Open letter from a constituent: "I am relieved to say I no longer think of myself as a Republican"

[kpete]

Link to tweet

[RKP5637]

1. It's no longer the old GOP, far from it. It has morphed into a criminal operation and a

regime of brutality and bullying, plus obstruction and espionage, and bribery.

[onetexan]

4. Agree, the GOP has morphed into a collective body of treasonous operatives for putin

bent on tearing down American democracy.

[AllaN01Bear]

15. it has become the party of that thing in the white house ( trump)

[SleeplessinSoCal]

22. it's the POT.

RIP GOP

[lastlib]

31. the Republican Syndicate.......

Republican Crime Ring

[PatSeg]

47. If the principles and objectives

of the republican party had not been flawed to begin with, it probably wouldn't have morphed into what it is today. For years now, republican politicians have been deceptive and self-serving in their attempt to win at any cost. They did the bidding of powerful special interests, while proclaiming they were the true patriots. They were willing to make false accusations about their opponents of wrong doing that they were often guilty of, all while waving the flag in one hand and the bible in the other.

It is no surprise that such people would devolve into sycophants to a vulgar, corrupt tyrant. They are the kind of people that brutal dictators recruit and use in their quest for power. All their years of self-serving has been turned back against them, revealing who and what they really are. It was only a matter of time.

[RKP5637]

49. Well said !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[UpInArms]

2. It is my fervent desire that not one Republican will be returned to office in 2020

I know that may be an unreasonable hope, but I shall cling to it nonetheless.

[lagomorph777]

6. I'll settle for control of WH, House, and Senate, even if we still have some Repustules in office.

[RobertDevereaux]

12. I share that fervent desire.

[Hortensis]

14. Well, since conservatives tend to value and need conformity,

I'm clinging to the hope that the majorities rejecting today's Republicans increase enough that the rest, of the voting middle classes at least, increasingly feel uncomfortably outside conforming conservative respectability.

[Norbert]

19. I will not vote for another Republican

As of Jan 2017. There are a few members of the GOP in the local level that I've cast ballots for. This has ended. If this leads to the GOP returning of some semblance of sanity then they are listening. If my action and actions of others leads to the end of the Republican Party, so be it.

[subana]

41. I would love to see that too!

One time James Comey was on Stephen Colbert's show & Colbert asked him if Trump should be impeached. He said he wasn't a fan of impeachment because he saw it as a betrayal of the people's votes. Then he said what he'd really like to see is for him to lose an election by massive numbers in a humiliating defeat! I would love to see that too but I would also like to see the republican party suffer a huge defeat!!

[smirkymonkey]

3. Bravo!

And many of the comments make me hopeful!

[Dem_4_Life]

5. Thank you Ryan Hussey!

This is encouraging to hear!

[3catwoman3]

7. What a powerful letter.

I would debate only the “slow crawl toward moral indigence.” Since Trump’s installation, it has been more of a “full speed ahead” race to depravity.

[Hangdog Slim]

20. I agree

My first thought when reading the phrase, "slow crawl toward moral indigence" was head long dash more like. And indeed it has been "full speed head" for quite some time - looking at you here Geo W. Bush administration!

[djacq]

8. "Not the Only One"

I can just hear the sizzle.

[FakeNoose]

9. Nice letter - I hope it gets widely read

This guy has guts, and he's making great points in this well-written piece.
Maybe he'll join the good guys and run for office some day.

[Hortensis]

10. That last is a strong line. Good for him.

[JHB]

11. Kudos to Mr. Hussey, but there is one caveat I'd like him to think on...

Knowing what you know now, please consider something that might have seemed outlandish in previous years: That all of the things the Republican Party said it stood for, which were the basis of your support for it, were more PR than reality. And that it's been that way for a very long time, longer than your lifetime, even.

Your former party did not get to be the way it is overnight. It didn't happen over a matter of months.

It happened because axe-grinding and demagoguery in the service of a conservative agenda, perhaps more right-wing than you'd like to think, became the lifeblood of the party.

The Republicans act the way they do because that's how they arranged their party. They Built That.

Now that you see enough that you can't go along with that anymore, please consider that maybe there's other things you didn't see clearly previously. And that those of us in the Democratic party are not radical wildmen, just people who saw these things much, much earlier than you did.

[RobertDevereaux]

13. Precisely!

[OliverQ]

16. Sadly I imagine this letter will fall on deaf ears.

However, letters like this bring up an interesting issue.

From what I've seen, people are abandoning the Republican party in droves because of how awful Trump is. Yet his approval rating has not really moved in 3 years.

