{"id":1617,"date":"2004-04-19T14:29:41","date_gmt":"2004-04-19T19:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/1617.html"},"modified":"2004-04-19T14:29:41","modified_gmt":"2004-04-19T19:29:41","slug":"more-republicans-abandoning-bush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/more-republicans-abandoning-bush\/","title":{"rendered":"More Republicans abandoning Bush"},"content":{"rendered":"

You’ll have to forgive my ongoing fascination with these articles. I can’t even explain why I like them so much, or I why I link to them again<\/a> and again<\/a>. I know they’re just anecdotal and offer little, if any, predictive value for Election Day, but there’s something about reading items showing Republicans abandoning Bush that makes my day a little better. <\/p>\n

Perhaps it’s because I just can’t wrap my head around why Bush continues to enjoy the support he does among Republicans. Aside from party loyalty, I can’t really appreciate why they stick with him and overlook his deceptions, scandals, and failures.<\/p>\n

But in any event, Bronwyn Lance Chester, a self-identified Republican with a column in the Virginian Pilot (published in Republican-dominated Norfolk), has written an entertaining column<\/a> about life-long GOP voters who can’t bring themselves to back Bush this year.<\/p>\n

To an ardent believer in free trade, sacrosanct civil liberties, fiscal prudence, government-free bedrooms and avoidance of unnecessary foreign entanglements, Bush’s reign has been literally one disappointment after another.<\/p>\n

The number of e-mail screeds I’ve received calling me part of “the liberal media Bush-bashers” after disagreeing with Bush’s stance on any of those policies merely reinforces why dissident Republicans rarely open their mouths. There is always a price to pay.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But to hear Chester tell it, it appears the ranks of Republican Bush-haters are growing.
\n<\/p>\n

But some dissenters are beginning to quietly stir. My electronic inbox, a window through which the breeze of public opinion constantly blows, has lately been filled with missives from fellow party members loath to cast another ballot for Bush.<\/p>\n

Why? <\/p>\n

“Because I don’t trust him to be honest,” says a fifty-something federal law enforcement veteran who’s voted Republican in every election. <\/p>\n

“I feel the president is arrogant and the administration smug and I wonder what the freedom of speech is worth in an administration that personally attacks people who speak the truth.”<\/p>\n

Another Virginia GOP-er, a self-described “social conservative,” writes that his White House dissatisfaction “started when Bush stated that the campaign finance ‘reform’ bill he was about to sign ‘is probably unconstitutional’ — and then signed it anyway. That’s dereliction of duty.” <\/p>\n

A reader from Mobile, Ala., writes: “I voted for Republicans since Reagan, but I’m giving serious consideration to voting for a Kerry-Edwards ticket.” A Florida reader says, “I changed my registration the day Bush invaded Iraq.” <\/p>\n

A retired journalist wrote of his Republican wife, “She doesn’t know what she’s going to do come November.” And on and on. <\/p>\n

As to whom they’ll vote for this fall, many are flummoxed. A few say Kerry, but others, spooked by Kerry’s liberalism, say they’ll just stay home. One reader thinks he may “write in Alan Keyes.” <\/p>\n

“My friends tell me that I’m abandoning my party in its hour of need,” he writes. “I point out that my party abandoned me first.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maybe another reason I like items like these so much is because of group behavioral patterns. I want Republicans to know that it’s okay to turn on Bush because other Republicans have done the same thing. Some people find strength in knowing they’re not alone.<\/p>\n

So to my Republican readers who know in their hearts that Bush is wrong, keep your chin up. There are probably more people than you realize who are just like you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You’ll have to forgive my ongoing fascination with these articles. I can’t even explain why I like them so much, or I why I link to them again and again. I know they’re just anecdotal and offer little, if any, predictive value for Election Day, but there’s something about reading items showing Republicans abandoning Bush […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}