I used to be a Republican

Maybe I'd like to be again someday, but it's not likely. Today the Republicans are the party of intransigence, not the progressives they once were.

It's not so much the Republicans, but the party as it is currently operating. The party has been taken over by what appear to most of the world to be crazy people. We have the neocons who have started one needless war and seem to be itching to start another. We have people who espouse Christian values and morality lying, stealing, and cheating. They pray loudly and publicly, but their actions do not reflect their words.

I once was a Republican. And this morning I heard a Florida GOP congressman on NPR. He made a lot of sense, talking about Congress working together to get things done. That was once the way things happened.

It's not just the GOP, either. Democrats have taken a harder stance, too, and are more confrontational than they were. I know why this is in my own case: As the GOP told me time and time again that I was the enemy, that I was not patriotic, and everything was the fault of people like me, the "big tent" got smaller and smaller. As the GOP hired more and more managers, all the while saying that they were making government smaller, as they outsourced $50,000 per year jobs to $200,000 per year private contractors who were accountable only to their corporations, as they routinely talked about solving problems and only made them worse -- I could see that the elephant was naked.

I just hope that some true conservatives manage to wrest back control of the party.

I really would like to respect the party again even if its values are no longer mine, or maybe the other way around.