Open Letter to Republican'ts: More Than Ever, We Need You to Become Obamicans

Dear Present and Former Republicans,

Daily, the little apostasies by former Republican Party faithfuls continue to mount. "Republican'ts" become "Obamicans." (There's an Honor Roll at the bottom of this post.) Will you be one of them? Will you cross the line to vote for Obama-Biden?

And as Senator Obama makes more gains in the polls and inspires more people to vote, the intensity, frequency, and ugliness of the hatred aimed at him by McCain-Palin supporters continues to grow in proportion. The waffles. The shouts for violence against Obama serious enough to invite Secret Service investigation. A hanging in effigy. A schoolteacher using the 'N' word to describe Obama's candidacy. It's even extended to a McCain-Palin supporter kicking a reporter to his knees as he legitimately covered a story of Obama supporters protesting the McCain-Palin rally.

During the primary that decided our Democratic nominee, I inveighed passionately and so did my sister MOMocrats again and again here against the slightest hint that the Clinton campaign was injecting racial bias into the dialogue.

But up until this point, I haven't said much of anything against these outright bigots whom John McCain has defended--and even praised. Any of you who've read my past posts might be puzzled at my silence. Why the discrepancy?

Because, well, RACISM FROM REPUBLICANS?

FULLY EXPECTED.

There it is. It's shocking that there is still virulent, baldfaced racism--hate in pure form--but that it issues from the Republican Party? No surprise to me.

Because to my mind it's been the party that has risen to dominance since the 1980s on a slimy surge of racism, whether it was Willie Horton or a thousand other seemingly-coded ways of invoking and stoking fears about racial difference. Whether it was a presidential race or Republican Governor Pete Wilson's anti-immigrant and anti-poor administration in California. Because it isn't, nor should the years of accumulated examples be explained away as, "isolated incidents."

Because for all of William F. Buckley's attempt to "separate the Right from the kooks" in the Republican Party, it was intellectuals like Buckley who legitimized and gave respectable cover to social Darwinism in raw form, and sutured together the "greed is good" faction of the party with the "Christo-fascist" wing of the party. He mistakenly thought his breeding and civilized airs displaced the John Birchers, when all along, he was the tuxedoed penguin atop the iceberg of something age-old and uneasily suppressed, himself always threatening to slide down an ice-slicked slope. (He was against civil rights legislation, for example.) And Buckley knew this when he died, having declared the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq a failure in all its "Crusading" (in Bush's description) objectives.

Regrettably, racist civic discourse is what I've come to expect from many Republicans. That includes some of my relatives, whom I love dearly, but. They've had their views rancidly confirmed by the likes of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and continue to seek that fearmongering spew out. I lack the willingness to twist myself into being a daughter of Chinese immigrants who herself decries Latino immigrants for a host of racist ills, for example. Loathful self-contradiction in exchange for the fake consolations of tribalism? No thanks.

I do think that people who once identified as Republicans are starting to see scant evidence of the party of "self-reliance," "small government," and "fiscal conservatism" they once thought it represented. It's inexcuseable that McCain-Palin give license to followers who smear Obama on grounds of his "otherness" and actively fantasize that he be harmed.

In reminding you about my constant, loud calling out of racism among Democrats--within my own party--I am saying I don't think Democrats are exempt. Women are not exempt, members of my own ethnic/racial group are not exempt. Bipartisan race-hate seems to find too much receptivity in far too many corners.

But I called out my party. So far, the murmurs I've heard from Republicans have been muted, but growing. Yet too few.

Have you called out yours?

You can make your views known. You can demand your party's leader repudiate, in the strongest terms possible, any mention of violence. (What sane publicly-elected person sanctions mob violence when they could be subject to blowback from an out-of-control crazy themselves? Out of self-preservation, why aren't McCain-Palin trying to calm down the crowds at their rallies, rein in the ugliness? Why isn't this madness apparent to McCain-Palin?)

