This is how my party left me, I did not leave it.
A bit of recent history is in order…
As a conservative/libertarian, “conservatarian”, my core values center around the following original Tea Party values & principles in early 2009:
– Reduced size of the government
– Balanced budgets & limited/zero debt
– True freedom of religion
– Truth in politics
That was known as the Tea Party version 1.0. A mix of any Democrat, Republicans, Independents…Americans coming together in unision saying “hold the elected officials responsible for their actions”.
Both party establishments knew this would be bad for their parties. It had to be, a grass roots movement that doesn’t claim an R or D before it that has overwhelming response AND asks politicians be accountable can’t be good in a runaway spending environment.
So the Tea Party, now version 2.0, is a known as a dissolved, deflated version of it’s original self as a faction of the hard core conservative area of the political spectrum. They parrot ideas to social media, not anything like 2009.
Sigh. So much for holding politicians responsible for spending our money. And our kid’s money.
As a conservative and Christian, truth is front & center of any belief or event. I have always believed that. And when I see my Republican party cut the ropes of it’s moorings time & time again, disillusionment of the establishment GOP becomes a real thing.
Reduced size of government?
Balanced budgets & limited/zero debt?
What the GOP candidates say, vs what they do.
Bush 41 Said: “Read my lips, no new taxes”
Bush 41 Did: Raised taxes.
Bush 43 Said: “New tone”
Bush 43 Did: The “New tone” expanded spending tremendously. Bailed out banks.
John Boehner: Backed down against expansion of government.
Paul Ryan: Same.
Trump isn’t Republican. He’s a Democrat with a few libertarian ideas. No thanks Donald.
Ted Cruz Said: When asked, will you bail out the banks?” Said: “NO!”
Ted Cruz Did: His wife was a top exec for the largest bank in the USA. His retirement loans are also held at the same bank. One of his top 5 campaign donors? That same bank. Of course he will bail out banks, they own him.
Rush Limbaugh taught me to always “follow the money”…And that I’m doing…and finding smoke and mirrors, just like every other candidate this election cycle. Sorry Cruz, you’re just another GOP establishment R and our country doesn’t need that.
We don’t need promises on reduced abortion. We’ve been told that for 40 years. Yet not a single republican has done anything in the Executive branch that would actually remove 80%+ of the non-necessary abortions in this country. Pulling funding from Planned Parenthood won’t provide a true solution, that was a political move. Standing up for right for people to live their life will.
NOTHING. The establishment doesn’t want to touch abortion, even though it’s candidates parrot the same promises year after year of wanting to address the issue. Millions have died because no one is acting to truly do anything for the ‘least of these’.
True Freedom of Religion?
True freedom, as the authors of the Constitution intended. Where you live your religion, without infringing on others. Simple stuff.
What do we have today in the GOP that’s considered righteous and God-like? A Kim Davis brand of ‘freedom of religion’ that is far from what the original framers of our country envisioned. You have freedom as long as it places you as victim, that no one else can encroach on your ‘freedoms’.
Not handing out marriage licenses is not a freedom of religion, it’s a personal decision to not hand out marriage licenses. If you don’t want to do that, fine, step aside. That’s it. It’s your job to hand out the marriage license, so do it. If you agree to make a cake for a wedding, make the best cake and be the best example of Jesus’ love and spirit you can when you deliver the cake to their wedding. That’s religious freedom. That’s faith and responsibility.
Instead we see a continual stream of victim-first Christians folks (I know, I was one of these for a long time) who claim their God is the God of the universe and is all powerful yet is so mixed in with politics from Focus on the Family, Liberty Counsel, Alliance of Defending Freedom, Family Research Counsel…all willing to spill lies and half-truths (which are lies) about social issues, especially LGBT folks. After all, there are many LGBT conservative folks like myself. I don’t appreciate lies being touted as truth.
Such as two bills currently on the Tennessee house today: one bill to force transgender kids to use the restroom of their birth genitals and the other to say clergy-only are allowed to marry anyone in the state of Tennessee.
Let’s not forget a third bill which will lead to even higher death rate of LGBT kids that’s being voted on this week as well here in TN.
All three bills backed by the same GOP who are against LGBT folks, even conservative LGBT folks. All in the name of being moral and God-like. REALLY? GOP: you do realize you’re pushing people out of your own party, right?
As a mostly conservative, devoutly Christian, transgender woman, I can tell you first hand how these bills will drive young kids far from your party. And the anti-bathroom bill? It will drive kids to suicide. Yes, suicide. You know not the abysmal struggle we face, yet you’ll never meet with any of them, you’ll stay in your ivory towers, insulated from their real lives. By adding pressure by fiat from adults they’ve never met but are running their lives, you’re only making it more dark and dismal for them. Will you take the time to understand this? I have a feeling you’ll only listen to those who pay your campaigns money, not the young ones who are just trying to make it through life with a minimal amount of bullying.
GOP: If you’re truly pro-life, that includes the lives of LBGT folks too (hey, we’re Americans as well!), you won’t vote for these bills.
To the GOP policay makers…life is precious, whether it’s an unborn baby that you won’t stand up for in any substantive, truly-changing way, or whether LGBT kids will be pushed into the dark corner of suicide from bullying and conversion/reparative therapy.
Heck, at least you’re consistent in being “pro-life”… because more deaths happen while hiding behind the pro-life label than not. Congrats!
WHEN DID MY PARTY TURN INTO BATHROOM COPS? We are under tremendous debt, immigration policy is a laughing stock, have no party head in this election yet we are so concerned about where kids take a pee?
That is why I’m not voting Republican this election. I can no longer tell the difference between a vicious, demeaning politician from many preachers who claim that if you “vote for candidate X you’ll go to hell”.
This is what the original writers of our Constitution warned us about…not mixing state with a state-sanctioned religion. We have this now, it’s so-called evangelical religion glued to politicians who think they have been appointed by God to make policy.
Nowhere is this more evident than Lebanon, TN with Mark Pody (R) “I believe I’m supposed to be speaking to the unsaved, to the people that are performing same-sex marriages, to the people involved in same-sex marriage, it is wicked, it is wrong and I am doing the best I can to warn them.”
God of course didn’t tell him that, but he’s unable to tell the difference between true freedom of religion and what passes as religious freedom these days.
Truth in Politics?
The GOP has drifted far out to sea away from it’s core, underlying beliefs that are best for everyone…those are the Tea Party v1.0 core beliefs. Tragically for the USA, the GOP is no longer a party filled with truth, it’s a party filled with ideology dressed in the drag of truth. They look pretty, but they devour our tax dollars as fast as the Democrats after the election is ovoer. A wolf in sheep’s clothing the GPO now is. The party has not provided and true action actually doing something about removing our debt. No true action on abortion in 4 decades. No reduction of government’s size and encroachment on every American.
I can’t tell the difference between Democrats and Republicans now. Except that Republicans do things “in the name of God”. (A fear-based, politically motivated God? Don’t think so!) Ugghhh.
No longer do I find much truth in the Republican party. Smoke & mirrors sold as “pro-American!” and “pro-God!”. Sell all you want, you don’t come through after the election. All talk, and more big government. 🙁
That’s why I voted for the last true Conservatarian, the last true guy who fired up the US economy, who reduced taxes, was imperfect, but did a service to all Americans by being in office, not disservice.
In the primary election this past month, I wrote in this statesman and true American who believed in all Americans, not just ones who gave money to him: Ronald Reagan.
He was the last candidate the GOP gave us that was worth voting for. Call it a protest vote, but I can’t bring myself to vote for any of these characters. I’ll vote Reagan him again in the general elections as there are no candidates who stand for these principles in 2016.