I am almost there.
For years, I have advocated involvement in the Republican party by conservative Catholics as the best means of creating an effective group dedicated to the principles we hold dear. Among these principles are life, liberty, and subsidiarity.
Many of the like-minded have had their frustration with the Republican party’s feckless, cowardly, and ineffective leadership in which show votes with no chance of becoming law are the a means to keep the base happy with the leadership and a sizable portion of the party go along with the progressive legislative agenda of the day.
We have have pinned our hopes on the American people to wake up, rise up, only to be disappointed time and again. We have put our hope in men elected with a promise no compromise with our governing elites, only to have them co-opted before even taking the oath. We have gone along with compromises and losses portrayed as victory because we were told that it is the best we can do.
All the while the party moves further and further away from the principles we hold dear and has shown itself ineffective and unconcerned with stemming the tide. All this while party elites look down on me and my ilk knowing that we have no place else to go.
So I as ponder all this I must ask myself, if the party will not stand for the principles I hold dear, if they have proven an ineffective block on the march of progressive death fetish, why can’t I go some place else. Isn’t it time?
I am now officially open to a 3rd party. I am ready and willing and able to renounce any affiliation with the Republican party. If my vote is nothing more than symbolic, which it seems to be, shouldn’t that symbol stand for something better than the weak and pathetic Republicans?
I am done with them. Yes the Democrats are mostly worse and I will never support them. But my support of the Republican party has done nothing to advance the principles I hold dear or to slow the progressive steamroller. I think maybe it is time to consider a 3rd party. Maybe a 3rd party cannot win, but perhaps I can help the Republican party die. It deserves it.
June 25, 2013 at 4:17 am
Sure as hell, took you long enough. Welcome to the rest of us.
June 25, 2013 at 5:14 am
Oh grow up, third parties are for adolescents. Duverger's law.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger's_law
June 25, 2013 at 5:16 am
Oh grow up, third parties are for adolescents. Duverger's law.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger's_law
June 25, 2013 at 9:23 am
those who are opposed to third parties forget that the republicans were once a third party. the current republican party isn't working. it may be time to throw it in the trash.
June 25, 2013 at 12:35 pm
Constitutional Party. Libertarians have too many social issues wrong. And the Green party is too focused on the wrong things.
June 25, 2013 at 1:14 pm
I "amen" Pat's observations. The Republican Party of my youth has deteriorated into the Democratic Party of my youth, and the Democratic Party has become little more than a tattered umbrella for disparate groups whose only unifying principle is hatred for freedom.
The focus must not be on winning elections by sacrificing principles — and babies — but a matter of doing right.
June 25, 2013 at 2:10 pm
Parties don't matter. The Early Christians didn't end legalized infantized, homosexual paedophilia, abortion, contraception, blood games, idol worship, etc. via politics or 'secular arguments'. They converted enough pagans into faithful Catholics to reach a critical mass in society. When they did, those things were criminalized. Forget politics. The New Evangelization is America's only hope.
June 25, 2013 at 2:13 pm
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June 25, 2013 at 3:04 pm
Amen Nathan!
June 25, 2013 at 3:22 pm
Yes, the third party option was taken from you a long time ago.
Congrats for waking up, though.
I think the gig now is separation from the secular world. Probably not enough of us Catholics per se, so it would have to be ecumenical. Used to be people knew where the good Christian neighborhoods were, and they also knew where the red light district was. The positive and negative examples existed and were obvious, and more people attempted to live a christian life. Now the secular imperialism claims jurisdiction across the whole world, and purposefully blends the sacred and profane, so as to confuse anyone who even attempts to learn by example. The first thing to do is admit the fundamental wrongness of that claim. The true law is what is written on your heart, not what comes out of D.C.
June 25, 2013 at 4:43 pm
We need to both evangelize and support third parties. That way we can have more Catholics and a way of making our desires know (with force) to our leaders.
June 25, 2013 at 4:48 pm
Amen, Pat and Nathan! The choice now is Dem and Dem Lite. I'm not voting for either today in MA for the open Senate seat.
June 25, 2013 at 5:03 pm
Nathan is right. We're too focused on parties and partisanship. The parties stand for what the people of this country ARE, and as a group anyway, we are certainly not followers of Christ.
June 25, 2013 at 5:39 pm
Agreed. I am sickened by the RINOs and their compromises as the "way to get things done". A Christian, Pro-life, Social Justice oriented, Conservative spirit, Constitution formed party can get a majority of the GOP and even some idealistic Democrats to become a viable force. McCain and his kind makes me want to puke. It is what can save the USA as the establishment GOP has no ideals, just politics as usual.
June 25, 2013 at 8:27 pm
those who are opposed to third parties forget that the republicans were once a third party.
This is nitpicking I know, but no, the Republicans were never a third party. The party formed, more or less, on the ashes of the Whig Party, though it also took in some northern, anti-slavery Democrats.
June 25, 2013 at 8:46 pm
Can you edit this article? I'd like to share it. There are just a few typos that negatively affect sentence comprehension.
June 26, 2013 at 1:09 am
I couldn't do this justice in a quote.
http://manlymen.org/node/14
June 26, 2013 at 1:58 am
Sadly it is true that the young new Republican Leadership (from my understanding) is NOT INTERESTED in the Family and Life issues anymore because they want to follow Mainstream America. My late father said that what was needed in this country is a strong 3rd Party to keep a close eye on the other 2. Because both of them are corrupt and support evil. There can be no more "lesser of the two evils talk" Tea Party? That we don't know
June 26, 2013 at 2:02 pm
Amen to Pat's post and to Mack's comment (among others of similar bent). No more voting for the Republican candidate just because he has the "best chance" of beating the worst candidate (i.e., Obama and others like him).
Though I'm not saying I won't be tempted if we find ourselves in a similar position in 2016. Here's hoping and praying that the Constitution Party puts forward a strong candidate we can support wholeheartedly against Hilary or whoever wins the Dems' endorsement.
June 26, 2013 at 5:50 pm
Tony, excellent article! Thanks for posting the link.