Are pollsters not picking up these newly disgusted voters? I realize the issues of land-lines vs mobile, etc. but reliable pollsters are supposed to be able to overcome those issues.

[LAS14]

29. Yeah, that's what I'm wondering too. Maybe it's...

...that "approve of" and "voted for" are not the same thing?

[CaptYossarian]

17. If I were to write to Senator Ron Johnson (R-ussia) in Wisconsin,

I would address him as Komrade Johnsonovitch and feel sorry for the aide who had to read it to him.

[AllyCat]

46. Isn't he awful?

And to think he twice “beat” the great Russ Feingold. I think there is a reason for RoJo’s loyalty to Russia right now...

[CaptYossarian]

48. He's an embarrassment and a disgrace. And that's in a state that

recently elected Scott Walker, Sean Duffy, and Glenn Grothman. With his obvious intellectual shortcomings, I usually refer to him as "Moe-Ron" (Moron) Johnson, but having three names probably excites Teabillies even more, thinking the millionaire businessman (courtesy of his wife's money) is one of them.

As far as his Russian connection, we know that Putin and some mobbed-up oligarchs gave Mitch $3.5 million, but nobody has said what the rest of the GOP (Government Of Putin) has gotten.

[Shrike47]

18. Excellent writing. Impressive.

[Caliman73]

21. Meh. I mean it is good that he recognizes how bad Republicans have become.

The problem remains that he "believes in limited government and market based solutions to societal problems". This statement is the big problem within the Republican Party and conservative thinkers.

The market has very few solutions to societal problems. It is not designed to address societal problems. Markets are designed to get goods to consumers and capital to the owners of those goods. How do you solve the problem of poverty when the goal of capitalism is for the capitalist to accumulate wealth. Who is going to give a poor person goods, services, or money? For what? They can barely buy anything. If they are homeless then they can't really participate in the workforce. Capitalism as envisioned by Republicans is survival of the fittest and perhaps charity for the "less fortunate".

I am not saying that all Republicans are bad, selfish, and/or heartless but the system they advocate promotes those values. Government is the only entity that has the power to retrain the excesses of capitalism and when you limit the power of government to do so, you allow the wealthiest people in society to dictate the rules to everyone else.

[luvtheGWN]

25. So glad I read all the posts including yours, Caliman.

I was going to post similar thoughts, although probably not quite as eloquently as you have done.

You can add "fiscal responsibility" to the Republican trope. It's been shown over and over again with conservative governments -- both yours and mine -- that "fiscal responsibility" doesn't mean what we progressives think it means, and the statistics prove it. Cutting taxes to the wealthy and corporations means only one thing -- rising debt and deficits. It's indecent for wealthy societies to cut taxes and then try to convince the everyday voter that cuts in social services are necessary. Add to that -- there is absolutely no reason that the wealthiest country in the world cannot provide universal healthcare, which the majority of us consider a right, not a privilege in a first world country. Citizens, not corporations, should be the government's very first priority. In today's GOP, not so much.

Prior to the 2016 election, a pundit on NPR talked about the return of the "gilded age". He was absolutely right.

[LAS14]

28. No, that is not "the problem." Democracy depends on representation from all...

... rational points on various scales. I sure don't agree with the position of limited government, etc., etc., but I sure do long for the day when that's what the Republican party represented and we could argue about it and fight at the polls like sane human beings.

[Caliman73]

33. What we have with the Republican party now is what they truly are.

Republicans have always been restrained by the liberal ideas of due process and the simple fact that growth and change are inevitable.

The modern Republican party, beginning in the 1890's have been the representatives of the wealthy, which is why Roosevelt split with the party and formed the Progressive Bull Moose Party. There may have been "reasonable" Republicans in the past, but they were not "reasonable" by choice. They were constrained by the social constructs of the period.

Sorry but those Republicans who represented only a "differing viewpoint" represented the view that there is a hierarchy and that those with wealth deserve to be on top and those of use with less are subservient. Government to Republicans, serves only to reinforce the hierarchy and maintain the status quo. There was always the voice of the fringe who held the belief in this hierarchy and a disdain for the poor. The fringe, which was ALWAYS a part of the Republican Party was actually made up of those who wanted to shed the pretenses that Republicans used to maintain their public face.

The last Republican politician who did not commit some form of treason or illegal and unethical act to win the presidency was Eisenhower.

Nixon sabotaged the Peace Talks in Vietnam to win, then coordinated the Watergate break in to retain the presidency.

Reagan sabotaged the Iranian hostage negotiations then sold missiles to Iran to win the 1980 election.

GHW Bush was part of the cover up for Reagan and introduced us to William Barr.

