the state of things

[ironymaiden]

i grew up being told that Republicans were the party of Lincoln, the creators of the national park system, admirable advocates of small government, free markets, and individual responsibility. my brother was a volunteer for the county party org during my childhood, one of those people you see in a booth at the fair.

that was over by the time i was old enough to vote. the culture war was on. my brothers and i now consider ourselves independents, while my sister is a firm Democrat.

i think my father is still one of the faithful. due to the state of his health, it's something i just don't talk about with him anymore. i wish i could.

Christopher Buckley* nails it in two:

Sorry, Dad, I'm Voting for Obama

I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me.


*for the young and the furriners - Buckley's dad was of a disappearing breed - the conservative intellectual.

Comments

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

George Will is the brightest star still shining in that category :>.

Nice piece, lady ;>

[refractednotion.livejournal.com]

My parents were both Republicans too, but I got to see my father scream at the television fairly regularly whenever Ronald Reagan was on. I've been aware of the cultural shift in that party for most of my life.

[gaelfarce.livejournal.com]

Yup. Read both pieces and I have to agree. It used to be that the Dems would hit you with the guilt and the gut reactions and the Reps would lay it out logically. Now it's seeming a bit reversed though there is plenty of guilt being slung around by both sides.

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

And George Will seems like he's struggling mightily with cognitive dissonance when defending Republicans these days.

My mother still considers herself Republican, because of what the party was like before the Southern Strategy (and subsequent changes). But she's voting Obama because she thinks McCain's choice of Sarah Palin proves he's too senile to be President.

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

This election seems to be the first where R's are discovering that their party wasn't just leaning right, but was downright hijacked by a very small and extreme minority. Whether fiscal conservatives that aren't comfortable with the extreme social conservatives (that frankly look a lot like the extremists they claim to fear) or R's that simply refuse to take Sarah Palin any more seriously than they do Tina Fey -- I'm hearing a lot of the crossover vote this year. Not converts -- but real "he's lost it" or "they've gone nuts" kinds of crossover votes.

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

I'd vote for Tina Fey. At least she knows the issues.

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

You have a point, sir ;>