Why I left the Kansas Republican Party

Given the growing moral bankruptcy of the Republican party and the seemingly ever increasing ugliness of the GOP base, moral and responsible people who have considered themselves Republicans yet  reject hate, bigotry and the embrace of ignorance find them selves with a choice: become part of the problem or leave the GOP.  I concluded years ago as the Christofascists (and white supremacists - the two are typically mutually inclusive) began to infiltrate and take over the party base, there was no place left for me within the GOP.  Since that time, many other thinking and moral people have left the GOP  have reached the conclusion I reached, especially with the rise of Trump and the GOP's normalization of the reprehensible.  One has no option but to leave the GOP and, by default, join the Democrats.  A column in the Washington Post by Dinah Sykes, a member of the Kansas State Senate, explains why she left the Republican Party and became a Democrat.  Here are column excerpts:

Compromise, common sense and listening to all sides of an issue don’t seem like countercultural values. Certainly, in the home I grew up in they weren’t. My parents belonged to separate political parties, and those values were part of the air I breathed.

But in my state’s Republican Party, such values have become increasingly difficult to find. And that’s why I’ve decided to leave the party.

I ran for office because I strongly believe that elected officials should serve the people they represent. They should take the time to hear from those on all sides of an issue and consider how people's lives are affected by policies. I didn’t see this from the incumbent, so I ran for a seat in the Kansas legislature.

There, I identified with and developed friendships with moderate women in both parties who embodied this kind of principled compromise and common sense. Despite the work of then-Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, to purge state government (and the Republican Party) of moderates, I believed the best way to fight for my state was to work with my moderate friends to try to reverse those changes; in fact, that’s what I had been elected to do. It’s what the people wanted. However, I quickly discovered during my own service what many of my moderate friends already knew: The changes were deeper and much more pervasive than I thought. To many in the Republican Party, “bipartisan” had become a dirty word.

I witnessed party bosses reinforce this message numerous times by punishing caucus members who disagreed with their leadership. I was even threatened early in my first session for advocating an end to Brownback’s failed tax experiment, a key issue in my campaign and one that the people of my district supported.

Making matters worse were almost daily emails from constituents asking if I agreed with the latest absurd tweet by the president or a racist statement made against newly elected Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) by a local Republican precinct committeeman. I did not.

Furthermore, I watched the 2018 elections in Kansas where the Republican Party nominated Kris Kobach, a man whose whole career is built on weaponizing fear and blaming his failures on others, for governor. I also watched as party allies attacked moderates in both the primary and general elections. The message was clear: Pragmatic moderates are unwelcome and unnecessary. Yet, those were the very leaders who helped push our state forward from the failed Brownback experiment.

If Kobach embodied the direction the state and national party were headed and ultraconservatives continued to dominate the platform, I knew my values no longer aligned with the Republican Party, and I no longer wanted to be a part of it.

I want to work with other moderate, pragmatic leaders on policy that helps remove bureaucratic hurdles and helps government better serve Kansans rather than having to constantly disavow rhetoric designed to divide people. I can do that in the Democratic Party.

My change to the Democratic Party has already shown me reasons for optimism. I have found that I am respected, my opinion is valued, and open discussions are encouraged. I see a future in which sound policy is valued above scoring cheap political points.

Many in our country and the state of Kansas desire a future in which common sense and common decency are the rule rather than the exception. As Americans, we are at our best when we put aside fear, put aside the kind of viciousness that comes when we ignore our better angels and work together for the benefit of the state. It is my hope that someday these qualities are valued equally by both parties, but now I look forward to working for Kansans as a Democrat.

