GOP, what happened to you? I used to admire you for your steadfastness and firm belief in the values the party was founded upon. In recent years, specifically since the start of the Bush administration, you've become the party of crony capitalism, war mongering and worst of all, the party of giving up liberty in the name of "national security."
I always used to think that the GOP was the party of American values, opportunity and no corporate bailouts. Now, crony capitalism is the name of the game, and corporations are always favored over the American people. I've lost all respect for you. Now, because of what you have done to yourself over the past decade, the party is a joke to many, if not almost all, independent voters. The establishment is a joke. Most of your 2012 candidates are or were jokes. Although some of them may have been capable of holding the title of Commander-in-Chief, your actions since 2002 have allowed the media to poke fun at every candidate who you throw out there – Bachmann, Perry, Gingrich, Romney, Santorum, Cain, Palin … you get the picture. Also, your policies flat out do not work. I will give you credit for trying to prevent the 2008 housing market crash by instituting proper regulation that was prevented by the Democrats. Aside from that, you have totally lost your way. It's one thing to promote a properly-regulated private sector, but it's another to allow insider trading and to be in bed with all of the big banks and other multinational corporations. Not only have you committed this deadly error, you have also become a bunch of wimps.
I do realize that from 2007-2011, there was a majority of Democrats in both houses of Congress, and there has been a liberal Democrat in the White House since 2009. In the face of this pressure, however, what have you done? Not stood up to the other side of the aisle as Reagan and his contemporaries did in the 1980s, but instead backed down.
You put up a fight in the spring of 2010 when Obamacare was shoved down the throats of the American people, but it simply wasn't enough. At least you stayed on the party line. It's one thing to reach across the aisle in the name of helping the American people; it's entirely another to act the way you have in recent years — either prevent any and all Democrat-introduced legislation from coming through, or just allow the majority to walk right over you at times.
Now, the candidate your party establishment is backing is not a conservative by any stretch of the imagination. Mitt Romney is a Massachusetts moderate, if not liberal, flip-flopper.
Newt Gingrich, backed heavily in the South, is seen as the least-liked candidate remaining in the field, according to a recent CNN survey. Rick Santorum, while liked by some, is seen as too much of a social conservative by many to be a viable candidate in November. That leaves Ron Paul.
I will admit I am an avid Ron Paul supporter. However, in the CNN survey mentioned above, he is the most likeable candidate among … guess who? Americans,. According to that sample, Americans like Paul. But apparently you, the Republican establishment, do not.
Is that because Paul wants to end the Federal Reserve, which has only harmed the financial prospects of the country since its creation in 1913? Is it because he wants to end the fruitless War on Drugs that has cost our nation billions? Is it because he wants to cut the power of the military-industrial complex and stop the war profiteering that has entered our political atmosphere in the last decade?
Is it because Paul wants to go back to the old ways of the Eisenhower Republicans, who believed in a smaller federal government and a non-interventionist foreign policy when appropriate, instead of the establishment's status quo?
If you continue to discredit Paul and throw all of your resources behind Romney and Santorum, who will have an uphill fight after Tampa if they do win the nomination, you will get what you deserve in November — even if that means an Obama re-election. You have not had a truly great candidate win your party's nomination to the presidency since Ronald Reagan. You have a chance to turn around the future of your party, and perhaps that of America, if you simply stop treating Romney and Santorum like they are the next saviors of America. Because they are not.
If you are true to your word, and want liberty in America again, you will treat Paul with respect. If you are true to your word, and want the national debt to be lowered, you will treat Paul with respect.
Because America already is. It's up to you, GOP. The ball's in your court now.
Signed,
A Republican-turned-independent
