The Plight of the Unhappy Republican

[bleedingheart]

I know that there is a lot of infighting here at DU and fights over candidates but I want to point out that the one great thing about our Democratic Big Tent is that there is room for discussion and dissent.
However, I find that for a lot of republicans that is not the case. I actually feel kind of bad for them.

My coworker voted for Bush in 2000 because she thought he was going to fix the education problems and because she got caught up with the whole Clinton lies issue. But you know what? Now that Bush has disappointed her left and right on choice, education and especially Iraq, she has a hollow feeling because dissent within her own party is not permitted.

She has no voice in her own party and there are more like her.

There are republicans for choice.
There are republicans who are against the war in Iraq.
There are republicans who are aghast at how Enron and WorldCom have gotten away with it...

So while there are message boards like the unholy one I shall not name who have followers that scare the life out of me. There are rational sweet people like my coworker who genuinely feel lost with their party.

I think that the whole time the media has been talking about the death of our party they have been ignoring the wasting away of the moderate and liberal republicans who are voiceless because the pushy right wing of their party is keeping them out of the light.

My coworker isn't going to vote for Bush in 2004 and her husband said that his vote goes to the Democrat who says they will get us out of Iraq.

There is hope.

[DealsGapRider]

1. Contradiction.

"dissent within her own party is not permitted."

"There are republicans for choice."

In truth, there are more pro-choice Republicans in Congress than pro-life Democrats. And there are openly pro-choice Republican cabinet members, whereas I can't remember the last openly pro-life Democratic cabinet member. And Pennsylvania Gov. Casey was prevented from speaking at the (I believe) 1996 Dem convention because of his outspoken pro-life position.

Full disclosure: I am mostly pro-choice. But there are a couple of issues that I am fairly conservative on, namely military/national security issues. I point this out as someone who would like MORE dissent to be acceptable in the Democratic party. And on this message board.

[bleedingheart]

7. Generally I think that the dissent within the DNC

has been minimized due to their fear of the media and being labeled one thing or another.

As for this message board there are loads of opinions about issues. There is a difference between dissent and finding that people on a certain site tend to have the same opinion on certain issues.... you can't really affect that...its almost up to luck and whether or not people want to engage in discussion.

[roguevalley]

2. I know. I've seen this too. The people inside the Republican party

have let the weirdos hijack them and probably the only
place for them, if the dems don't work for them, is to
be independent. I wouldn't be a repug if you gave me
copious amounts of money. there isn't enough money in
the world for me to go that low.

[leftyandproud]

3. ..

"There are republicans for choice.
There are republicans who are against the war in Iraq.
There are republicans who are aghast at how Enron and WorldCom have gotten away with it..."

Yes, we call them Libertarians.

[bleedingheart]

5. not all are libertarians.. my coworker leans more towards

the democrats than the libertarians.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. There is more and more moderate

Republicans are realizing that their party was taken by
a bunch of fanatics who have no room for disent.

They are indeed starting to flee the party

Now watch out, I have found out that we too have some
people on our side that hate disent too... yep we
have our own loons too.

The good news is our toons are not taking over the party, but
if they do... we will have the same problems and for the record
this is not anybody of the candidates running

[Vogon_Glory]

6. Amen to That

I hope more of us Democrats can welcome those moderate and liberal former Republicans who can't stand what the GOP has become.

If there are any moderate or liberal Republican lurkers out there reading this post as well as the original in this thread, I would ask them if they wish to continue to vote for a party that works against their interests, treats them with contempt, then kicks dirt in their faces when they dare to murmur a thought contrary to the controlling faction's orthodoxy. If they're fed up with such treatment, maybe they should give serious thought to getting involved with the Democratic Party.

I like to think that there is at least a small but growing number of onetime Republicans who got fed up with the Radical Right's remolding of the Republican Party and joined the Democrats out of self-respect.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Amen to that

and yes we should all extend our hands in friendship