Tuesday, June 2, 2009

An Open Letter to the Republican National Committee

Dear Mr. Steele and RNC,

Thank you for another in your series of entertaining letters asking me to contribute my opinion, but more importantly my money, to your cause. Upon reflection, I have a response prepared to your request for information on the "blueprint - a plan of action" for the Republican Party.

My response: Leave me alone!

I am not going to give money to the RNC. All I needed was to peruse the names running across your last letter - Michael Steele, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner. Sorry, but this does not represent the leadership I'd prefer to follow. I'm not running out to cheer for Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, either, but that is not the worry you should have. I don't want to recieve your letters anymore because I don't care to be associated with the Republican Party.

Since the elections in November I've checked out of politics. I took a little break to get away from it all, but as I nose my way back in I see that things have only gotten worse. This has nothing to do with the budget (a document that would have only looked different under Bush and the Republicans because they weren't honest about just how much money they were going to spend). This has nothing to do with wanting more tax cuts because I don't want any; I just don't want them to go up. This has nothing to do with defense spending because a 20% cut seems fine to me; we aren't going to do anything meaningful with the money other than keep some congressional districts afloat in government contracts. This has nothing to do with principles because both parties cashed in any principles they had a long, long time ago. My problem is tone.

Mr. Steele, I see that you called Senator Spector an opportunist. This is ironic coming from a black man elected to the chairmanship of a notoriously white organization after a black man was elected president. Besides, the Republican Party didn't like Sen. Spector much anyway. It was just a matter of time before he was pushed out of the party. Wouldn't it have been better to say you were disappointed with the Senator's decision, but he did what he felt was politically expedient and the voters have to judge whether that makes him more or less capable to represent them.

Meanwhile, Rush is calling people reverse racists. Ann Coulter is saying whatever it is she feels will get people the most excited. The direction of the party seems to be to belittle all the small minded people that disagree with the vociferous talking heads that now control the party. As one of those small minded individuals (and wasnt' the party once a proponent of the individual) I've decided to call it quits.

I approve of gay marriage, I'm against the death penalty, I'm not offended that Latinas might be smarter than white men, I have no compunction about destroying every embryo in every lab for whatever sinister scientific purpose we can find, I rather like immigrants and want more of them in the country, I think a fence is a waste of money and horrific symbol (may as well tear down the Statue of Liberty, or at least remove the plague), the Patriot Act was overkill, torture is torture is torture no matter what name you give it, Israel can maybe do what we say since we are the only reason it even exists, I do not believe in God and though Obama is a big spending liberal he hasn't upset me more than any Republican that has sat in the same chair.

With that said, I'm also not a big fan of government intervention, federal bailouts, gun control, tax increases, regulation, interventionist foreign policy or well, the government if its doing anything much beyond keeping me safe, my roads passable and maintaining equal opportunity to do whatever I please without hurting the next guy.

This does not make me a Republican. This would get me expelled from the party, in fact, so I here and now willingly relinquish any association with that label.

I am an American. I am an individualist. I don't need my talking points from Rush Limbaugh. I don't need to be belittled by the Chairman of the RNC. I don't need to agree with Dick Cheney to maintain my membership in any organization. Most importantly, I don't want anything to do with a group of people that have nothing more than name-calling in their bag of arguments. Be it Democrat or Republican the death of the American dream will come with a membership in a political party. I don't need that kind of blood on my hands.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amen! I'm pretty sure I've been saying for years that I don't feel the need to stick a label on myself be it political, religious, whatever. The hypocracy of the Republican Party has always put me off but I don't really want as much government as the Democrats want to give me. Seems I lose either way.

Thomas Paine said...

Well said ... which is why when I registered to vote I registered as a Libertarian. Is that going to make much of a difference at the polls? No. But I hope it shows Americans yearn for more than the current two-party system. The platform of the Libertarian Party is essentially a spirit of individualism ... and a notion that each of us should have to work toward, ahem--earn, anything we want out of life.