Over the past few months, I have told several local non-religious Republicans that I can’t support the party, including one of the delegates to the state convention. He runs a small coffee cart in the building where I work and is a prototypical hard-working small businessman. He is also frustrated by the dominance of the religious conservatives in the party, so I told him where I stood in hopes that it would give him some moral support to more forcefully advocate his own views at the Party convention.
Ari Armstrong has noted that the Colorado Republicans know that they are being hurt badly by their support of religious causes. It may not make a perceivable difference in 2008, but I think it’s important for them to know that there is a group of voters whom they are alienating precisely because the party is mixing religion and politics. If the Republicans think that courting the religionists has only an upside without a downside, then they’ll keep doing it. But if they start recognizing that there is a downside, then it might spark more badly-needed internal discussion.
Hence, I decided to log on to the GOP Platform site and leave the following comment, including a couple of links to Ayn Rand’s essays on government and rights (now available on the ARC website!)
I don’t expect any specific or immediate response from them. But as usual, you never know when the right idea might reach the right mind. Here is my comment:
The Republican Party needs to promote and respect the strict separation of church and state. I used to support the Republican Party because I believe in individual rights, free markets, a strong national defense, and the right to keep and bear arms.
However, as the Republican Party has forged its alliance with religious fundamentalists and started advocating for limitations on abortion and stem cell research, and starting making other “social issues” such as gay marriage a high priority, it has turned off many former supporters such as myself.
Americans have a right to practice their religion as a purely private matter, and I defend everyone’s right to do so.
But religion should not and must not shape government policy. The Founding Fathers understood that well, and Americans would do well to remember that.
Instead the proper function of the government is to protect individual rights, as outlined by philosopher and writer Ayn Rand in her now-classic essays:
“Man’s Rights”
http://www.aynrand.org/
http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pag…rand_man_rights
site/PageServer?pagename=arc_ayn_rand_man_rights
“The Nature of Government”
http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pag…e_of_government
Hence, I oppose the preoccupation of the Republican Party with “social issues” such as abortion and gay marriage. To paraphrase a quote from Ronald Reagan, “I didn’t leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me.”
(Of course, he made that statement in reference to the Democratic Party but the same principle applies).
This should not be taken as any kind of endorsement of Barack Obama - I find his policies loathsome and anti-American.
But as long as the Republican Party is in bed with the religious right, then I can’t support it. I no longer believe that I have a home in any political party. And I know many voters who feel the same way. Given that I live in a “purple” swing state (Colorado), this is not a good sign for the Republican Party.
Paul Hsieh, MD
Sedalia, CO
