Quote:
Originally Posted by Platapus
At one time you may have been a Republican. But perhaps the party changed and not you?
I was a Republican all my life coming from a family of Republicans. In the past 20 years or so, the GOP has changed and changed in a way that no longer agrees with my opinions.
Hence, I am now an Independent.
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I never defined myself as a Republican, in fact I registered as a Democrat as soon as I was old enough. Of course I was forced to stay inside and watch the Watergate hearings as a child, and my first memory of the Republican party is of Richard Nixon, so let's just say that the GOP and I did not get off to a good start.
On the other hand I never identified myself as a "liberal" either socially or otherwise until those who called themselves "conservatives" started bringing up a lot of stuff that I'd never really had much occasion to think about before. Basically they made issues out of things that were never "issues" to me before they started squawking about them, and the more they squawked the more obvious it became that I was on the other side of whatever line they were drawing if only because the way in which they drew it was so distasteful to me personally.
Now I think it's safe to say that unless there is a major purge of certain elements within the GOP, they've lost whatever shot they had with me. When I cast a vote it's more likely to be
against their candidates than
for whoever is running on the other side. I don't like it, but I refuse to just *not* vote because I'm keenly aware that however pointless it seems it's still more than a lot of people around the world will ever have the opportunity to do.