As he lied to Ellison, he denied he was a member of the Republican Party.

only not the least little bit of environmental green?

Just like all those who claim to be a member of the Tea Party. He/they agree with everything in the Republican platform. Paper registrattion does not trump substance, IMO.

It actually elected their candidate for U.S. Senator in 1970, James Buckley.

Republicans insist on Chickenhawks as their 'leaders' and as their overpaid propaganda pimps.

The Republican Party is for the very wealthy, and the very racist. Fox News, "The birther network"

Glad you're here! Talk about "better late than never"! I guess some people just have a high tolerance for NO tolerance. Go figure. I don't see how ANYONE with a conscience could vote republi-CON - EVER!

do not vote Republican.

[img][/img]

70 years from now, the two main parties may be completely different than they are now, if they still exist.

... cause they've seen pretty near all of it (repeat, lather, rinse)... fascism is something this age knows.

Never too late to make the case for what is going on once again.

The Republican Party hasn't always been like this.

Let's see; this old geezer wasn't perturbed enough by Watergate; Ronnie must've been A-OK to him; skipping 41, 43's little "WMD" deceptions were yet forgivable; Sarah Palin didn't trip the lever.

NOW he's disgusted?

Fuck "that guy" for getting it far too late in life to do a damn thing about it.

"that guy" happens to be "that woman" and she's my mother. She began losing her fondness for the party many years ago, but kept her opinions to herself while Dad was still alive. She chose to retain her membership because it allowed her access to conversations where she could present a better perspective and maybe change a mind or two. Her comment came last summer after a particularly rancorous caucus. She well recognizes that the party is not the one she knew, and it hurt her to have to leave it. In November she voted for Obama, the second time she has done so.

You can have your "fuck" back, I'm sure you can find some more deserving place to apply it.

exactly whose minds did she hope to change about what while she was still a supporter of this odious party, and only doing little "change from within" thingies? How many minds could she have changed by taking a real stand and becoming a Democrat, in effect saying "this is so wrong and I'm not going to support it in any way any more"? If it deeply bothered her to leave the Republican Party even now, that's not much of a statement, frankly.

And she voted for Obama twice? Good for her, but since you mentioned nothing more, I assumed she voted for GWB. Twice. And GHWB. Twice. And Reagan. Twice. And likely a whole host of Rebublican Senators, congresscritters and state officials. The damage has long been done by people like her, and much of it may be difficult to undo, even in our lifetimes. I'll take all the votes we can get on the Democratic side, but I see no reason to congratulate people who only now, after more than 30 years of this, have the courage and wisdom to recognize that the Republican Party is scum, and to say so and act on it.

You sound like a typical Republican.

I have an attitude about people who have enthusiastically supported Republican candidates, Republican causes and the Republican Party through decades of harmful, discriminatory and destructive policies. Just like thousands of other people on this site..wouldn't you agree?

That you would call me "a typical Republican" for that is both incomprehensible and despicable. Makes me wonder what YOUR problem is.

... but I'm curious. What would you have a republican who has come to their senses do? If not leave the party and begin voting for democrats as this person has done, then what?

I would have them do exactly what this person has done. The point is that such people do not deserve accolades or admiration for being part of the problem for decades longer than they've been part of the solution. I said quite clearly that Democrats should take all the votes they can get from former Republicans, but they do not deserve praise when the harm they have caused is much greater than the good they have done.

...but perhaps we can say that they deserve some credit for coming to grips with reality now - and welcome them for that - while still keeping in mind that historically they were part of the problem.

I'm willing to be pretty forgiving, for two reasons. (1), every life-long Republican that defects to the the democrats - or even that just abandons the Republican party - is one less vote for every local, state and national republican candidate. In the long run, that's the way to win this conflict. And (2), if we begrudge their past errors, and fail to offer them the olive branch, they might default to their old habits and return to the empire. Nothing drives someone away more efficiently than never letting them forget or feel redeemed for their past mistakes.

On a board like this, or among the kinds of politically involved friends you and I probably associate with, we tend to forget that the vast majority of the electorate operates on much less information and introspection than we might assume. Couple this with an unrelenting and very effective media PR campaign for the last 30+ years that promoted conservatism and demonized progressive thought, and its not difficult to understand how people like this lady have been kept in the dark. Should they have opened their eyes earlier? Sure, in a perfect world. But I think its still very much in our best interest to show them some love for opening them now. Just my two cents.

