Lifelong Republican Discusses Leaving the Republican Party
[guest post by Dana]
This thoughtful piece resonated with me, although I left the Republican Party some time ago.
I left the Republican Party today. Not easy for me. I’m a lifer; started young, joined the cause, fought the good fights, made General. Helped a lot of great people serve in office. And dragged the odd clunker across the finish line, because Bob Dole needed that vote.
. . .
I’m still a conservative. Rock-ribbed actually. That will not change. Lord, how I despise the loony Left. I’m even suspicious of “progressive” eyeglasses. But whatever these jokers are that running the GOP show now are, kowtowing to the Orange Embarrassment, I’m no part of that. I do have hope for a rebirth of the once great practical right wing of the Democratic Party; centrist, far more fiscally conservative and not hypnotized by group-ism, enslaved to public employee unions and and terrified by the Wokestapo of identity politics. Doers, not talkers. Who, unlike most of the current crowd running the Democratic Party, know how to win elections.
. . .
So Conservative always, Trumper never. For quite a while now the New GOP (TrOP?) has made being both impossible. I held on to the R label, I guess, out of hope and Irish sentimentality. The hope remains, but the sentimentality is gone.
I no longer believe it is possible for a traditional Burkean conservative to stay in the Republican Party because nothing now makes me want to “stand athwart history and yell stop” more than watching this guttersnipe crew of fools and grifters harm America and work so tirelessly against our national interest.
So I await the day when we can flush the Trump era of the GOP into history. Maybe I can come back one day, or perhaps we on the thinking right can create something conservative, thoughtful, better and new.Trump’s demise will likely start after the 2026 House elections. For 40 years I’d feel a pain in my gut when Republicans lost Congressional races. I worked on a ton of them. It was my team, the Cause. Now, I can hardly wait. And the fact we have gotten to this point makes me very, very sad. So I’m looking to the future.
Hopefully we on the right can beat back the worst of this populist foolishness; it’s simply not how the grown-up governing business should be done. . .
Read the whole thing. It is well worth your time.
—Dana
Hello.
Dana (09545e) — 5/27/2025 @ 8:29 amGood Morning:
More like a vent?
I do agree about the deficit spending, but who is this person so mad at?
The voters?
The representatives?
The President?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9DO26O6dIg
Joe (584b3d) — 5/27/2025 @ 10:15 amThe current Republican Party?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/27/2025 @ 10:34 amHere it is….
Its the dang people.
Joe (584b3d) — 5/27/2025 @ 10:35 amMichael Murphy was the guy who mismanaged McCain’s campaign and undercut Palin at every opportunity. He left the mainstream GOP long before Trump came on the scene. He was toxic in the Tea Party era, too.
The only reason he has delayed to now is that he still had hopes of more campaign consulting, but now he has none. If this was, say, Romney or Scott Walker, I’d be impressed. But this is mostly a case of sour grapes.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/27/2025 @ 10:50 amHe has been part of every GOP #resistance group, helpfully repelling support. He endorsed Harris, Biden and Hillary. He is literally a Hancock Park
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/27/2025 @ 10:56 amRepublicanwho votes Democrat.I’m still a conservative. Rock-ribbed actually.
Facts not in evidence. While I agree with him about Trump, his support for the statist McCain [/Feingold] brought him closer to Trump than to Reagan. Just another pol chasing the campaign buck.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/27/2025 @ 11:01 amMy question is this:
If actual Republicans abandon the GOP to the Trumpies, who will be there to pick up the pieces when Trump falls? I see no plan for a new center-right party, and I cannot see the Democrats changing to something noticeably less toxic than Trump.
I know I’ve said this before.
But I ask all of you former Republicans: Have you anything positive to suggest? What are you working toward? Or is this just washing your hands of it?
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/27/2025 @ 11:12 am> If actual Republicans abandon the GOP to the Trumpies, who will be there to pick up the pieces when Trump falls?
As long as the people you call actual republicans are outnumbered by the trumpists, the so-called actual republicans *can’t* pick up the pieces.