Why I and Others Continue to Resisit

Two of the things that madden me about numerous "friends" who voted for Trump/Pence are (i) statements that I need to "move on" and/or "get over it," and (ii) their refusal to see the damage their foolish and/or bigotry inspired vote is doing to others and the country as a whole. Others focus on the unimportant much like proverbial soccer moms who obsess over children's sports and PTA squabbles as things around them turn ominous.   The mindset - beside being one of "we won" - is that if evils, corruption and bigotry are ignored, somehow they cease to exist and things will be OK.  As the previous post demonstrates, ignoring the toxicity of the Trump/Pence regime is not something LGBT citizens can do when we so clearly have a bull's eye on our backs. Trump and the Christofascists in his base have every intention of lessening our rights and making us less than full citizens. Individuals who would be outraged if they themselves were turned away by businesses or faced housing discrimination have no problem looking the other way when it happens to others.  Simply put, bad things happen when good people do nothing or worse yet allow themselves to ignore wrongs being done to others.  Nazi Germany shows where such indifference can lead.  A column in the New York Times makes the case for why resistance is essential.  Here are excerpts: 

When Congress has to pass a joint resolution condemning white supremacy and plunk it on the desk of the “president” — in an effort to force him to sign it and daring him not to — you know that we as a country are beyond the pale.

When Donald Trump’s fraudulent voter-fraud commission openly entertains the loony and unworkable idea of further winnowing the voter rolls by forcing potential voters to undergo the federal background check used for gun buyers, you know that this administration is trying every way it can to ax voter access and re-establish Jim Crow poll tests.

When Robert Mueller is circling this White House like a hawk preparing to descend on a chicken coop, you know that the stench of corruption emanating from this administration reaches to the heavens.

Indeed, on Tuesday, Axios reported this intriguing line:

“Republicans close to the White House say every sign by Mueller — from his hiring of Mafia and money-laundering experts to his aggressive pursuit of witnesses and evidence — is that he’s going for the kill.”

I often hear from Trump enthusiasts and accommodators that at some point resistance must submit, that the time for outrage is term-limited, that at a point, complete opposition registers as unfair and unpatriotic.

This always settles on me in a most unsettling way. How is it, precisely, that right becomes less right and wrong less wrong simply by the passage of time and the weariness of repetition?  How is it that morality wavers and weakens, accommodates and acquiesces?

It seems to me the oddest of asks: Surrender what you know to be a principled position because “moving on” and “moderation” are the instruments that polite society uses to browbeat the radical insisting on righteous restoration.  I see no value or honor in this retreat.

[E]very day that I wake and recall that a bigoted, sexist, intolerant, transphobic scoundrel is president, my stomach turns and my skin crawls.

We are now talking about an administration that is attempting to dramatically reshape the demographics of the eligible electorate, in particular striking at groups who overwhelmingly vote for Democratic candidates and overwhelmingly voted against Trump.

We are talking about the basic concept of whether our government, and by extension our country, advances unity or division, love or hate.

We are talking about an assault on our democracy by a hostile foreign power, the contours and scope of that assault coming into greater clarity every passing day.

It is crystal clear what Russia’s motive was: to get Trump elected. As CNN reported this week, Vyacheslav Nikonov, a member of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, said on a Sunday political show that to achieve world dominance, “the U.S. overextended themselves.” He went on to say that the intelligence services slept “while Russia elected a new U.S. president.”

How can any of us, if we are true patriots, be expected to simply calm down and suck it up when the Russians are bragging that the “president” of this country isn’t ours but theirs?

None of this is normal or right, and Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, in my opinion, has become one of the most dangerous men in America because he is endeavoring to make the abominable look acceptable. No, thanks, sir, I prefer my disasters not to wear a disguise.

Good people of good conscience are seeking to do what Trump only gave lip service to, and in his way bastardized. We, patriots, will not stop resisting this destruction. It is we who will Make America Great Again by trying to limit the damage Trump can do to us until he feels the reckoning of the damage he has done to himself.

To me, one of the ironies is that those who proudly wear their white Christian nationalism on their sleeves see nothing wrong with any of these horrors.  Indeed they voted for it and remain Trump/Pence loyalists.  Meanwhile, I left Catholicism years ago and, given what the Christofascists have done to Christianity, generally don't even consider myself a Christian anymore.  Yet, I still know the difference between right and wrong and will not close my eyes to hatred and evil.  Which model would Christ endorse?  I suspect that it would not be the one pushed by Trump's evangelical Christian supporters.