Man without a Party

After leaving my post as a volunteer attorney observer (we need those in Florida) at a polling place in South Miami on election day, I spent the balance of the evening watching the election returns with a group of Democrat friends and many hugs, tears, and glasses of champagne, the handful of die hards who remained decided that I was a decent enough person that I should be invited to leave the Republican party and join the dark side.  This was not the first time in the past three months since I had spent many days and nights working phone banks and canvassing neighborhoods for the Obama for Florida campaign and even attended a rally in Miami when Senator Obama was visiting in October, but I know that I don't fit into the Democratic party.  I'm a fiscal conservative who believes in free markets and capitalism, and a social moderate who believes in limited government, personal responsibility, and unintrusive government policies.  

So, how is it that I have come to the point where I find myself not only voting for a Democrat, but working to ensure he is elected?  The Republican party is adrift in a sea of divisive partisan politics, engaging in unparalleled spending, trampling on civil liberties by spying on Americans and imprisoning people with a complete lack of respect for due process.  The Karl Rove Republican party is not the party that I joined many years ago and because the party has lost its morale compass with regards to fairness, justice, and equality, it has lost its soul and has been hijacked by the religious right who believed that by dividing the country, the moral majority would actually be a majority.  

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and other ultra-conservative pundits have said since election night that the party lost the election because its candidate was not resolute in conservative principles and have vowed to take the party farther to the right.  Clearly, the Republican party is at an impasse.  Moderate Republicans don't identify with either the Democratic far left or the Republican far right.  We are without a party.  

Becoming an "independent" isn't an valid option.  Independents are by definition without identity.  They decide each issue on its merits, which is respectable, but without a core set of values, like a small, limited government, Independents are destined to always be joiners rather than leaders.  I want my party back.

Real Republicans can take back the party of Lincoln by divorcing the party from the radical right (they are welcome to form a new party) and recommitting to its core principles.  By doing so, the party will actually grow (much like when the government cuts tax rates, yet collects more tax revenue) by being an attractive alternative for moderate Democrats and other libertarians.  

The time has come for the Republican party to regain its original mandate.  Religious conservatives should take note that we want our party back.  We must not tolerate Karl Rove's followers to destroy the Republican party.  The time is now.