Why am I a grateful "ex-Conservative"? Here-

[bodecea]

The BEAUTY of being an INDEPENDENT is that you are free to think for yourself, and speak your mind without fear of betraying your allies.

The TRAGEDY of being an INDEPENDENT is that political power TAKES ORGANIZATION.

I would dearly love to become a member of a political party if I could find one that didn't make me want to become an assassin.

The reason the OWS protests fell apart.

So it had nothing to do with shitting on streets, cop cars, sidewalks? Nothing to do with being nasty motherfuckers?

Let me help you understand....that is part of the "fell apart" I was referring to. Glad to have been of assistance there, LGS.

 

[Vox]

Tea Party HAS succeeded - in 2010 shellacking.

THAT was the reason they were hounded by IRS

 

[Dot Com]

Sad to see many of the Repub voters here who are willingly assimilated into the murdoch TV/am radio matrix/hive mind.

 

[Pheonixops]

Ah the famous Libertarian Party "Children to the Wolves" platform. You really know your stuff.

Still waiting for that country that the Libertarians think they can get up and running.

Oh....there are plenty of them. Libertarians want extremely small, limited government.

And we see that many places, where the government is so small and/or weak, that it has very little power. Places like Mexico or Iraq, where the government is so weak, that religious or drug gangs have the true power.

Libertarians should look at the tribal regions of Afghanistan, or places like the Congo. The governments there are very small and limited, and thus, humanity's evil side come through where oppressive religious groups or violent criminal gangs are in charge.

As shitty as Democrats and Republicans are........I'd rather have them governing society than the Taliban, the Swahili tribe or whatever it is in the Congo today, or the Roman Catholic church, or the Zetas drug cartel. Because without a strong government, SOMEONE or something will take power and govern all people. Human history proves that.

There are many different degrees of Libertarians, as well as there are for Liberals, progressives, conservatives. Most realistic individuals realize that something like you described above won't happen and is most likely not desirable. Most folks I have run into want an intelligent non-interventionist foreign policy, civil liberties protected domestically, less regulation instead of too much (see bloomberg and New York City), freedom, and Liberty.
I think that some cities (if they vote that way) or townships should try the Libertarian model (private police, roads, infrastructure, etc. and see how it works out. Would it be more expensive without money from the State and Federal government to subsidies their infrastructure? How would they go about paying the corporations for the infrastructure and services?

 

[TemplarKormac]

I liberated myself from the Republican party last year, and I have not regretted it since. Being a Libertarian gives me the opportunity to psychoanalyze both sides of the aisle, I'd still have to say Democrats still take the lead in the stupidity department, with the Republicans nipping at their heels. Some Republicans may get offended by what I say in this regard, but I value honesty over loyalty. Without honesty, there can be no loyalty.

I got tired of blindly following a party with no direction in sight, the blinding cognitive dissonance and infighting left me wondering if this country would ever get itself back on the right track. I will not be led to my doom by witless politicians and pundits within a party which has no cohesion of its own. Democrats mirror this almost precisely, so the same can be said for them as well. My thoughts are my own, and I will not become a slave to the political machine.

Haha, that's pretty good, I agree. Democrats still lead in the stupidity and hopeless romantic department. But Republicans have always, and will always, lead in the assholes and arrogance department. I'd rather be around a bunch of hopeless idiots than a bunch of arrogant assholes any day!!!!

Better to be arrogant than stupid, bucs. This is why I disabused myself from the two party system. Both of them are stupid, both of them are arrogant and hopeless, if it weren't for their ideals, they would mirror each other perfectly.

 

[Ragnar]

If that kid was a true Libertarian, he'd take all his property and leave his Dad's house, and say "Dad I don't need anybody but myself, Im out" and the Dad should've respected his wishes and kicked him out and cut him off!!!

Ah the famous Libertarian Party "Children to the Wolves" platform. You really know your stuff.

Still waiting for that country that the Libertarians think they can get up and running.

It was the United States of America for nearly a century and a half.

 

[ScienceRocks]

The message of this thread is don't be a radical.

 

[Dot Com]

I applaud bucs90 for seeing the light. When I arrived here, he was one of the far right posters I encountered. Not so anymore. He sees that voting for big biz water-carriers (repubs & sometimes so-called tea partiers) isn't in his interest.

 

[SuMar]

Its been over a year since I decided I was no longer a good fit for the right wing conservative ideology. Everyone on here remembers me from the years past. I was as much of a yellow-rattlesnake flying right winger as anyone could imagine. But I didn't know why. Just because my peers and politicians in this area said I should be. Until I spent some time and really figured my values out. Since separating myself from the right wing, a few things are different that I never thought would be:

- I don't hate taxes. Sure, no one loves paying it. But, with the nonsense no longer clouding my thought, I see it for what it is. I like our roads. Our cops, our firemen, our military...I'm grateful for all of them. I don't have kids in school, but I'm glad we have them. It educates my younger peers, and that is a good thing. Welfare? Sure, it's abused. So is beer and internet. But would I rather those people starve? No. So I pay some taxes that go to welfare, and some gets wasted. That thought just reminds me that I'm lucky enough to not be on welfare, but helping pay for it. That's a good thing. I like buying food and knowing its been inspected and held to standards. I hear about other less fortunate nations and large numbers of people dying from food and pollution..........that could have been prevented with some simple oversight. I do not want to defund or abolish agencies that do these thankless jobs, and I realize my taxes fund that.

- I don't oppose gay marriage or weed; Im neither gay, nor a weed smoker. But, again, without all the people telling me to oppose it just....well, just because I need to........I can clearly see that neither of those harm me or my family. So whose business is it to ban either? Not mine. And not my government's. If you believe in a God, then its between you and your God. But I no longer oppose either. Both are harmless to me and my family. And neither me nor my government has a right to ban something that does no harm. I thought that was a conservative principle at one time.....and still should be.

- I no longer support war unless it is unavoidable. Support the troops, yes, absolutely. But they deserve our best. If we cant afford to take care of them when they return from a war, then we shouldn't be sending them. Again, taxes pay for that. I'm sickened by the war hawk politicians....who have private defense industry lobbyists at dinner with them. Those companies need war to stay in business. Our troops deserve better.



It truly is liberating to just analyze an ideology you adhere to from a distance and deciding for yourself if it is for you. You'll see that you may be doing it just because others tell you that you should.

Not all conservatives hate paying taxes. The thing that rubs conservatives the wrong way is the fact there is a lot of wasteful spending on entitlement programs. Most folks are sick of people taking advantage of freebies and refuse to better themselves.