Political Crossfire Forums

Figure we should have a nice Partisan Thread because that's how the rest of the world works.

As some of you may know there was a time way back on PCF 1.0 where I, myself, was a Republican. I was always more in the moderate libertarian side of the party but I was active...and yes I did vote for Bush in 2000. I've since come around, am now a pretty firm member of my state's Democratic party (although the Dems often annoy me) and voted for Obama in both 2008 and 2012. So, what happened? I can bitch and moan about the GOP for hours, but we all have shit to do so I've narrowed it down to 3 macro points as to why I now completely mistrust the Republican Party:

1. The Iraq War (and the war on terror in general)
In sum, while it's true that many Dems went along with this war the Republican party pushed for it, got it, bungled it, and passed the buck. Their reasons for going to war were flat out false. It was a huge, bloody, and costly mistake, perhaps among the biggest mistakes in US history certainly of my lifetime. I place the blame for this mistake on the Republican party as a whole and will continue to until they tear their robes, nash their teeth, and rub ashes in their hair in mourning over their mistake.

2. Their Reaction to the Financial Crisis
I think both parties bare plenty of responsibility for creating the mess, and there were Republicans on a local level that tried to stop it, so I spit on both of them for the crisis itself. BUT as a group the Republican reaction to the greatest financial crisis to wrack the Western World since 1929 was baffling; they wanted more deregulation. WHA? That's what had been going on for the last 30 years! The financial market of 2008 was the most deregulated it had been since 1932...arguably since the Wild-cat Bank days of Andrew Jackson (since state and local regulators had been neutered). BUT they wanted more deregulation?

that don't make no sense!

3. The Expansion of Government
A common mantra among the Republican party is that "government is bad" or a various "government spending must be placed under control". Yet they as a party controlled the entire federal government for 6 years...and the size, scope, and cost of government exploded! There is also the issue of government authority, which many Republicans literally seem to worship...as long as that authority carries a weapon. With the massive expansion of law enforcement following 9/11 came a similar attack on civil liberties both with at best tenuous connections to terrorism. The Dems like to expand government too, but at least their more honest about their desire to do so.

So that in short, fine citizens of PCF, is why I distrust the Republican party more than the Democratic party. Thank you.

Actually, at least the GOP is pretty transparent at what they are at this point, because they can't even hide it anymore: plutocrats masquerading as "conservatives," distracting their followers with meaningless "social issues" and daily fauxrages. BTW did anybody notice that FOX went back to the Muslim card this week, apparently because they're running out of things to outrage their viewers about?

But before anybody gets all smug about the Dems, they're really just the flipside of the same coin, in the pocket of the same plutocrats--they'll just make some concessions on (ta-da!) social issues and the social program here and there.

It's a false choice. Lose/lose.

I will give you though that the GOP at this point is a guaranteed loss whereas with the Dems you might at least get something out of the deal, although I fear that something is just forestalling the inevitable.

If there were any doubt, all of it should have been erased after the 2008 meltdown and Obama literally rolled over to Wall St. instead of frog-marching them into criminal courthouses in front of cameras, while passing tough, smart regulation that nobody would have opposed (well okay the GOP) to prevent another meltdown.

It's my firm opinion that the whole right/left construct is merely an illusion to give us the appearance of actually influencing our leaders/elections/outcomes.

Which I realize makes me sound like Alex Jones but how much more evidence do we need at this point?

Eynon, thank you for publically coming clean. Much respect.

I agree with your three items, as well. Like I said in another thread, I'm not so much pro-Democrat as I am anti-Republican. While the Dems generally irritate the crap out of me, with each passing day it seems my disdain for the republican party keeps growing. To me, they are just so goddamn disingenuous it makes my blood almost boil.

You guys have the same problems (in a v broad sense) as we do regarding Party Politics. You end up voting for the slightly less F*** option. What a way to run a country eh ?

I can think of no reason to trust one more than the other. Neither party is trustworthy or worthy at all.

Voting for the lesser of two evils just begets more evils.

I mean, here we were, thinking George W. Bush was as low as we could go. And then...


Obama.

Holy...shit...


I don't trust Democrats. Never have, never will.

Correction. I trust Democrats...to be Democrats.


Republicans, on the other hand, used to stand for something great. But somewhere around 1965, they started to slowly, every so slowly, go a little bit crazy. And then, in the past 15 years, the pace picked up considerably. It was if some critical mass had been arrived at, and the party was suddenly overrun by a Noah-esque flood of batshit psychopaths, liars, hypocrites, and just plain RETARDED people.

A Conservative used to be the smartest person in the room. Now they are that cousin we used to hide in the basement in a straightjacket and kept heavily medicated.


But I think it is even more retarded to go full Democrat over this. I mean, talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire!


enyon, I am with you on most of your three examples. However, I am one of the few people left standing who believes the invasion of Iraq was the right thing to do. A war with Hussein was inevitable, as most of us who had to deal with him away from the disinterested eyes of the American press all through the 90s knew.

Better to have dealt with him in 2003 while we still had something of a capable military to do it than wait until the ongoing stripping of the military had reached a point where we would have been powerless to stop his next big move.

It was the prosecution of the war which was so unbelievably f**k up. It was the demobilization of the Iraqi army which will go down as the biggest American military blunder of all time.

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