What's with Republicans leaving the GOP?

[struggle4progress]

[paul_fromatlanta]

1. There is no choice for conservatives who believe the party is not conserva

conservative enough - which is surely the main reason.

[struggle4progress]

3. I confess I have no idea what "conservative" means:

I've been a conservationist my whole life but "conservatives" usually oppose conservationism. They used to say in the 70s they opposed deficit spending, but that seems not to be true. They spent a lot of the 80s and 90s saying they wanted government off our back but in practice they seem to believe in lots of government interference in private lives: medical decisions, homosexuality, drug use. And for people whoi claim to be traditionalists, many have always had very untraditional view of the Bill of Rights.

Your explanation may be completely correct, for all I know ... but frankly I don't understand what you're saying, because (after thirty years of thinking about it) I've never been able to figure out what "conservative" really means ...

[paul_fromatlanta]

5. Oddly enough conservative is totally relative

Traditionally conservatives opposed change. Liberals or progressives wanted change.

But in a world where there has already been change, the definitions can be scrambled so conservatives want a mix of change and resistance to change depending on the topic.

Then we could get into breeds of conservatives.... :)

[struggle4progress]

6. At no time in my life have conservatives opposed "change."

They have opposed certain changes (such as ending Jim Crow laws, which of course did NOT always exist and hence cannot be justified by any deep look into the past) while supporting other changes (such as widespread environmental destruction, which ought to qualify as a change under any circumstances).

I don't think that the idea, that conservatives support change to return to a condition that existed before a prior change occurred, explains anything about real conservative politics, which often look to me like naked self-interest disguised with legends about a glorious mythic past that never really existed ...

[paul_fromatlanta]

7. Conservatives oppose change when they don't like the change

Like new social programs. Or extending discrimination protection GBLT folk.

[melody]

8. Because it's properly an adjective

It properly describes a noun, it shouldn't define it. We can't know what someone is by a label. We observe qualities and then give the person the label that fits them, not the other way around.

Some of the most "conservative" people I've known have lived wild lives and then turn around to cover up their history with the conservative label, whereas my liberal husband and I are tax-payers, homeowners, who've been married nearly thirty years. We've never used drugs, never broken a law, and I don't even talk loud in libraries. lol We've stopped teaching kids to think critically, so TPTB can tell the people what the "labels" mean.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

2. Personally, I would prefer th Guillotine

To the noose. Then we could put their heads on pikes.

[farmboxer]

4. Bush is the worst President in US History

the Republican Congress is also the worst Congress in US History.

[B Calm]

9. I like to think they are waking up and are now realizing how

they been had by the right-wing propaganda machine. It took them awhile to figure out the first three letters in conservative spell con..

[salin]

10. throw in some local and state parties

being taken over by far religious right, who are emboldened by bush and drunk with power, have been threatening 'party purges' based on a social conservative agenda that is enough to make a number of folks gulp with stunned (and frightened) amazement. For example, just a couple of years ago leaders in the Texas party were on the record at the state convention about their belief that they needed a purge of all who didn't match their social cons. agenda.

Iow, jump ship before being pushed off the plank?

THough I think that your explanation fits a number of the defections as well.

[Peter Frank]

11. None of the above...

...Many are genuine patriots who realize that admin is falsely patriotic.

[SoCalDem]

12. wishywashy

and most probably are NOT leaving..You don't suddenly abandon hardwired ideologies. The ones who leave probably were not all THAT rightwing. The moderates might bolt for a while because no one wants to identify with the losing side, but I would not consider them hardcore repubes..

The fundy, bible-thumping, "furriner-haters" will never admit they were wrong.. They might sit out an election, but they would never admit to themselves that they were wrong..

[struggle4progress]

13. This guy's pretty rightwing IMO:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2571911&mesg_id=2571911