WHY WOULD ANYONE TODAY WANT TO BE A REPUBLICAN?

Many past Republicans are so embarrassed that they now call themselves, "Independents".

…The logo of a fading political party

It is really disappointing that everyone that is eligible to vote in America, doesn´t.

As of 2008, only 54% of eligible US voters actually voted in the last presidential election. And those are the elections where the largest numbers of US voters actually show up. Unfortunately, most Americans take for granted a right and privilege that millions of people around the globe would and have died for, in order to have the same opportunity.

I ask the above question in this article´s title, based on some the Republicans latest actions and specifically due to the latest Research2000 poll that was based on the answers from questioning 2000 voters that self-identified themselves as "Republicans".

Now, the total number of Americans that call themselves Republicans has been steadily falling over the past few years, and we will discuss that issue further, later on in this article. According to the non-partisan group, PEW RESEARCH, in the 2008 election, only 27% of eligible voters called themselves "Republicans". And according to their recent polls, today that percentage is closer to 18-20%.

Now just why is it that the number of individuals that refer to themselves as "Republicans" still continues to decline?

Well, the Research2000 poll may be part of the answer. This is because, the Republicans that answered that poll´s questions seem to demonstrate that many of those that "do" call themselves Republicans, may not all be "playing with a full-deck". (Or as my late father would have said, "I don´t think some of their elevators go all the way to the top.")

In any case, they are way behind today´s curve for what most aware and knowledgeable Americans know or feel about the political world around us.

Here are some examples of the answers from the poll of 2000 of those individuals that today call themselves "Republicans":

>>> 39% of these Republicans want President Obama to be impeached. (For what, they don´t know.)

>>> 63% think Obama is a socialist. (But they don´t know what the definition of a "socialist" is?)

>>> Only 42% believe Obama was born in the United States. (Those must be FOX Cable fans)

>>> 21% think that the community organizers at ACORN stole the 2008 election – (But they have no idea how ACORN did it)

>>> 55% saying they are "not sure" If ACORN stole the election (But they don´t even know what ACORN is or does)

>>> 53% think Sarah Palin is more qualified than Obama to be president. (Sorry, no comment on that one)

>>> 23% want to secede from the United States (Then those individuals should leave the country….now)

>>> 73% think gay people should not be allowed to teach in public schools, or allowed in the US military (that figures)

>>> 31% want contraception to be outlawed. (Great, more unwanted babies)

If this poll is consistent with most Republicans, I can see why there are more previous Republican voters that are now calling themselves "Independents", and why the number of self-identified Republicans continues to fall.

In one recent article in the New York Times, one writer said that he had also been told by a worker at the Republican National Committee Headquarters, that due to the televised Republican Retreat meeting where President Obama attended a Republican House of Representatives gathering, many of the RNC members were embarrassed by the Republican house members lame questions and comments in their discussions with the president.

But these aren´t the only reasons that I ask; "Why would anyone today want to be a Republican?"

Let´s look at some other reasons:

>>> Seven key Republicans joined the Democrats to sponsor a bipartisan bill last Spring for helping deal with the country´s debt issue. But as soon as President Obama also said he would support the bill, the Republican senators that co-sponsored it, voted against it. With their seven votes, it would have passed the Senate with 60 votes.

>>> In 2006, Republican Senator John McCain said that if the heads of the military came to him and said that it was time to reverse the "Don´t ask, Don´t tell" rule about gays serving in the military, he would support their decision. This last week when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Military said it was time for this rule to be reversed, Senator John McCain reversed his vote and said "no".

>>> The Republicans in Congress said they had a health care plan that would "cover everyone in America and it wouldn´t cost anything". The reality is that their actual plan would only cover 3 million of the almost 50 million Americans that are not covered today and it definitely was not "free".

>>> For eight years, the Republicans voted to support two wars and an overly expensive prescription drug bill that our grandchildren will now have to pay for, while today they criticize the president for spending tax payer money to save the country and jump-start the very economy that they ruined through their government deregulation……?

>>> The Republicans (Along with right-wing talkers Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck) have outwardly stated that they want to "break the president". What kind of person wants to join an organization that wants to "break" a duly elected president of a democratic America? If the US president fails, so do the American people.

>>> The Republicans have become total obstructionist against everything that the American people want, regardless of whether or not it is in support of all Americans. What American wants to join that kind of political party?

>>> The Senate Republicans have seriously broken all past records for using the Senate filibuster. And the Republicans are only using it to prevent the Democrats from getting anything done in the Senate. They yell about everything being so partisan, while the Republicans are the ones that refuse to support any bills, regardless of who the bill benefits. Who wants to support a party with that much spite?

>>> The GOP wants us to legitimize the terrorist, Osama bin Laden and his terrorist group, al Qaeda, by prosecuting its members as "military combatants". By doing this, the US would be classifying the "terrorists" as legitimate "warriors", not the "common criminals and murders" that they actually are today.

>>> Even though we have successfully tried and prosecuted over 200 terrorists in US civilian courts, and only 3 terrorist in military tribunals, the Republicans now want the US to use military tribunals w/o giving the criminals their civil rights. Even President Bush did not do this and the American judicial system is the foundation for showing the world that no matter what, everyone in America deserves a fair trial regardless of the crime.

>>> Over the past years, the fact-check web site "MediaMatters" has de-bunked thousands of untruths stated by the Republicans and the FOX Cable Channel. Why would anyone want to be associated with an organization that is consistently found to be giving out lies and misinformation about America politics and their political activity?

>>> And please note, it is the conservative Supreme Court Justices whose latest decision is going to shred the foundation of the US Constitution. This decision was not approved by the more liberal Supreme Court Justices.

Yes, it´s a valid question: "Why would anyone today want to be a member of the Republican Party?"

Copyright G.Ater 2010

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