Why a Lifelong Republican Would Leave the Party

Why would a lifelong Republican desert the party of his "birth"?

Michael Stafford talks about lobbying his grade school friends to vote for Reagan in 1984.  (I remember similar lobbying (and disharmony as well) way back into the early 60's.. Yep, in the 1960 race between Kennedy and Nixon and the 1964 Goldwater/Johnson race.  I was on the side of the Republicans back then.)

From   http://lynnrockets.wordpress.com     

Stafford writes:

I'm a life-long Republican. My political affiliation has been woven intrinsically into the very fabric of my being.

My first political act was passionately lobbying my fourth-grade classmates to vote for Reagan over Walter Mondale in a mock election in 1984. As an adult, I continued to be a rock-solid Republican- I helped run my law school's chapter of the Federalist Society and its Republican club. And after the election of President Obama in 2008, I served as an officer in my state Republican Party. For the next two years, I devoted substantial amounts of my time, my talent, and my treasure to supporting local candidates running for office and to building the Party organization.

He continues:

As a local GOP official after President Obama's election, I had a front-row seat as it became infected by a dangerous and virulent form of political rabies.

He writes about the birthers, the  climate change deniers, the rise of the Tea Party, and the Ryan budget.. Yes.. a lifelong Republican actually does NOT like the Ryan budget and sees the Paul Ryan budget for what it is... He actually says "The wealthy win and the rest of us lose".  

A man with some sense! 

He concludes:  

Ultimately, leaving the GOP was necessary in order to maintain my own integrity. Leaving is also a public act of personal protest. I am under no illusions about its broader significance- it will have no impact on the trajectory of the political narrative in this nation. But that does not make it futile. On the contrary, as the shadows lengthen, such minor individual acts of defiance and dissent are more critical now than ever before.

Perhaps, one day, a reformed and responsible Republican Party will reemerge.

Perhaps..  What would that take?  

How many people out there, people now inclined to vote for Romney would need to think:  Maybe the wealthiest among us have enough... and the rest of us will get tired of losing?    

 HERE's the article, written by Michael Stafford and published at www.nj.com.