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If you left the GOP, when & why?

calamity

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For me, the beginning of the end was "Freedom Fries." The why? Because I decided I no longer wanted to be associated with stupid. And the GOP pushing to take the French out of French fries really was a truly radical turn toward StupidLand.
 
Fair question.

I was never a full fledged "party before country" Republican as are most people in the GOP. In 2001 I ended all associations and identification with the GOP. Every year since that time I almost want to apologize to the nation for my dumbassery.

Bush was wrong. I kinda, sorta had a feeling years before. The party seemed as it was leaving me. Religionists began to piss me off as they started to suck the life out of the GOP and democracy.

Our invasion of Iraq was wrong.
 
Was never really a GOP'er but I did agree with some of there policies.
Since the Tea Party and Christian Evangelicals started being more of the GOP base I have to say I started pulling more to the left.
Now I am a Lefty Loon and I'm fine with that.
I can't find one GOP'er that I could vote for even though I agree with some of their poilicies I just can't stomach what they are doing as a whole.
 
Despite leaning to the left on a significant amount of issues, I have voted GOP in the past, and would have voted for John Kasich or even Chris Christie had either one been the GOP nominee in 2016.

But honestly, after I sat back and watched millions of GOP voters support a race baiting worthless corrupt sack of crap like Donald Trump, the lead birther, and a man who purposely panders to the far right/white nationalist crowd, I honestly will NEVER again even entertain the thought of voting for ANY GOP politician. At least, not until the GOP purges itself of the Trump segment of their party. The fact of the matter is, the GOP created the monster (the far right), by spending years using racial politics in an attempt to pander to white voters at the expense of minorities. Nixon did it, Reagan did it, even George Bush Sr. and Jr. did it (though to a much lesser extent). Trump? he took it to a whole new level. I honestly hope Trump drags that cesspool of a political party into the gutter with him, and hopefully in the future a more sane and moderate GOP can rise out of the rubble.
 
I registered GOP in 1980.

Yes, I know some won't believe that based on my posts, but it's true.

I became disenchanted with the party when Bush 43 let the PNAC (Cheney, Wolfowitz, and Rumsfeld) talk him into invading Iraq, but not disenchanted enough to change my registration.
I registered Democrat in 2016 when the Republicans went totally bat**** crazy (Lindsey Graham's words, not mine) and nominated a fraud and conman as their candidate.
 
I didn't leave the GOP, the GOP left me.

I responded on November 8, 2016 by voting for Donald J. Trump for POTUS.
 
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The final straw was Sarah Palin. I've gone pretty left too.
 
I was a Republican until, gosh, 15 years ago? I used to frequent Hannity's forum (yeah, I was that far gone) and one of the Mods there said to a woman who had to stay home to care for her disabled child, that he didn't care if she and her child ate dog food, as long as he didn't have to pay for it. I was shocked that someone could feel that way. Now I am not saying that all Republicans are that way, but I just could not see myself aligning myself with a party that was willing to forego social programs to help the poor, in order to help out their fatcat buddies. I had other issues that leaned me a little left, but that was the straw that broke the camel's back. That was it for me.
 
calamity said:
For me, the beginning of the end was "Freedom Fries." The why? Because I decided I no longer wanted to be associated with stupid. And the GOP pushing to take the French out of French fries really was a truly radical turn toward StupidLand.
Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty much the same for me. I turned off Rush, realized I was a true agnostic and also realized that talk radio shows are as real as WWE wrestling. That plus extensive travel to see what the world is actually like vs the crap the rw media tries to scare you with. Palin and all the alt right tea party imbeciles played a big part. The republican party used to have sense, but it turned into an ignorant bubba-fest.
 
I have never been a party member but I used to vote Republican. I voted for GWB the first time. He had been my governor in Texas and I was satisfied with the job he did. I begrudgingly voted for Kerry in 2004 because of the cluster **** Bush got us into. Since then I have voted Democrat, Green, and Libertarian but I am done voting Republican. The fact they nominated Trump just seals the deal. And I’ll only vote Democrat if I am in a swing state.
 
calamity said:
For me, the beginning of the end was "Freedom Fries." The why? Because I decided I no longer wanted to be associated with stupid. And the GOP pushing to take the French out of French fries really was a truly radical turn toward StupidLand.
Click to expand...

I got laid off right after graduating. I was out of work for 2 years after the dotcom bubble burst. I come back to work and find everyone has been replaced by L2 visa holders. The corporation I worked for had been outsourcing to a foreign consulting company who shipped workers in on L2 visas. I looked for the responsible parties in government and I found my own Republican party was behind this crap. They were just corporate shills.

I realized that almost all Republican policies are a corporate wishlist. Environment, regulations, taxes--it's a corporate wishlist. I was a Republican as a kid because I agreed with their tougher stand against Russia and believed in the Star Wars missile defense system.
 
