Why I'm Not a Democrat

No, I'm not talking about me, although I did register as "no party preference" for several decades.

That's the name of an article by an ex-Republican.

Pretty good article, except for a  few bits I disagree with.

I am immediately wary of anyone without core principles.

Bruce Bartlett wrote:

Once freed from needing to feign party loyalty, I found myself receptive to ideas I had once rejected out of hand.

He considers himself an intellectual?

Bruce Bartlett wrote:

I suppose the easiest way to get me to join is to find [...] at least one [...] big issue [...] around which intellectual-types like me can help build a tent that would include us.

I consider him a moron.

Bruce Bartlett wrote:

I remember thinking late in the 2016 campaign that I could not name a single policy proposal Hillary Clinton had put forward. I knew they existed — 10 point plans to fix various problems that were probably well thought through, but all of the points were small-bore and impossible to summarize easily. You had to go to her website and dig them out [...]

You're doing a good job of picking out "a few bits I disagree with."

There's no argument our current bi-party system is fucked.  What we need is a good Martian invasion to bring us together.

Or a couple of big natural disasters.

Our bi-party system should never have been allowed to flourish.
Have you ever read Washington's Farewell address?

Washington wrote:

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views.

The entire document should be read by everyone at least once, but do at least read the several paragraphs of the address beginning with the above quote. The man appears to have been prescient.

When I was in junior high school I did a report that traced back the party of the president, all the way back to Geo Washington. The names of the parties have changed a few times, but there has always been a conservative party and a liberal party. They trade back and forth, who's in power, throughout our history.

The funny thing I found was this. Republicans -- and the Republican lineage -- have not always been the conservatives. And Democrats and their predecessors weren't always the liberals. Sometimes they swapped, sometimes for years, sometimes for decades.

There has always been a dichotomy, a duality in politics but it's not always cut and dried. One party may favor conservative views on some issues but not others. The political landscape is always shifting, always shifting.

The Republicans freed the slaves. Democrats kept suffrage from passing for many years.