Why I Left the Republican Party

By Amy Branham

The Republican National Committee got together last week to decide on a new leader  and to decide on the way forward from this point after taken a beating last fall in the elections.  

Up until about eight years ago, and for most of my life, I voted Republican.  I was pretty much a fiscal conservative but also a lifestyle moderate (meaning that I believe that a woman’s body is her own, we should live and let live and everyone should be free to make their own decisions whether other people agree with them or not).  I liked the idea of smaller government, lower taxes and all of that.  I really did believe in the philosophy of pulling oneself up by their own bootstraps.  I believed that a person’s religion had absolutely nothing to do with politics and was something deeply personal and private – even though I lived a religiously Christian conservative life.

I watched a lot of FOX News, including Bill O’Reilly, and  listened to Rush Limbaugh on the radio and, even though I disagreed with them on a whole lot of stuff, pretty much considered the source as they were not in the business of news but rather, to make a buck.  They didn’t necessarily have the best interests of our country at heart but more so the best interests of their own bank accounts.  Still, I found some truth and interest in what they had to say.  I realized they were absolutely pandering to the republican base, but I was republican, so I didn’t really matter so much.     My affiliation with the Republican party began to disintegrate about nine or ten years ago, however.  It first began when FOX News Channel began to run  commercials for the mega churches so popular in Texas and the ads pushing Christian-related music.  That was when I started to see the connection to the far right conservatism of the republican party and just where it was leading.   I began to notice the paranoia that was being hyped even before 9/11 and how these radio and TV personalities attacked anyone who did not agree with their own personal views and philosophies.

Slowly but surely, the views and philosophies also became apparent to me in the political arena as well.  These people were not partisan at all and it seemed they were on some kind of mission to change the world into their own image and they had the backing of some really fanatical religious zealots as their base, let by some really charismatic wolves in sheep’s clothing under the guise of preachers and televangelists.  

Over the years, the rhetoric and the ugliness has only become worse with every changing day.  Eventually, as a nation, led in part by the ring-wing politicians who took over the Republican party began to lead us through fear, paranoia, and manipulation.  They have shown themselves to be crooks, perverts and pedophiles.  They have made their rich friends richer and the poorest among us poorer.  

They started a war with another country without just cause and labeled anyone who disagreed a traitor.  “You’re either with us or against us”.  There was no room for dissent, which is one of the very foundations our country was built upon.  If one didn’t wrap oneself in Old Glory and shout “God Bless America”, one could not possibly be patriotic.  

In all honesty, the democrats were not much better.   I’m not sure, today, that they are any better than the republicans and they sure have not developed any kind of a spine to stand up to the opposition.  

I am neither republican or democrat, but I did vote democrat in the last two Presidential election cycles.  These days I generally vote for the candidate I feel best represents my interests and the interest of our nation or, locally, my city.   Many times I have checked the box for a liberal or an independent candidate, depending on my knowledge of them and how I think they’ll best represent me.  

I really hope the American people have had enough of being held hostage by a right-wing, ultraconservative minority in this country that has taken one of our political parties hostage, and somehow finds itself back in the middle of the road where most of us reside.  

We need a better healthcare system, better schools and better teachers.  We need to find alternative sources of energy and we all need to work together to achieve the common goal of keeping our country and our Constitution alive and well.  

We need leaders who are more concerned about creating and keeping jobs in this country than they are in lining the pockets of the big corporations who keep sending our jobs overseas.   

We need leaders who put the needs of We The People before their own and before their rich buddies on Wall Street.  

We need leaders who will not start wars just for the hell of it and who will hold accountable those who do.  We need leaders who understand the very real, human cost of these misguided actions and will only make the decision to go to war after every other avenue has been tried and failed.  And we need leaders who will take care of our wounded warriors and their families when they return from the hell they were sent to.

So far, there have not been very many “leaders” who have been strong enough to stand up for us in either party.