The republican party will be Trumpist for at least a generation no matter what happens.
aphrael (ecd0bc) — 5/27/2025 @ 11:13 amI am going to say that depends……
Joe (584b3d) — 5/27/2025 @ 11:17 amWill the voters be happy with whatever the “trumpist republican part” does.
ugh…
“party” not part.
Joe (584b3d) — 5/27/2025 @ 11:17 amHe was part of the old GOP coalition.
He has no part of the new party. The things he valued aren’t primary goals anymore.
Time (3eef95) — 5/27/2025 @ 11:20 amMurphy speaks for many of us….and his use of adjectives spectacular.
The GOP is a fun house. The mirrors reflect a bizarre distortion that shocks my senses. I will be accused of not having done enough on…well, name your topic, but that’s an equally weird take on how 3/5’s of Iowans saw a twice-impeached, indictment collecting, and soon to be felonious carnival barker and said, yeah, that’s my guy. Screw DeSantis, screw Haley, screw Christie, screw Pence, we want the crazy guy…that was clearly telling us what he wanted to do and how he would do it. Sorry, but that ain’t on me. DeSantis wilted and only got to #2 on most Republican’s wish lists. The problem is that too many on the Right circled the wagons because authoritative people on the TV-tube don’t them it was dead wrong to hold Trump accountable for J6 and that minor activity of trying to disqualify votes and voters.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 5/27/2025 @ 12:51 pmName a successful pol who doesn’t chase the campaign buck. McCain won the nomination, just as Donald Trump did; and he was abandoned by those disagreed with him.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/27/2025 @ 1:41 pmBack in 2008, I recall sitting in a hot-tub listing my top ten things that bothered me about McCain vis-a-vis policy. Still, there was never a doubt that he had my vote come the general. The result was predictable, given the housing collapse and the growing unpopularity with Iraq. Since, I’ve grown to admire McCain’s approach…and though I still think he was wrong on some policies, he understood the weight of the office and the importance of reaching out across the aisle and building alliances with other countries. It’s good that he didn’t live to see this farce. Karma has yet to write its story here….
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 5/27/2025 @ 1:57 pmThe republican party will be Trumpist for at least a generation no matter what happens.
They will be Trumpist until the instant where that no longer works. They went from Nixon to Goldwater and back to Nixon in two election cycles.
Kevin M (7ab026) — 5/27/2025 @ 7:28 pmAJ,
Yet Mike Murphy was a weasel in the McCain campaign after the Palin choice. He’s still a weasel. I still await a principled stand for a new, better party from any of these guys.
Kevin M (7ab026) — 5/27/2025 @ 7:31 pmMurphy speaks for many of us….and his use of adjectives spectacular.
He does not speak for me. He is not seeking a solution when he might have had some power to do so. So, he’s just another part of the problem.
As bad as Trump is, and he’s terrible, I shudder to think what Harris and a 6-3 progressive court might be doing. We are no 10 years after the Trump takeover of the party and not one of these folks, not Chaney, not Romney, not Christie, not Nikki, not any of the Bushes, not one of them has done anything except complain.
Kevin M (7ab026) — 5/27/2025 @ 7:35 pmIt’s gonna be a long wait.
Rip Murdock (7d2651) — 5/27/2025 @ 7:52 pmBecause they represent a Republican philosophy that was rejected by the voters and is dead and buried.
Rip Murdock (8bab6e) — 5/27/2025 @ 7:55 pmMike Murphy was a Republican?
lloyd (1c6240) — 5/27/2025 @ 8:59 pmSarah Palin was an actual disaster as McCain’s running mate, Kevin, which spoke to McCain’s judgment. It was GW Bush who beat McCain twice, once in the 2000 primaries and again with the financial meltdown at the worst possible moment for McCain.
I pretty much agree with everything Murphy said, but my conclusion is different: I’m sticking with this suckass right-wing GOP, until an actual conservative party comes along, a Reagan Party or Reagan Caucus.
