A Republican asks why?

And the answer hurts. I sympathize with his pain because I believe that lots of good people could have been Republicans. But, like him, it's hard for me to understand how any good person, who made an effort to become at all informed, could vote for a Republican candidate next week. For John Cole, life-long Republican, "the last few weeks and months have really sucked".

I have come to the conclusion that the Republicans are so corrupt, so dishonest, so beholden to special interests and fanatical lobbying groups that [Democratic Senator Robert] Byrd not only looks to be the better option, but the entire Democratic party looks better.

I don’t know when things went south with this party (literally and figuratively- and I am sure commenters here will tell me the party has always been this bad- I disagree with that, and so do others), but for me, Terri Schiavo was the real eye-opener. Sure, the Prescription Drug Plan was hideous and still gets my blood pressure pumping, and the awful bankruptcy bill was equally bad, and there were other things that should have clued me in, but really, it was Schiavo that made me realize this party was not as advertized. And it is frustrating as hell.

[...]

And it makes me mad. I still think of myself as a Republican- but I think the whole party has been hijacked by frauds and religionists and crooks and liars and corporate shills, and it frustrates me to no end to see my former friends enabling them, and I wonder ‘Why can’t they see what I see?” I don’t think I am crazy, I don’t think my beliefs have changed radically, and I don’t think I have been (as suggested by others) brainwashed by my commentariat.

I hate getting up in the morning, surfing the news, and finding more and more evidence that my party is nothing but a bunch of frauds. I feel like I am betraying my friends in the party and the blogosphere when I attack them, even though I believe it is they who have betrayed what ‘we’ allegedly believe in. Bush has been a terrible President. The past Congresses have been horrible- spending excessively, engaging in widespread corruption, butting in to things they should have no say in (like end of life decisions), refusing to hold this administration accountable for ANYTHING, and using wedge issues to keep themselves in power at the expense of gays, etc. And I don’t know why my friends on the right still keep fighting for these guys to stay in power. Why do they keep attacking decent people like Jim Webb- to keep this corrupt lot of fools in office? Why can’t they just admit they were sold a bill of goods and start over? Why do they want to remain in power, but without any principles? Are tax cuts that important? What is gained by keeping troops in harms way with no clear plan for victory? With no desire to change course? With our guys dying every day in what looks to be for no real good reason? Why?

Commenter Mona has some insightful things to say about John Cole's painful metamorphosis. Talking about the Terry Schiavo debacle, she says:

National Review was publishing articles calling for Jeb Bush to violate court orders at the risk of impeachment, and send in troops to "save Terri's life." The elderly Florida judge (a Baptist and Republican) who had properly presided over the Schiavo case was receiving death threats and living with 24/7 sheriff's protection. And what were the "libertarian" pro-Bush blogs doing? Either jumping on the bandwagon in support of the crusade, or dithering around about how difficult the issue was and while, gee, we ought not get carried away, there are two sides to this & etc. This was a crystallizing moment for me, Cole and many others.

After that, all the stuff coming out about waterboarding, black prisons, illegal eavesdropping without warrants, all of it, it just made it impossible for any person paying attention to remain a GOP supporter.

Glenn Greenwald points out that the right-wing response was predictable:

For an excellent case study of the irrational and hollow mind of the Bush follower, see this response to Cole's post from John Hawkins at Right Wing News. The idea that Cole has had a genuine change of heart in his views, or that the radicalism of the administration and corruption of its followers has driven Cole away, never even occurs to Hawkins. He begins with the assumption that Cole is operating with dishonest and malignant motives, and thus proceeds to ignore Cole's points and, instead, attack Cole personally, in order to excuse himself and his readers of the burden of actually having to think about what Cole said.

The only thought which Hawkins' blindly loyal brain permits is the recognition that Cole is criticizing the Bush movement. Hence, and with nothing further needed, Cole is The Enemy, to be discredited and destroyed.