You can shout your revulsion for this cancer of racism on our country from the rooftops. You can vote with your feet, and support Obama-Biden. You can find a new party as your political home. You can redefine Republicanism to mean something else, or find a new political name for your views.

Because the Republican Party as anyone knew it is currently unrecognizable, except as a group of ignorant, hate-filled theocrats and white supremacists. And the hate it's radiating is casting a shadow on you, if you choose to stay.

That's my perspective, at least. It's up to you if you want to continue to be viewed that way by others, or if you truly stand for something else.

Sincerely,

Cynematic

It's also what the following people have said, in so many words:

HONOR ROLL OF REPUBLICANT'S WHO ARE NOW OBAMICANS

Wick Allison, Editor-in-Chief, D Magazine

"As a cause, conservatism may be dead. But as a stance, as a way of making judgments in a complex and difficult world, I believe it is very much alive in the instincts and predispositions of a liberal named Barack Obama."

Andrew Bacevich, in The American Conservative

"Barack Obama is no conservative. Yet if he wins the Democratic nomination, come November principled conservatives may well find themselves voting for the senator from Illinois. Given the alternatives—and the state of the conservative movement—they could do worse....For conservatives to hope the election of yet another Republican will set things right is surely in vain. To believe that President John McCain will reduce the scope and intrusiveness of federal authority, cut the imperial presidency down to size, and put the government on a pay-as-you-go basis is to succumb to a great delusion. The Republican establishment may maintain the pretense of opposing Big Government, but pretense it is."

Christopher Buckley, son of National Review editor William F. Buckley

"John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, 'We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.' This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget 'by the end of my first term.' Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?

...

Obama has in him—I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy 'We are the people we have been waiting for' silly rhetoric—the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for.

So, I wish him all the best. We are all in this together. Necessity is the mother of bipartisanship. And so, for the first time in my life, I’ll be pulling the Democratic lever in November."

Lincoln Chafee, former Republican senator from Rhode Island

“I believe Senator Obama is the best candidate to restore American credibility, to restore our confidence to be moral and to bring people together to solve the complex issues such as the economy, the environment and global stability.”

Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of former president and General Dwight D Eisenhower

"It is in this great tradition of crossover voters that I support Barack Obama's candidacy for president. If the Democratic Party chooses Obama as its candidate, this lifelong Republican will work to get him elected and encourage him to seek strategic solutions to meet America's greatest challenges. To be successful, our president will need bipartisan help."

Scott Flanders, CEO Freedom Communications (Orange County Register)

"...Flanders reasoned that Obama is the best candidate to work on four top libertarian reforms: 1) Iraq withdrawal, 2) restoring the separation of church and state; 3) easing off victimless crimes such as drug use; 4) curtailing the Patriot Act."

David D. Friedman, from his blog

"Perhaps I am too optimistic about Obama, but I do not think he is going to turn out to be an orthodox liberal. There is a group of intellectuals connected with the University of Chicago who have accepted a good deal of the Chicago school analysis but still want to think of themselves as leftists. They are, as I see it, trying to construct a new version of what "left" means. Examples would be Cass Sunstein and Austan Goolsby, both at Chicago, and Larry Lessig, who used to be there."

Francis Fukuyama, Professor of International Political Economy, as reported by ABC News

"In my own thinking since I have to vote in this next election, I personally actually don't want to see a Republican re-elected because I have a general view of the way democratic processes should work and if your party is responsible for a big policy failure [Iraq], you shouldn't be rewarded by being re-elected....I think in tone and certainly in terms of the international perception of the United States, if you elected someone like Obama, it is really going to be really quite something I think to witness and I think that is why a lot of people would like to see him as president because it symbolises the ability of the United States really in some way to renew itself in a very unexpected way."

Jeffrey Hart, former Nixon and Reagan speechwriter and National Review editor 

"In Obama... Hart sees a Great Communicator in the mold of Reagan, John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt, a leader who can inspire Americans to work together on the problems of the 21st Century."

