If Obamacare passes, I think I’m going to make it official. I’m not sure. It’s a huge step. I have never registered with a political party before.
But I think, if Obamacare passes, I am going to register as a Republican.
That’s how far away the Democrats have pushed me.
And remember, I voted for Carter, Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton, Clinton, and Gore before voting for Bush and McCain.
I used to vote, as they said in New Jersey, “Line A all the way.” I voted the straight Republican ticket in November.
The Democrats have become the party of the statists. Worse still, the nanny-statists. I’m afraid we are about to become, more than ever, the United Socialist States of America.
That isn’t the America I want for future generations. I will likely never vote for a Democrat again. They’ve turned too far to the left.
Politics isn’t about left or right, it is about big or small government. The bigger the government, the more dangerous it is.
Amen to that. THe Dems have gone way to far to the left
We are looking at a complete socialist revolution in the US right in front of our eyes. This radical man as the president sworn in to all the euphoria. Please God -help us now
Well Meryl it sure took you long enough.
Personally I made up my mind on that sunny, warm September day in 2001. It was seeing all those Palestinians dance with glee and pass out candies when they heard of the murders of some 3000 of MY countrymen.
Since the vast majority of “rank and file” Democrats were – and are even more so now – staunchly pro-Palestinian, I left the party immediately. While it has stagnated my career at the “not for profit” where I toil in obscurity, I sleep much more soundly each night.
Wow. It’s like you’re becoming the Bizarro Charles Johnson.
May I say it’s a good look for you?
J.
Well, not really, Jay. Charles went from left to right to left. I went from left to center and stayed there. I’m right of center on some issues, left of center on others. But I’ve come a long, long way from my hard-left liberal college days. Last trip to NJ, I got into an argument with a friend’s husband after he said Sarah Palin was the dumbest woman on earth. I told him that I’d seen her twice in Richmond. “On purpose?” he asked, incredulous.
Yeah. I’ve changed.
I seem to be following you, Meryl… but from a distance.
I’m moving from left to center-left, mainly out of a recognition that the Democratic party base and the progressive movement are increasingly anti-Zionist and anti-Israel.
I have thus registered as an independent and will absolutely not vote for Democrats in the coming election cycles.
Like Meryl, I didn’t vote for a Republican president until 2004 but I had been trending that way at least in my mind for a long time, maybe since the late Reagan years. The fall of the Soviet Union was a dramatic vindication of Reagan’s foreign policy so I was already thinking about voting Republican more often by the early ’90s. But in 1992 two of the most prominent figures in the Republican party were Jim f*ck-the-Jews Baker and Pat gas-the-Jews Buchanan so I held off for a while. And I have to admit I fell hook, line and sinker for Clinton’s “Sister Souljah” ploy. I was pretty impressed that a Democrat would publicly give the finger to Jesse Jackson like that.
I’m not sure that “rank-and-file” Democrats are overwhelmingly anti-Israel, or as leftist as the HoR. That is really the problem which drove me away for good, that the left-wing activists who hate Israel, hate America and want to impose radical leftist policies on our country may not be the majority of Democrats but they are clearly driving the bus. That may be why so many others get thrown under it. It is true, though, that there is much more antisemitism now among Democrats than Republicans:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/131238
I wish more of my coreligionists could see this and understand this. The continued Jewish support for Democrats and especially for Obama is driving me nuts.
“Personally I made up my mind on that sunny, warm September day in 2001. It was seeing all those Palestinians dance with glee and pass out candies when they heard of the murders of some 3000 of MY countrymen.”
There are a whole lot of people who seem to have forgotten about this, but I have not. Every time the administration tries to pressure Israel – every time a European leader makes a snotty comment about Israel – every time a college student starts whining about the plight of the “Palestinian” Arabs, I think about that dark, dark day. Shame on us Americans if we forget who our friends are… and even more shame on us if we forget who our enemies are.
It’s the nature of governments to grow. They often need pruning, but the only way to stop their growth permanently is to kill them.
The genius of the US Constitution is that it sets specific and legally binding limits on the government, that until now have been incredibly effective at keeping it from becoming overgrown and destroying itself. It’s like the tomato frames they use to grow prize tomatoes… without them, the plants would collapse under the fruits’ weight before it could ripen. Those limits have needed amending only 25 times, and the one amendment that tried to grant the government a new power instead of prevent it from naturally growing into areas it shouldn’t, was canceled by another a few years later (though not until much death and destruction ensued).
But the government still has to grow, as long as people continue to seek to improve their situation. Even the US isn’t large enough to support a sustained interplanetary colonization effort, let alone an interstellar one, and it it’s starting to look like we won’t ever be able to grow that big without a completely new form of government. Too bad none of the centrally planned government systems that were invented in the fast-paced days following the Industrial Revolution ever worked… it would be madness to uproot government systems that have been proven capable of managing a modern society before there is a fully tested and proven alternative ready to go.
I’ve been voting Republican with an occasional foray to Independent.
