I am saddened, and mystified!
I would assume that if you can't find anyone in your party that represents you, then you would look for someone else where...Just to see. I would think dissatisfaction might cause people to think for a change. Alas, I am wrong.
For rational thought and critical consideration were never more useless than now in the GOP land of the left-behind voter.
How else can one explain the attraction and voter attention given to candidates the likes of Thompson, Romney, McCain, Huckabee, Giuliani, and Paul? Every one of them is an extreme of sorts. You would think that the GOP would be able to find one mainstream Republican that the majority of the party could get behind? Alas, that doesn't seem to be the case.
Instead, the candidates continue to pander to fringe and fundie groups.
They look for electoral success from the homophobes, the bigots, the least Christian of the Christians, the radically insane, the gun lovers, and more!
Why don't they try to draw the attention of all Americans with a comprehensive and broad policy plan, instead of focusing on a single issue?
* Thompson thinks he is Reagan, as if that is a good thing. Lest we should forget that President Reagan armed and trained Osama bin Laden, and Iraq. Don't even get me started on Iran-Contra...Remember that! I don't understand why no lights go on for every economics student in the world. When they taught you that Reaganomics was bad...Didn't that register? The only thing they have in common is being actors. And I thought the GOP voters hated Hollywood?! Similarities to Reagan obviously make me a bit nuts, but only because I don't see where people get that being like Ronald Reagan makes you a good President? I voted him back then, and have since wished I could take it back.
* Huckabee hates all things that are not his brand of Christianity. He wants to amend the Constitution to add his God to the way this nation is run. He hates the queers, and at one point wanted to quarantine them. A point he refuses to recant to this day. Yep, he wanted to isolate a segment of AMERICAN CITIZENS! I find it amazing that any rational, thoughtful American wouldn't see him as a tragic mistake for our Democracy! If he were elected, we may as well revert to when we were settled by the English and just forget everything that we have fought for in the name of "freedom." Cause "the land of the free" isn't at all what Huckabee wants for America. He wants only Americans to be "free" if they fit his moral compass, and his personal opinion of what is or isn't a good American. Perhaps what makes me saddest with this candidate is that so many are unable, or uninterested enough, to see what he really represents. How else can he get votes, when he is the antithesis of what it means to be American?
* Giuliani has nothing but September 11th. Actually, that's not true. He has so much more than September 11th, but he can't talk about any of those things if he wants to win. At least that is what he appears to believe. I have to wonder if he were candid about his past, if it would actually help his candidacy? In any event, with Rudy we have divorce, support of gays, organized crime, cross-dressing, and a mistress that was protected on the backs of the poorest New York residents. His tenure as Mayor is one filled with shady things that make him tragically flawed. Why would anyone vote for this man? He's qualified to be an ambulance chasing lawyer, and that's about it.
* Romney is a Mormon trying not to be a flip-flopping moron. And he's not doing it very well. His claim to fame is his championing the effort to make gay marriage illegal in his home state of Massachusetts. An effort which failed miserably under his leadership as Governor. As I understand it, he wasn't always afraid of the gays. My opinion is that his vocal fervor on this point was born of Presidential aspirations all that time ago. In fact, I remember thinking that at the time. Why else would something like this become such a hot button issue for him? Simple, at the time it was "the" issue on the political agenda. Pushing the anti-gay agenda was turning out voters, and working to win elections. I really believe this is when Romney got on the band wagon. But that's all he has. He is more obsessed with his faith than any other American. I think he would have been better off to never address it, or to stand firm in declaring that faith, though important to him personally, has nothing to do with being President of the United States. He is running for Commander in Chief, not Pope, after all.
* McCain is a flip-flop! He is one big Red, White, and Blue flip-flop, made in China with lead paint by a child of no more than 4 years. Are you getting the image? Not only is he the oldest, he is the flimsiest. He has changed positions more time than an 18 year old hooker on the strip in Vegas. He is for the war, against...And then for again. Against tax cuts, and now for. Torture...Bad...But I will sign this, just this once. For marriage, and now against. He is a politician with no personal identity beyond the one given to him by polls. He twists in the wind on every issue, and thereby can be trusted on none. Again, this is a candidate I once liked. I trusted and hoped for him way before George W Bush, but he has long since lost his luster in my eye. His opinions and policy positions have swung wildly from side to side since that first run at the Presidency just over 8 years ago...Showing his true stripes as a man who can't make up his mind who to be, what to do, and when.
* Ron Paul is a racist with interesting ideas, but no substance to back them up. Some might say he's crazy. He is a strict constructionist on the Constitution, which I can appreciate, but that's where it ends for me. He wants to abolish taxes & the IRS. Don't get me wrong, this sounds like a great idea to me, but how are we going to pay for everything? With a "use" tax? That will make America pray for the good old days of the IRS! And again, lest we should forget, he has some dubious and hate filled newsletters to his credit, that now he seems clueless on, but I doubt that to be the case. He hates black people, and has said he wished the Civil War had never been fought. All I can say is EWWWWWWWWW! Yet, even he is able to garner support by way of votes. I see his signs in Pennsylvania. And as I pass them all, I wonder to myself: "Are you really that dumb?"
So it's no wonder that the GOP nomination process is close, strange, and without a clear winner. That's what happens when you pander to the lowest common denominator: hate. Not all Americans, and certainly not all GOP voters claim to hate homosexuals, blacks, Jews, Catholics, Mormons, or the like. GOP voters aren't voting because the resumes of the haters aren't very inspiring.
And it seems to me that maybe now, more than ever (at least in the last 8 years), experience matters to the GOP voter.
And in the lack of experience, they are either staying home, or voting for Democrats.