Every Republican should vote for a Democrat

[laureloak]

Every Republican should vote for a Democrat
By Kevin Koehler
Old Gold & Black columnist
November 2, 2006

I am a Southerner, a conservative, and what the press cynically labels a Bible-believing Christian. I’ve voted in every election since the day I turned 18. I drank the Kool-Aid of Reaganism. I’m on the mailing lists. On paper, I’m what Karl Rove secretly wishes every American would be. And this election day, I will be voting for every Democrat seeking national office I can.

The Republican Party running Washington no longer represents my values; it frequently stands wholly opposed to them. And unless my faith in America is misplaced, the GOP no longer represents the ideals of the nation at large either.

Where once Republicans stood for small government and fiscal pragmatism, they now eagerly approve trillions in wasteful new spending, gregariously growing the relative size of government faster than at any time since FDR was President. Worse, they cut taxes at the same time, sticking the future generations, my generation, with the bill for their short-sighted attempts to buy votes with massive amounts government cheese – cheese they bought on loan, much of it from foreign powers. President George W. Bush, meanwhile, says, “How about a manned mission to Mars?”

Where once Republicans stood for states rights and ceding powers to local governments, they now stand for, well, the opposite. No Child Left Behind forces narrow-minded, federally mandated priorities on local. It’s a law that contains so much hand-fisted big government, it made Sen. Ted Kennedy smile ear to ear. And when the Terri Schiavo life support case made the news last year, Republicans in Congress rushed to interfere, steamrolling over the rule of law and local courts in the process. It was what former Speaker of the House Dick Armey rightfully called the “chilling act” of an “arbitrary and imperial Congress.”

-snip

http://ogb.wfu.edu/?id=3834_0_8_0_M