP is a disaster, poisonous to our nation, and they want no part of it anymore.

GOP icons lament party's drift, head for other side

By Steven Rosenberg, Boston Globe Staff | November 2, 2006

For much of the 20th century, the Saltonstall, Lodge, and Phillips families took pride in their leadership of the state Republican Party. Now, citing their opposition to the war in Iraq and the state Republican Party's positions on social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, representatives of the North Shore families say they have decided to vote for Democrat Deval Patrick on Tuesday.

"I'm tired with what the Republican Party has become today," said 85-year-old Christopher Phillips, a former Republican state senator from Beverly who later was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to serve as US ambassador to Brunei Darussalam.

Phillips, who also served at the United Nations with the former president, said he decided to vote Democratic after meeting with Patrick. "He stands for hard work, and he's bright," Phillips said. He has not met the Republican candidate, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.

Phillips said his decision also was swayed by President George W. Bush's policies. "On the area of foreign policy," he said, "he's managed to turn a good part of the world against the US because of his ineptitude and poor decisions."

Last month, former state senator William Saltonstall, 79, officially changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat so he could vote for Patrick in the primary. Saltonstall, who lives in Manchester-by-the-Sea, served as a cohost at a Patrick fund-raiser last month in Danvers and helped raise $200,000.

(snip)

Like Phillips, Saltonstall said his decision to vote Democratic also was swayed by dissatisfaction with national Republican politics. "I've been active in the gay rights movement, because my daughter is gay -- she lives in Alaska -- and the party has not been favorable to people like her. And here in Boston, the local party has been back and forth on that sort of thing."

(snip)

Full story: http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/candidates/articles/2006/11/02/gop_icons_lament_partys_drift_head_for_other_side/

[atreides1]

1. You see

There are Republicans with real principles. Too bad there aren't more like them.

[Straight Shooter]

5. "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."

It seems a lot of Repubs are realizing that the GOP have turned their "party of personal responsibility" into a scam and a sham.

[SharonAnn]

2. I changed grom GOP to Democrat also. Back in 1982 - 1983.

I'm fiscally conservative and socially liberal in my political philosophy.

In 1982 - 1983 I realized that the GOP had become:
1. Anti-environmental
2. Anti-equality (especially women's rights and affirmative action)
3. Pro-religious right.

These are three very important issues to me, so I finally woke up and said "Hey! These are not my people!"

I considered myself Independent for a while but then realized that the Democratic Party stood for what I stood for. So I said "Hey! These are my people!"

When you lose the Lodges, Saltonstalls, and Phillips families then you've pretty well lost an hope of being credible political party.

[Arkana]

3. Metal.

I look forward to the landslide in MA on November 7.

[Lexingtonian]

4. those are the Boston Brahmin families

and without them, the Massachusetts Republican Party is basically just a bunch of used car salesmen.

[AlCzervik]

6. My Nana lives in Lexington, she agrees with you and so do i.

[Odin2005]

7. The Reagan Coalition is officially dead.

The libertarian types are waking up to the fact that the GOP's "Fiscal Responsibility" and "Gubmit should stay out of people's business" rhetoric is a sham.