Losing My (R)eligion

I've been battling with something for a while now. I really, really, really want to remove the R from my voter's registration card. I'm not a Republican, at least not in the sense of how the GOP sees themselves. To me, the only difference between Democrats and Republicans these days are basically defense issues. Neither party stands for smaller government, neither respects your right of liberty. The Republicans want to create laws that restrict which orifice your purple helmeted love warrior can invade and the Democrats want to create laws that force you to eat organically grown tofu and require that your children wear helmets when walking on any hard surface.

I guess the reason I've stuck with Republicans is because their perfidies usually are things I'm not totally against. I'm a social conservative who doesn't think you have to be a social conservative. So when stupid conservative laws are passed, they generally don't affect me. When lefty laws are passed, such as increased minimum wage laws, those bother me more because I am against them (as a business owner myself, if I have to increase what I pay my employees, I increase my prices to compensate which then causes inflation which then negates the effect of increasing minimum wage).

I'm probably better labeled a libertarian with a dose of reality (Neolibertarian). But since full blown Libertarians are generally nutjobs who are more interested in legalizing tar heroin than reeling in the Government's reach, I've not paid them much attention and realized that generally, I'll vote more for Republicans. I vote Democrat too, but usually only locally because I feel that Dems tend to have a better feel for their own. So I've kept my R title so that I can affect the candidate selection of the GOP since they're more closely aligned to my views.

This whole Terri Schiavo case has pushed me over the edge. I'm filing out my little card and going independent. While I feel sorry for Terri and her parents, having congress get involved is the stupidest thing I've seen in years. Laurence Simon says it best:

The party that wants to defend the sanctitity of marriage refuses to acknowledge it when a woman entrusts her wishes to her husband.
The party that wants government out of people's lives just convened an emergency session of Congress to butt into one woman's life.
The party that most rails against "activist judges" has just reset the process for the parents to ask the judicial system to review and re-review this case yet again until they get the results they want.
The party that says that thirteen years of UN Sanctions are not a rush to war thinks that seven years of constant court battles is a rush to let someone die.

Sissy Willis, of course, understands perfectly when she comments

Whatever side of the aisle, they're politicians, silly.

I realize that, but it's just annoying. Time for me to completely disassociate myself with what's left of the GOP and become a free agent. Maybe it won't matter in the Whole Sort of General Mish-Mash, but I don't want to be associated with them anymore.

rolled out on Thursday, March 24, 2005 8:54 AM