W Bush was given the presidency with the help of dirty tricks in Florida, which was being run by his brother.

There is NO rational case for limited government, tax cuts for the wealthy, against universal health care, or most of what Republicans advocate. There may be some discussion around the edges of what constitutes excessive government power and overreach, but Republicans for the last 50 years have sought and accomplished a systematic dismantling of the government serving the needs of the majority of the people while trying to expand the government's power to suppress the rights of minorities, women, and to interdict in our daily lives through police authority and surveillance.

That is definitely the problem. Trump is the natural end point for where Republicans have been heading the last 50 years. The period of time between 1930's and 1970's where Democrats had the presidency and majorities in both houses was the backlash against the Republican excesses from the Gilded Age to the Crash. That is again, because Republicans enacted their "rational" policies of small government and "market based solutions to societal problems".

[JonLP24]

35. Great post

You sum up my thoughts.

I'd also add the Republicans weren't a big fan of Democracies if they leaned socialist. Pinochet is a Republican example of supporting "Democracy".

[ProfessorGAC]

45. Total Agreement With Jon

Caliman's post is terrific!

[pandr32]

23. Well done, Ryan Hussey

We have a two-party system that is meant to temper and test our policies along the way in order to keep our nation strong and functional.
We are totally dysfunctional now because the Republican Party has no desire to work as a co-partner in our nation's progress as we meet our challenges together and forge our path into the future.
I hope your letter is read far and wide.
Well done!

[micDROP]

24. Common Sense

I know many Repubs @ my job that have quit the party. They stand for nothing except paying less taxes. Unless you're in that 1% it makes no sense to be Republican.

[panfluteman]

26. It's Interesting to See the Relatively Short and Limited Historical Frame of Reference

That this older millennial has. For us aging (or aged) baby boomers, this terminal degeneration of the GOP under Trump is just the latest phase of a long, slow decline that has been going on, in one way or another, ever since Tricky Dick Nixon. Baby Bush was definitely experimenting around and testing the waters to see how far he could go - but because of his Poppy Bush, he had been raised in a governmental family, and still had a modicum of respect for the institutions of government, and the process of governing. But with Trump, we have hit absolute rock bottom - absolutely no pretensions of any governing standards whatsoever!

[LAS14]

27. I do hope this goes viral. nt

[crickets]

30. That'll blow your hair back.

What an excellent letter! For every one person who bothers to write a letter to their representatives, there are a number of others who agree but have not bothered to put pen to paper. Any representative who reads a letter like this one is foolish to forget that.

[Martin Eden]

32. Very well written

Every sane, thoughtful person should abandon the POT (Party Of Trump).

[Pepsidog]

34. Nicely written, one might ask what took so long but happy he saw the light. After Bush II Rs

abandoned all reason and sanity.

[Skittles]

36. LOL

it took until 2016 for this person to realize repukes are fucking DISGUSTING?

[DangerousRhythm]

37. Good for him.

I mean it honestly! At least he finally saw the light. I won’t judge anyone for not seeing it sooner. As long as he realizes it now, that’s progress. We need more of that.

[Cha]

38. That would be a relief! Glad the horror

that is trump is getting through to some in spite of m$m.

[subana]

39. bravo!

By now, it should be painfully obvious to anyone that the GOP no longer stands for anything except blind loyalty to their leader! After Clinton's impeachment, republicans used to say they were going to bring dignity back to the White House. And they also claimed that they were the party that stood for family values.

But now, they don't seem to be guided by anything! They deserve whatever happens next!!

[C Moon]

40. The GOP has become a party of the world's rich--no longer just the U.S. rich.

They've become a global party.
They don't care about the U.S. constitution.
It's unbelievable that so many lower class citizens demean their own lives and believe these billionaires.
It's a class war, and it's a world war.

[barbtries]

42. it's so hard for me to get over

that locking up children and stealing them from their loved ones wasn't enough. grab 'em by the pussy wasn't enough. the muslim ban. obstruction of justice, kavanaugh, emoluments, all of this was not enough. having said that, i am encouraged that clear disregard for the rule of law and the proper impeachment of a lawless president is swaying some republicans.

but still. how much did they overlook in order to stick with the republican party until now? i'll never really get it.

[democrank]

43. Good to read this former Republican's reality-based conclusions.

“Unaffiliated voter” is growing in numbers. I think they’re in the 40-something percent range now. I’m glad for every single one that leaves the Republican Party.

[GoCubsGo]

44. Welcome to the light, Ryan.

May your coat tails be long. BTW, he's not even a "reality television star." He's a game show host.

[ck4829]

50. K&R