the rix mix

A fascinating switch by a person little known to me & the general public:

Reflections on Leaving the Party by Susan Eisenhower

I have decided I can no longer be a registered Republican. For the first time in my life I announced my support for a Democratic candidate for the presidency, in February of this year. This was not an endorsement of the Democratic platform, nor was it a slap in the face to the Republican Party. It was an expression of support specifically for Senator Barack Obama. I had always intended to go back to party ranks after the election and work with my many dedicated friends and colleagues to help reshape the GOP, especially in the foreign-policy arena. But I now know I will be more effective focusing on our national and international problems than I will be in trying to reinvigorate a political organization that has already consumed nearly all of its moderate “seed corn.” And now, as the party threatens to trivialize what promised to be a serious debate on our future direction, it will alienate many young people who might have come into party ranks.

My decision came at the end of last week when it was demonstrated to the nation that McCain and this Bush White House have learned little in the last five years. They mishandled what became a crisis in the Caucusus, and this has undermined U.S. national security. At the same time, the McCain camp appears to be comfortable with running an unworthy Karl Rove–style political campaign. Will the McCain operation, and its sponsors, do anything to win?

This week, I changed my registration from Republican to independent.

& this:

Hijacked by a relatively small few, the GOP of today bears no resemblance to Lincoln, Roosevelt or Eisenhower’s party, or many of the other Republican administrations that came after.

Her change doesn't mean much to anyone younger than the Eisenhower era. In my home, Eisenhower was the face the Repugs. My dad became involved in Repug politcs during the Fifties. I strongly disagree with Ms. Eisenhower that her party has been hijacked by "a relatively small few." If George W. Bush could have run for a third term, his bleak poll ratings wouldn't have prevented his party from crowning him by acclamation, the religious right holy rolling & speaking in ecstatic tongues over the glory of his godly eminence. The Repugs aren't even the party of Goldwater anymore, if they ever were.

You can't find a Repug blog, however humorous (& some are very witty), that doesn't have as an author a person who is basically a heartless bastard & bigot capable of enslaving their next door neighbors tomorrow & hitching them to plows if doing so would guarantee stable property taxes for another year. Among those Repugs claiming no strong belief in young Earth creationism, if a steady supply of cheap oil somehow required the castration of gay men & clitoral circumcision of lesbians, they would approve without a second thought. That's the party today.

So here is this decent, intelligent, rather old-fashioned Repug, who was able go from Eisenhower to Nixon to Ford to Reagan to H.W. to W., who now decides she cannot take another step, even if means voting for a "liberal." It can't be that difficult for Ms. Eisenhower, because this season's particular liberal is hardly more liberal than Nixon & considerably less liberal than Hubert Humphrey on domestic issues. The current Repugs will just say good riddance to a famous old name & probably label her a socialist & closet Unitarian.

Labels: bully pulpit, in the news, THE election