Stephen Green links to this Op-Ed piece by a voter who feels his party left him behind:
I voted Republican in 1996, 2000, and 2004. I believe in limited government, individual rights, free market capitalism, a strong national defense, and the right to keep and bear arms – positions that one normally associates with Republicans.
But I didn’t vote for a single Republican in 2008. I’ve become increasingly alienated by the Republicans” embrace of the religious “social conservative” agenda, including attempts to ban abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and gay marriage.
The Founding Fathers correctly recognized that the proper function of government is to protect individual rights, such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion. But freedom of religion also implies freedom *from* religion. As Thomas Jefferson famously put it, there should be a “wall of separation” between church and state. Public policy should not be based on religious doctrines.
Instead, the government’s role is to protect each person’s right to practice his or her religion as a private matter and to forbid them from forcibly imposing their particular views on others. And this is precisely why I find the Republican Party’s embrace of the Religious Right so dangerous.
(…)
Our system is a testament to the genius of the Founding Fathers, who recognized that the proper function of government is to protect individual rights, such as our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Hence, I believe the Republican Party should choose the first path – the path of limited government, separation of church and state, and protection of individual rights.
This is the America that brought my parents from a ocean away in hopes of a better life for themselves and their children. This is the America I want to live in. And this is the America I want the Republican Party to stand for.
To which Stephen adds:
The coalition between libertarians and the religious right was always a fragile one, something the religious folks seem to have forgotten the last few years.
And the fact that you still hear Republican pundits saying that Nov. 4th defeat means that the GOP needs to move even further to the right on social issues means that they still forget.
Nice! Would I ever love to see another election run by Ron Paul!?!?!
He understands the proper role of government – http://www.chuckypita.com/proper-role-of-government-ezra-taft-benson-money-president-secretary-agriculture-thomas-jefferson/ – and I’d vote for him every time he ran for office.