Reaction to me leaving the GOP after Capitol riot
I figured my recent column about leaving the Republican Party would prompt quite a bit of feedback. And it did — but with a much-friendlier tone than anticipated.
It’s refreshing to know there are many like-minded souls who pulled the plug, too, or are considering it.
“You will not be leaving the Republican Party,” one reader said. “It has left you.”
“From one former Republican to another, I can’t believe what has happened to the party,” another told me.
“Gee, I was just doing the same thing,” said another. “After that wonderful display of ‘patriotism’ we all witnessed yesterday [the Capitol riot], I feel I can no longer pick a side.”
I was just ahead of the rush. I wrote before the riot that I was considering leaving the GOP. I was disgusted with the fact that eight of Pennsylvania’s Republican congressmen had planned to contest the state’s Electoral College vote, and by the state Republican-controlled Senate’s refusal to seat a Democrat who had won a race that was being challenged in court.
My mind was pretty much made up, my only concern being that I would lose my ability to vote in the primary if I switched to independent. Then Trumpsters rioted through the Capitol the next day, and the primary didn’t matter to me anymore.
Associated Press reported Tuesday that following the riot, elections offices in Pennsylvania and elsewhere have received requests from people to revoke their registration in the GOP.
In Lehigh County, 213 people changed their party registration. The net gains were 188 for Democrat, third-party or independent and only 25 for Republicans. Figures weren’t available in Northampton County, but elections officials told The Morning Call’s Tom Shortell that several people asked how to change their party affiliation to something other than Republican, while none asked how to become a Republican.
Even Colin Powell, a retired four-star general who worked for the administrations of Republican presidents George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, is disavowing the party.
“I can no longer call myself a Republican,” he said Sunday on CNN, though he didn’t specify whether he had formally left the party by changing his registration.
“I’m not a fellow of anything right now,” Powell said. “I’m just a citizen who has voted Republican, voted Democrat throughout my entire career, and right now I’m just watching my country and not concerned with parties.”
Not all of the feedback about my decision to tear up my Republican membership card was glowing. I got a dose of what I expected, too. I was called a traitor and a commie and warned not to “let the door hit you in the arse on the way out.”
“You won’t be missed,” one reader offered. “Open both eyes and see things from both sides.”
I’m not the one who needs to open both eyes. Too many Republicans are blind in one eye and see only the color red.
One email that called me “just sad!” came under the subject line, “Trump abandoned.”
That says it all.
The writer considers President Donald Trump to be the GOP. Thanks for making my point. There are too many in the party who believe that and have followed him into the abyss. I refused to.
Going forward, I am disappointed about being unable to vote in primaries, as Pennsylvania is a closed primary state. My hope is that state lawmakers will continue to reform election laws and change that outdated practice. Thirty other states have fully open or partially open primaries that allow independent voters to participate.
I’m surprised no one asked why I became an independent instead of joining the Democrats. It’s not my party, either. It has its own fringe element advocating for democratic socialism. And that party has spewed its share of venom, too.
A few years ago, Rep. Maxine Waters of California encouraged people to harass Trump administration officials in public places. And Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan blew her debut by cursing out Trump just a few hours after she was sworn in.
There is no party that deserves my membership now. I’ll be happy to sit in the middle, where I’m not labeled as belonging to anyone.
As a bonus, my name won’t appear on any party lists, so I shouldn’t be getting as many annoying political calls and misleading mailers at election time.
The one regret I have about leaving the GOP is that the party needs people such as me more than ever right now. It needs people who aren’t beholden to the party propaganda and who advocate for moderate voices — and vote against candidates who stink.