Paul Montagu (4700f1) — 5/27/2025 @ 9:24 pmI left the GOP in 2013 but decided to return five years later because I’d rather be a traditional conservative working from within, despite being in the sliver of the minority, but being on the outside looking in for a spell was invaluable.
Voters look at trump’s republican party if it were an animal as lions and tigers. Voters look at democrat party as slugs (chuck schumer) and sloths (hakeem jefferies) Never trump republicans would be what creature? As for never tumper leaving republican party they would say who cares don’t let the door hit you on the way out! Bernie and AOC are feared by the democrat establishment as putting end to their grift. DNC spending 20 million donor bucks to consultants grifters. Go to nascar race and ask why democrat party sucks!
asset (92ff49) — 5/27/2025 @ 9:39 pm> They will be Trumpist until the instant where that no longer works. They went from Nixon to Goldwater and back to Nixon in two election cycles.
Neither Nixon nor Goldwater was a revolutionary savior who was going to save them from the destruction of the country at the hands of globalist elites. That worldview isn’t going to change any time soon, and they will not accept a candidate who doesn’t share the worldview.
aphrael (ecd0bc) — 5/27/2025 @ 10:38 pm> I still await a principled stand for a new, better party from any of these guys.
The number of Republican *or* Democratic politicians at the state and national level who have any willingness or ability to make a principled stand is *tiny*, and the ones that do are driven out of power.
Furthermore, establishing a new party is next to impossible given current rules and culture.
You are waiting for a chimera that will never manifest.
aphrael (ecd0bc) — 5/27/2025 @ 10:40 pm“I still await a principled stand for a new, better party from any of these guys.”
There’s no oxygen for it. Chris Christie said it perfectly: “They [the GOP voter] just don’t care.” And what solidifies this is that Right-wing media is thoroughly compromised. They prefer drama and entertainment over competency, principle, and honesty. It’s almost the dirtier and more brazen, the better. In that atmosphere, what does Liz Cheney say….in what venue….and to which audience…and to what effect?
Sure, there is a conservative remnant but it’s been stuck in a funhouse and asked to sell normal. Most traditional Republicans are trying to ride out the storm and not be annihalated. It’s agonizing and tedious, but Trumpism must fall of its own weight.
You can’t count on traditional politics swaying people when the GOP has explicitly voted for non-traditional. Many people will prefer flirting with financial calamity over being bored by purported do-nothing Republicans. Authoritarianism is unseemly but at least it’s action. MAGA loves seeing liberals bristle about due process, the first amendment, law firms being bullied, Harvard being bullied, illegals being flown off, executive orders overwhelming the process, RFK feeding conspiracies, and alliances being shifted like a WWE plotline.
You can’t suddenly pivot and say, well by God, we need principle and sobriety. After defending and rationalizing madness for 10 years, how does one swivel to oh, gee, never mind? MAGA is invested. Fox News is invested. Can Sean Hannity suddenly start taking Liz Cheney seriously? It would be incomprehensible. Sadly as it is, this bus is going to have to spin off the road and topple down the crevasse before introspection happens. Police often have to just wait for a riot to burn itself out. We just have to pray that something will be left…..
AJ_Liberty (ef7e02) — 5/28/2025 @ 2:01 amYou had no problem with nixon’s southern strategy or reagan’s pandering to white trash racists in philadelphia mississippi in 1980 where the 3 civil rights workers were murdered. You were fine with lee atwater willie horton ads. You new they were a snake before you let them in. Now 70% of the party is populists. The other 30% are accepting populism over their conservatism to stay in power or waiting for gedot!
asset (92ff49) — 5/28/2025 @ 2:35 amThere were no “lee atwater willie horton ads”.
The Bush campaign ran an ad called “Revolving Door” which neither mentioned nor showed Horton.
The furlough program was introduced into the campaign by Al Gore, during a Democratic primary debate.
Dave (28e1f6) — 5/28/2025 @ 5:23 am