Sane/Non-Trumpist Republicans - why are you still Republicans?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Wolfentoad is right. After Goldwater was nominated, many Rockefeller Republicans jumped ship. Did that halt the GOP's march to the right?

After 1992, many pro-choice moderate Republicans jumped ship. Did that halt the GOP's march towards becoming a pro-life Party?

After 2008, many college educated people jumped ship. Did that make the GOP any less anti-intellectual?

Can you see the pattern?

PiT is right, the more people in your given demographic leave, the less dependent on you it will be and the more hostile on you it will be when it inevitably wins without you. The worst mistake those liberal Republicans ever made, was too leave.

And Virginia is right, the left should be very afraid. An exodus of neocons and college educated Republicans towards the Democrats, will in fact serve to pull the Democratic party more in a pro-market/pro-neoliberal direction and push the Republicans in more of a nationalist-populist direction.

Basically a similar alignment to the 1880's minus the post Civil War racial and geographical paradigm.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Why am I a Republican?

I rather fancy the Constitution and its institutional building blocks. I wish Conservatives would emphasize equality under the law in the context of the constant fawning over the constitution because at the end of the day, that is what links modern Conservatism with Conservatism in its original state. Hobbes thought people were too arbitrary to govern themselves, Locke thought Monarchs too arbitrary and Burke thought both Government and the people were capable of excess and arbitrary rule. The Constitution matters because its checks and balances, seek to erect a barrier to arbitrary rule and thereby preserve the fundamental foundation for every successful democratic country, equality before the law. Republicans do not talk enough about this and that is why you end up with people like Moore, who make a mockery of the constitution, Federalism and rule of law. This should be what unites all Republicans be they conservative, nationalist, populist, libertarian or moderate and it should be non-negotiable.

We may talk of populist economics and Jacksonian Foreign Policy, but whenever you start talking of Populist or Jacksonian Constitutionalism you are in a very dangerous place, because that means arbitrary power, executive overreach, violating the constitution and inequitable justice (All were present in Indian Removal and Trail of Tears).

My preferred foreign policy is one that takes the realism and credibility of Bob Corker and meshes it with Jacksonian Trumpism. So basically a fusion of Bob Corker and Jim Webb. A foreign policy that identifies clear objectives that are within our interest, works with foreign counterparts to achieve those objectives in the least costly and most effective way possible. Stated like that, how can that possibly be anything but the "conservative" alternative to foreign policy adventurism be it in the form of nation building, or unnecessary entanglements that either don't achieve objectives, do so at too high a price or seek objectives that our counter to our national interest? Either way, the Republican party is slowly evolving in this direction because of demographic shifts in support, generational change and war exhaustion.

I support "New Federalist" approaches on education and healthcare. I generally like the idea behind Graham-Cassidy, but I think the funding levels have to be much higher to make it work, including direct grants to help rural states and also urban areas well. And certainly greater levels of funding to provide treatment for the those addicted to drugs. Aside from Joe Manchin way back at the beginning of the year, no Democrat has expressed anything remotely favorable towards this idea.

I want corporate tax reform and a rate no higher than 25%. I want a simplified code generally, with with as few loopholes and complexity as possible. Any conservative and any Republican should be able to unify around and agree to taking the US tax code and burning it. It is a convoluted mess that seeks to control and distort the economy. This doesn't negate the desire to remove loopholes that favor business, tax hedge funds and wall street generally to pour money back into main street. But the overall view of the code in terms of complexity and simplification is rather libertarian I would say.

I think market competition is good and where I am moderate on economics it is generally of a mind to restore choice where the private sector or gov't for that matter, has produced a monopoly. The same goes with regards to my openness to raising the minimum wage and EITC, since those policies make work more financially advantageous compared to entitlements.

I think the establishment in both parties has badly mishandled trade, failed to help those people and communities directly affected by it and failed to ensure reciprocity. I think the Democrats are going to become more supportive of the trade status quo, not less, solely because of Trump if nothing else.

I think that we should secure the border, including building a 1,000 mile double fence, which is superior to Trump's wall. I also support mandatory e-verify, the implementation of the visa entry/exit system, an end to the visa lottery and chain migration. I also support moving towards a skills based immigration system with formulas based on need, not whatever some industry can buy off through lobbyists to then import workers, fire all the domestic employees, but only after they train their own replacements. I would however support a Dream Act and a path to legalization for those already here, but only after all of the above is set in stone. The Democrats have completely gone off the deep end on this. The days of people like Heath Shuler and the blue dog border hawks are long over.


I am pro-life and generally pro-gun (though I did support Manchin-Toomey).

So yea, the Republicans are either already there or heading in my direction on a lot of issues, while the Democrats have become completely dreadful on most every issue of importance to me. That being said I have not pulled any punches in my criticisms of movement Conservatism, The GOP establishment, the base, the Tea Party, the Trumpists and Steve Bannon. Stupidity seems to equally afflict them all.