The Republican Crisis (Not So Much)

 Reuters is reporting that some Bush-era officials are leaving the Republican Party because Trump.  They claim that the party has changed so much that they can't support it any longer.  It's too Trumpy.  Well, bye!

But, I think it is instructive to look back at your humble scribe's voting record to see what motivated me to vote the way I did.  I wasn't always a Republican, switching over during the Carter administration.  So, let's start there.

1976 - Carter/Ford.  Gerald Ford didn't stand a chance.  He pardoned Nixon, probably for all the right reasons, but a lot of folks held it against him.  Including me.  I voted for Carter 

1980 - Carter/Reagan.  By  1980 I thoroughly despised Jimmy Carter.  He wrecked the Army I loved, presided over an energy crisis, high unemployment, high inflation, and said that he lusted in his heart.  I didn't know much about Reagan, but I despised Carter.

1984 - Reagan/Mondale.  By 1984 I really liked Reagan.  He said the right things and seemed to love America.  His challenger, Mondale (who?) never seemed to resonate with anyone. I voted Reagan.

1988 - GHW Bush/Dukakis.  At the time, I thought that Bush had done a creditable job as Reagan's VP, and ho had ever heard of Dukakis?  I knew that Bush had some foreign policy experience  Bush was an easy pick.

1992.  GHW Bush/Clinton.  I wasn't thrilled that Bush raised taxes after saying that he wouldn't, but I never trusted Clinton  He seemed to me to be a standard Southern Democrat.  He'd say anything to get elected, and didn't care who he hurt on the way up.  I voted for Bush because I didn't trust Clinton.

1996 - Clinton/Dole/Perot.  This was the year of the three party ticket.  Ross Perot didn't think that Bob Dole represented the working class, so he ran on the Reform ticket.   Yeah, that was a disaster. America elected a serial sex offender.

2000 - Gw Bush/Gore.  I liked Bush, because I so liked his Dad.  I thought I'd give the boy a chance.  The election boiled down to a knife-fight in Florida, and Bush narrowly won.  I do think that he was the right guy to be in charge during 9/11.  Al Gore went on to make millions as a snake-oil salesman pmping Global Warming.  Many on the left consider Gore to be a prophet, and they're still selling climate change even today.

2004 - Bush/Kerry.  John Kerry is such a monumental sleaze that his own shipmates didn't want anything to do with him.  They even questioned his last Purple Heart.  I learned a long time ago to trust a guy's battle-buddies.  If they don't trust him, I don't either.

2008 - Obama/McCain.  America was ready fora black president, and McCain couldn't overtake the momentum that Obama built.  Obama represented the globalist view of the cultural elite.  Suave, debonair, he sold out America for a globalist agenda.  Under his watch, China thrived, Iran thrived, and America didn't.

2012 - Obama/Romney.  Obama enjoyed massive support for his policies, although I'll never understand why.  Romney was Republican-lite.  Romney enjoyed the support of the Republican elite, but he never resonated with a base that.... well.... he never had a base.  He was ust the other guy running.

2016 - Trump/Clinton.  Donald J Trump came out of New York a successful businessman and reality TV star, saying what a large part of America wanted to hear.  Clinton represented the corrupt wing of the Democrat party.  America decided to take a chance on Trump, and the political establishment hated him for it.  They immediately set abut trying to destroy him.  His first term brought a record economy, low unemployment, and a revitalization of the middle class.  Yet, his abrasive and combative political style made the opposition howl.

2020 - Trump/Biden.  This was the damnedest election I have ever seen.  Biden campaigned from his basement, but Trump had so pissed off the Democrats and the Republican elite that only the base of Americans despised by those who want to be the ruling elite voted for Trump.  Yet,he garnered more polar votes than any Republican candidate had ever earned.  

So, if the Bush-era guys want to bail on the Republican party because it isn't the party they remember, that's fine.  It is no longer the party of Bush, or Romney, or McCain.  The Republican party is no longer the class of the country-club set.  It's the party of the working stiff, the middle class businessman, the farmer and the rancher.  Many times we voted Republican as the lesser evil.  And, if you're the lesser evil, you are still evil.