Oregon Republican Congressional candidate Joel Haugen (OR-CD1)

"I am sure that we need to choose a President who exemplifies the 21st Century and is not just an echo of the Cold War mentality.  I personally admire John McCain, but I simply cannot see him inspiring the nation and our world economic partners to work together and solve our very daunting problems.  My Obama support-decision matrix includes the characteristics of Judgment, Temperament, Charisma, Intellect, Adaptability, Virtue, Vision, Traditional Republican Values, and dedication to “Main Street.”  Barack Obama is without question the superior choice for me..."

Christopher Hitchens, in Slate Magazine

"It therefore seems to me that the Republican Party has invited not just defeat but discredit this year, and that both its nominees for the highest offices in the land should be decisively repudiated, along with any senators, congressmen, and governors who endorse them."

Larry Hunter, supply side economist and advisor to Reagan, Dole, and Kemp

"This November, I'm voting for Barack Obama.

When I first made this decision, many colleagues were shocked. How could I support a candidate with a domestic policy platform that's antithetical to almost everything I believe in?

The answer is simple: Unjustified war and unconstitutional abridgment of individual rights vs. ill-conceived tax and economic policies - this is the difference between venial and mortal sins."

Douglas Kmiec, legal scholar, in Slate

"As a Republican, I strongly wish to preserve traditional marriage not as a suspicion or denigration of my homosexual friends but as recognition of the significance of the procreative family as a building block of society. As a Republican and as a Catholic, I believe life begins at conception, and it is important for every life to be given sustenance and encouragement. As a Republican, I strongly believe that the Supreme Court of the United States must be fully dedicated to the rule of law and to the employ of a consistent method of interpretation that keeps the court within its limited judicial role. As a Republican, I believe problems are best resolved closest to their source and that we should never arrogate to a higher level of government that which can be more effectively and efficiently resolved below. As a Republican and a constitutional lawyer, I believe religious freedom does not mean religious separation or mindless exclusion from the public square.

In various ways, Sen. Barack Obama and I may disagree on aspects of these important fundamentals, but I am convinced, based upon his public pronouncements and his personal writing, that on each of these questions he is not closed to understanding opposing points of view and, as best as it is humanly possible, he will respect and accommodate them. "

Former GOP Congressman Jim Leach (IA), in Radio Iowa

"'Like many, I'm astounded at Barack Obama's meteoric rise as a candidate, but I have no doubt that his is the leadership we need and that the world is crying out for,' Leach said during a telephone conference call with reporters, arranged by the Obama campaign.

'I also have no doubt that a lot of Republicans and independents are going to be attracted to his call for a new era of nonideological, bipartisan decision-making.'"

Former Congressman John LeBoutellier, from his website

"So, to my fellow conservative in Waukesha - and everywhere else - you wonder 'Why are we here - with a lefty like Barack Obama on the verge of becoming President?' - and the answer is YOU! You helped create and further a total fraud of a President and a total failure of a Presidency - and that has caused the nation to choose- quite reluctantly - the Mirror Opposite of Bush: Barack Obama.
...

  If the Bush Administration had been competent and honest, Obama would never even exist politically."

H/T nathguy, DK

Peggy Noonan, former Reagan speechwriter, in the Wall Street Journal

"In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It's no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism."

Colin Powell, General and Former Secretary of State under Bush

"'Well, the correct answer is, [Obama] is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian,' he said. 'But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, 'He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.' This is not the way we should be doing it in America."

Delbert Spurlock, former General Counsel of the Army and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs under Reagan

"Lt. Gen. William Odom...was President Reagan’s Chief of Army Intelligence. He elevated American Military Officership--in and out of uniform.

...

When we shared cocktails at the Army-Navy Club in early Spring, we agreed that should the Country be wise enough to elect a President Obama, we would jointly author an op-ed recommending the establishment of Three Star Judge Advocate Position in the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose principal responsibility would be to advise the Chairman, with the power and responsibility to communicate directly to the President and the Congress, on the Laws of War and the stake the American Military Person and Nation have in adherence to those Laws."