My main concern is the IRS’s part in enforcing the law.
Since we don’t know what’s in there imagine this scenario:
I’m not sure if anyone has considered the possibility this Health Care debacle will be the prelude to the largest private property land grab here in the USA.
The section of the bill where the variance of what an Employee pays and the Employer pays for Health Care coverage is to be considered Taxable Income.
With all of the bait and switch language in the bill, which at a later date will be activated, will there be a clause that taxes will be paid for the variance on what the employee/policy holder pays for co-pays and the actual cost of the service benefit provided?
Will this variance be considered as Taxable Income or maybe a Gift?
There is a section that gives the IRS access to American Citizens’ bank accounts in order to facilitate the timely payment of healthcare tax dollars
If this is the case, imagine the horror of suddenly trying to pay your mortgage, only to find the money is gone. The IRS determined you owed taxes on the orthopedic surgery your Ten-year-old son needed after breaking his leg jumping 3 cars down the street with his moto-cross bike.
Or maybe the heart surgery a spouse needed. The IRS determined what the cost benefit was deemed worth and the Taxable income increase of $150,000.00 on top of the $125,000.00 salary you already earn places the family in a really nasty situation.
The IRS then files a Tax Lien against the house and any other assets in order to collect.
So we segue to a whole lot of people are homeless because the IRS has to be paid and you still owe the balance on the mortgage for a house the Government now owns.
Is this plausible based on the knowledge gleaned through the acts already perpetrated by some of our elected personnel?
Meryl, with one exception (I voted for Anderson in 1980), your presidential votes match mine exactly. Registering Republican is a scary step, but I may yet do it as well.
You people left the move away from the Democratic Party for rather late. The takeover of the Democratic Party by leftist ideologues was visible in 1972, at least to those with foresight and eyes to see. I saw them then, at the caucases in Washington state, insulting and riding roughshod over the wishes of the rank and file Democrats. Since then the only Dem I could stomach voting for was Scoop Jackson, because of his views on American defense and Israel. His wing of the Democratic Party is dead now, its members retired or shifted to the GOP. I have watched the leftist ideologues extend their grip across the whole party in the years since. And, I might add, for those of you who were Dems then, they did that while you were members of the party or supporting it. Where were you? We are now seeing the logical culmination of the long march of the leftist ideologues through the Democratic Party to positions of great power.
It may be that they are now in a position of such power as to be able to ignore the will of the people and get “reelected” by fraud and gerrymandering. Are we going to lose constitutional government and liberty for a mess of moldy welfare state pottage? Take what the government gives you, and like it, or else!
Fortunately, Meryl, Michigan doesn’t have party registration so I’m not faced with this quandary, but I don’t know what I’d do if we had it.
And I was not just a nominal Democrat, nor was I just a dues-payer. I was elected precinct delegate several times, was on the county committee, assistant director of a state presidential primary campaign (Scoop Jackson), chaired a state party platform sub-committee, the whole thing. For years after I should have ceased doing so, I called myself a member of the Joe Lieberman wing of the Democratic Party. After 2006 that became more or less moot.
There are lots and lots of problems with the Republicans and I doubt I’m ever going to formally become one. But the Democratic Party in which I grew up no longer exists; it’s a different organization with the same name. We used to claim it was the party of the people and all that, but interestingly enough, I have read that the median income of Democratic voters in 2008 was a tad higher than that of Republican voters.
In any event, the Obamacare situation shows that the Democratic leadership at least has nothing but disdain for the actual people and that wasn’t the party I knew. I’m sorry this has happened but there’s no point in insisting on what isn’t there anymore.
If Obamacare passes, I think I’m going to make it official. I’m not sure. It’s a huge step. I have never registered with a political party before.
But I think, if Obamacare passes, I am going to register as a Republican.
That’s how far away the Democrats have pushed me.
I grew up in NC before moving to Richmond, VA 29 years ago. My family consisted of a bunch of Southern Democrats. One of my family’s best friends was Hargrove “Skipper” Bowles. He was a gentleman and a Democrat from the mold that’s becoming extinct. You might recognize the last name: his son Erskine was one of Clinton’s chief-of-staffs.
My point? I do have one and it’s this: The Democratic party lost me back in my twenties and -I believe- will continue to shed people except for the most socialistic among us. I think back on Mr. Bowles now and then and remember how good a man he was. I cannot help but think that he would be ashamed of what has happened to his party these last 30 years or so.
I just donated to the GOP’s Fire Pelosi page, and I’ll switch as soon as I can get a registration form.
By the way, what is the reason for the ‘age 26’ mandate? Are they trying to let Americans be eternal children? Are they supporting the 5th year women’s studies majors protesting at Berkeley and the other eternal graduate students? By the time you’re 21 or have had 4 years of college, you should have your life in order enough to get your own insurance/
Actually, that age 26 thing is an admission that the economy is going to suck so bad, college grads will be moving back home to live with their parents because they can’t find work. At least, that’s what I’m thinking.