Why I'm not a Republican (and Won't Vote for Even a Moderate One)
Politics are a tricky business, especially where personal friendship is involved. We should live in a democracy where "Party Politics" don't trump our desire to vote for a qualified candidate of a different party.
But we don't, and this fact doesn't bode well for the future of American democracy.
What follows is an excerpt I wrote to a friend of mine who is running for local office on a Republican ticket. Maybe my position is wrong, but you certainly see my dilemma.
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Congratulations on your campaign and I commend you for not sitting on the sidelines. It takes a lot of courage to take a public stand and try to make a change, especially in an area where politics remains mostly an old boys club. Since I know you personally, I have no doubt of the integrity of your intentions. And I have every confidence in your competence for the position.
Unfortunately, I will not be able to provide you with any support. The most practical reason is that I no longer reside in Tennessee. In fact, my life has brought me to Toronto, Canada. After three and a half years of separation, Andrey and I have found a place where we can start making a life together. That place is Canada.
This is the second and most important reason that I cannot support your campaign: I cannot in good conscience provide support to a party whose policies have forced me into a self-imposed exile. You and I have discussed political affiliation before, and I continue to find it hard to understand why you embrace the Republican Party. It is all the more baffling to me because I know where you stand on given issues, and the Republicans have all but shut the doors of the tent to people who share your values. The moderate Republican no longer holds the center of the party, though I would heartily welcome a return of a party that focused on the values of fiscal responsibility, social libertarianism, and small, effective government. But this is not the case. The party has all too willingly embraced the far and radical right in what to me shows more concern with maintaining power rather than serving the best interests of the nation.
So you have placed your allegiances with the Republican Party, which is your choice and I respect that. But, though I respect you tremendously, I cannot give support to a campaign which will further bolster a party that seems hellbent on destroying everything that I hold dear about the American promise.
It is a party that seeks to prohibit me from loving the person that God has brought me together with. It is a party that feeds off of fundamentalist zealotry, which demonizes my very existence as perverse and unholy.
It is a party that has carefully cobbled together an empty rhetoric of "values" and shallow, flag-waving "patriotism," which only serves to rob the democratic process of any real discourse on meaningful issues and to inexorably polarize the body politic.
It is a party that has ushered in an era of American Theocracy, threatening to undermine some of the greatest accomplishments of our nation's founders.
It is a party that has used demagoguery and fear-mongering to open the doors of power and influence to corruption and cronyism.
It is a party that abuses the notion of national security, only to emasculate the same, endangering our lives and needlessly sacrificing the lives of brave men and women.
It is a party that conveniently embraces a brutally simplified model of capitalism, but then blatantly disregards the parts of market economics that inconvenience their vested interests and lobbies.
It is a party that speaks of fiscal responsibility, but ushers in a period of record deficit spending.
It is a party that calls itself "pro-growth," but their growth policies are most damaging. Their tax-cuts benefit the smallest and wealthiest group of Americans. They spend Reaganesque (rhymes with "grotesque") amounts of money on defense and pork-barrel projects. At the same time, they eviscerate programs which would actually help secure the long-term economic development (not just growth) and security of our country: education, healthcare, research, and infrastructure. (Recall your college economics course about "guns" vs. "butter.")
I could go on, but you get the picture. These are all issues that I take very seriously, and I have spent considerable time developing my personal political philosophy and economy. My views are no doubt shaped by my experiences: as a gay, Jewish man growing up in a conservative, fundamentalist South; as a student of religion; as an American who served my country and represented its values to Russia's emerging democracy for three years in the U.S. Peace Corps; as a person who lived in a former totalitarian society; and as a student of economic development who struggles with the questions of how market forces can improve the welfare of all peoples--not just the privileged few.
I spend a lot of my free time studying the precursors of authoritarian regimes, especially Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. I am frightened by what I see happening to our country and the dream of our forefathers to create a democracy committed to individual freedom and the pursuit of happiness through personal initiative. I resent that I have been compelled to leave a country which is just as much mine as anybody else's, because narrow-minded zealots use hate-mongering to condemn my love for another man. But beyond my selfish reasons, I am afraid that our once healthy democracy is being pushed towards a dangerous precipice of complacency and partisanship which is directly the result of the demagoguery inherent in the Republican strategy to become a permanent majority party.
This is a time to take a stand, and I must stand by the values which I believe are at the heart of our American democracy.
[T]his is not an attack on you or your beliefs, because I agree with much of what you believe. I also know that there are many good, intelligent moderate Republicans like you out there. But until the moderates regain control of their party, I cannot support a campaign that will contribute to continued dominance of fundamentalism and radical right-wing forces.
Finally, I understand voter frustration with the Democratic Party, too. They couldn't piece together a coherent vision if it bit them in the ass, much less bring a unified, positive message to the American people.
I wish you the best of luck in your campaign. I hope that our personal differences on party affiliation will not sour our friendship. Politics aside, the commission and the county will be lucky to have you working for their best interests.
Your friend,
brian
Tags: politics, Republicans, Democrats, partisanship, U.S. politics
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