When I turned 18 I registered to vote as the 1st Republican in my family. However, following Clinton’s acquittal with 10 Republican votes I changed my registration to “no party”. I voted for GWB in 2000 and 2004 because I feared the Democrat alternative and I have regretted my vote both times. Other than Bill McCollum in the 2000 Florida senate race I have not voted for any other Republican since. I did not vote last week and I will never again vote for a Republican for any office.
I did not leave the GOP because it was not conservative enough for me in 1999. ThatÂ’s part of the reason why I phrased my question the way I did. I am still a conservative, just no longer a Republican and the PartyÂ’s stampede to the Left has made the split permanent.
The neo-con/paleo-con issue is part of why I expressed the question the way I did. Some of you say the GOP is not conservative enough for you- based on what you think conservatism is.
I am a staunch social conservative, but I donÂ’t support the likes of AlabamaÂ’s Judge Moore because I donÂ’t want the government promoting some form of Christian that I may not agree with.
I support tax cuts, but I also support the idea of using tax policy to encourage certain behavior (taxing gasoline to encourage the use of alternative fuels for example).
I support a national public school system, with a national curriculum, standardized testing and teacher qualifications, but one in which each school is managed by the parents/guardians of the students enrolled because state and private schools donÂ’t work (at least here in Florida where I used to be private school teacher) and having a well-education labor force and electorate is a matter of national security.
I do not like large corporations like Wal-Mart and Home Depot because they have oligarchic powers. Since the 1st Wal-Mart opened where I live in 1987 something like 15 other retail stores that had some or all of Wal-MartÂ’s product lines have gone out of business. One of these stores was a locally-owned regional chain that had been in business since the 1950s. Consumers are better off the more local shopping options they have.
I would support the war in Iraq if GWB knew how to win it (that is do not repeat the mistake we made in World War I: not killing enough civilians to make them understand that their country lost the war). I didnÂ’t support ClintonÂ’s involvement in the Balkans, but I am not an isolationist in that I think we should act whenever and wherever American property, lives or economic interested are threatened.