I was brought up in a Republican family.

My parents, aunts, uncles, etc, all voted for Republicans all they way back to Nixon. My parents weren't even really all that conservative, they just voted for Republicans because that's what their parents did, and they do so all they way up to GWB.

I went along with my parents as a teenager, and supported Bush, his agenda, and the Iraq war. I believed in Bush post 9/11, suffered through the WMD embarrassment, his failure to respond to Katrina, and just believed in him for the longest time -- even though I was socially liberal.

But then the GITMO scandal broke out. I was utterly repulsed by what I heard, not believing it was possible for a president to be so dangerous. Adding insult to injury, Bush pleaded ignorance in regards to the GITMO tapes being destroyed, which made the calls for impeachment justified at that point to me. To this day, I can't believe Bush wasn't removed from office for it, or that it wasn't investigated.

Never looked back after that.
 
I took a detour from the Republican Party & can't believe I did this but actually voted Democrat for the only time in 2004
because of Bush's ridiculous foreign indulgences. Going into Iraq was the final straw but I even feared because of the rumblings
of Cheney that they might even venture into Iran.

2008 & 2012 I didn't bother voting but when I voted it was Republican except in 20004 though I never registered. So i registered for the
first time as a Republican in order to vote for Trump in the NY primary. I knew Trump, I liked Trump & once he announced I learned
that his policies were comparable to mine!
 
calamity said:
For me, the beginning of the end was "Freedom Fries." The why? Because I decided I no longer wanted to be associated with stupid. And the GOP pushing to take the French out of French fries really was a truly radical turn toward StupidLand.
Click to expand...

A better question: If you suck democrat dicks, when and why? No self esteem? Lack of intelligence? Want some of that free money? Can't bring yourself to do anything productive? No sense of self-reliance? Hate your father? Skull full of mush? What?
 
I was a Republican for 30+ years, until 2009. What pissed me off was the economy was crashing, and millions of good hard working people were losing their homes and jobs, yet Republican after Republican couldn't bring themselves to put the blame where it belonged, on the Banks and Wall Street, Corps, rating agencies, etc.. .. They just blamed the borrowers.

Republican politicians... Their Allies in the Con media...Etc.... All of them over and over blamed the little guy, they just blamed the borrowers. That's when I realized the GOP was all in for the rich and Corporations. That they didn't give a rats ass about the working man. And of BTW it's only got worse, that swamp Trump promised to drain.. It ain't drained, it's filled more than ever.

They offered NOTHING for an average, working man like me anymore. So I left.
 
Good question. ("You" as in general terms)
Being loyal to either parties makes little sense to me... independent voter since about the time it became clear that Bill lied after all. No, not a swipe at Bill, just a timeline. Don't take my vote for granted just because of party affiliation, work for it and show me results.
Best decision ever. If you think that one party is better than another, and you think that hating on one another or calling one another stupid because of their voting record, go right ahead.
Both parties, along with the media being desperate for ratings, have us just where they want us, at each other's throats.
So yeah, if you pride yourself of being a member of either side, do some soul searching. You spin and twist and turn and find excuses for your side. No one side is best. Working together, for us, that is what they should be doing. We didn't elect them to fight against each other. We elected them to fight for us.
 

Yep. I never would have voted for Kerry had not the Bush-Cheney crowd completely gone off the rails. And, the Right has only gotten worse from there.
 

Take off the partisan blinders. Your peripheral vision will improve, and you'll be able to see both left and right.
 
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What Republican party? It ceased to exist when Trump was elected.
 

Actually that seems to be all the "forgotten man's" complaints. Remember the ones that blame the gov'mnt for not being able to find a job, the sick coal workers getting a check from the government, the ones that won't go get additional education to get better jobs because of the "elite", the ones that can't compete so they are angry, the ones that hate there mothers for not staying home....Self reliance my ass sounds like a bunch of babies that want "jobs" handed to them by the gov'mnt...Why are they too lazy and can't compete? What is it?
 

If you're looking for hope from the GOP, look at the New GOP in the Northeast States. Then there's this Sen. Kennedy from Louisiana; I love this guy. A 2020 GOP ticket of governors Baker/Sandoval would be a slam dunk IMHO. A vice-president Kasich with a President Pence would restore normalcy ...
 

LOL Pence...sure put him on the ticket for POTUS. I would love it.

Charlie Baker another union buster no thanks. He's only reigned in due to the seriously blue legislature in MA.
 
calamity said:
For me, the beginning of the end was "Freedom Fries." The why? Because I decided I no longer wanted to be associated with stupid. And the GOP pushing to take the French out of French fries really was a truly radical turn toward StupidLand.
Click to expand...

Enter the Tea Party, exit me.
 
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