Andrew Sullivan, in The Atlantic

"At its best, the Obama candidacy is about ending a war—not so much the war in Iraq, which now has a mo­mentum that will propel the occupation into the next decade—but the war within America that has prevailed since Vietnam and that shows dangerous signs of intensifying, a nonviolent civil war that has crippled America at the very time the world needs it most. It is a war about war—and about culture and about religion and about race. And in that war, Obama—and Obama alone—offers the possibility of a truce."

Republican Mayor of Camp Hill, PA Lou Thieblemont

"I'm sick and tired of the politics of fear in this country. He's the only one who doesn't do that. He's the only candidate who's said he'd talk to our enemies and try to get some common ground."

Former Senator and Governor of CT Lowell Weicker

"Even though I'm almost 77 years old, I want a fresh start and a young start for this country. I think we've had enough of the old-timers in both parties."

Republican Mayor of Fairbanks, AK Jim Whitaker

"'My goal is to let Republicans have a clear understanding that their right to vote should not be restricted by any party affiliation,' the borough mayor said. He said the economic and political challenges facing the state and country are broader than political parties alone can address and suggested Republicans should consider crossing party lines by focusing on the strongest candidate this year."

H/T to Populista's DK diary, Republicans for Obama, Bruce Bartlett.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k.

Comments

[lildb]

beautiful, Cyn.

beautiful.

[Eric D]

Why do you assume we Libertarians are opposed to the War in Iraq, and the overall War on Islamo-Fascism? That's only the Leftwing side of the libertarian movement.

If you really want to attract libertarian votes for Obama, have him come out in favor of repealing seat belt laws, ending smoking bans, pledging NOT to lower the speed limit to 55 mph, repealing ALL affirmative action in hiring and admissions, privatization of schools and abolishing the Dept. of Education, get rid of the income tax, and that's just for starters.

I doubt, he'll even consider any of these libertarian proposals.

Face it, Obama is about as far away on the political spectrum as you could possibly get from a libertarian.

[Eric D]

BTW, Sarah Palin attended two meetings of the Alaska Libertarian Party in 2005/06.

How many meetings of the Illinois Libertarian Party has Obama attended? Does he even know what a libertarian is?

[Eric D]

H, bm spprtrs, w nd y ll t bcm: Brr-bms! Vt Lbrtrn! Vt Bb Brr. Dn't vt fr th Sclst Rdcl Mslm g Brck Hssn bm. Spprt mrcn vls. Spprt Lbrt. Vt Brr.

[Sarah]

Eric, in honor of the last line of your comment, I just donated another $50 to Obama. While he is not a Muslim, the suggestion that if he were, that should be a reason for me not to vote for him is certainly not the American values of tolerance and acceptance that _I_ support.

[Mom101]

Amazing post. I'm sure there are others you'll be able to add to the list in the coming days. No one wants to endorse a loser. More so, no one wants to be on the racist team.

[cynematic]

Eric D, it's not *me* who's sending any Republicans to the Libertarian Party. It's the Republicans who are *fleeing* the GOP who are looking for space in the Libertarian Party. Y'all can duke it out any way you like amongst yourselves. Just don't gorge on haterade is all I ask.

Personally, I'm very happy for you that you're voting for Barr.

Cheers!

[jaelithe]

Eric, do you even know what a Muslim is? Apparently not.

I'm not so sure you know what a libertarian is, either, given you support Bob Barr, who is just a repackaged Republican.

However, I am certain that Barack Obama does indeed know what a libertarian is, given he used to be a constitutional law professor.

[MostEmailedNews.com]

who's Barr? not up on the news? check out my site...

http://MostEmailedNews.com

[angie]

No thanks. I'd rather not be a part of that honor roll.

However, I think this is a great post. I enjoy smart, thought provoking political discussion as opposed to "OMG U R STOOPID!" ridiculousness.

With that said, I will be so glad when the election is over. No matter who wins, I think our country will be OK.

[ludovic]

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