Someone leaves the Repuplican party and stops supporting Republican candidates and causes because they've finally realized how despicable and destructive they are to people and to the country and the world, and you're afraid that they'll turn around and go right back to that sludge just because they don't get enough hugs on this side of the aisle? I would hope they made the switch because they were deeply and seriously convinced that it was the right thing to do, and that they would realize that the harm they'd done for decades wouldn't necessarily endear them to people they'd been working against instantly.

Unlike some of the comments in this thread, by people really like, I appreciate when people see the light -- it is never too late.

I know a lot of great Dems who were snookered by Reagan -- some even by 'boy blunder' -- but they are here now and I appreciate them all.

Hell, my Mom -- who isn't even political has come to realize the damage that party has done to our nation -- She said she will never miss an election again as long as she lives.

It IS too late. The damage has been done, by people like this, and on things like global warming and the economy, there is no going back and no fixing what the candidates supported by this person and many other like her have done.

Sorry if you and others don't like hearing that painful truth, but there it is.

includes things like going door-to-door for the March of Dimes to fund research to cure polio; I know, I went with her. She's spent her life engaged in many community activities that helped to make life better. She was a member of a party, but she supported people she believed in regardless of their affiliation. You have NO idea what she believed/believes in or what candidates she's supported. I can say, with absolute certainty, that I have never known her to engage in your kind of snide dismissiveness of someone who has spent a lifetime of doing her best.

Sorry if you don't like hearing that painful truth, but there it is.

By your own OP, she was an "active" member of the Repugnican Party for 70 years. Why on earth would she be such if she were voting for Democrats all that time? You have as good an idea of who she was voting for before Obama as I do, so please don't weary my ears with your disingenuousness.

Polio was cured a long time ago, btw...and the Repug candidates she's been voting for since have gutted public health programs and let other diseases like TB creep back in.

People like your mother are far more part of the problem than they are of the solution, at least as far as the principles of this site are concerned. Sorry if that truth upsets you.

No need to be so hateful.

I'm more "hateful" than hundreds or thousands of other posters on this site who criticize, mock and ridicule Republicans and the causes and candidates they support. Did somebody run over their dog, too?

Sheesh

Show me exactly where I'm more hateful than loads of other people on this site towards long time Repug supporters. Give us the quotes.

All I'm sayin' is there is no reason for it, whether other people have done the same or not.

I'm doing what this site was created for. If you can't stand that, go find another site or keep your accusations to yourself.

Instead you chose to double down on me and another DU'r.

I can't control what my family may or may not have done or believed but I certainly won't cast them out as the reason for the damage done to our society. People who have a *see the light* moment deserve to be welcomed, imo.

Please don't assume you are arbiter of truth when what you're doing is presenting your opinion. An opinion that you entitled to have, being that this is a message board -- but an opinion nonetheless.

SHM.

Peace.

that Republican causes and candidates, and the people who support and advocate for them, are bad, and deserving of harsh criticism and even ridicule. And I will double, triple and quadruple down on that, since it is the opinion of essentially everyone on this site, and one of the fundamental reasons for this site existing in the first place. Agree or disagree?

And please show me where I said I wanted to cast anyone out. Oh...right...you can't. Because I never said that, and you know it. And do not shake your damn head at me as if YOU were the arbiter and the scold for all that's good and right and noble in DU.

I must correct whoever said you sound like a republican. Your "it's too late, lets all just surrender", unfortunately sounds like too many of my fellow dems!
Congrats to this woman! It's never too late.

But listen to thousands of climate scientists who will acknowledge, unhappily, that we've already gone past the point of no return on climate change, and that no remediation will reverse that now, even if our governments were entirely populated by people who know the truth.

There is no reason to pillory any person coming to a sane conclusion. And there was once something to be said for changing hearts and minds from within and when she realized it was too toxic, she took her exit and kudos to her.

That's what happens sometimes in here.

While I can say I understand it, I refuse to respect it.

Sometimes you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet. The welfare of the whole must come before the peace of the few.

Still, it's one less vote for the GOP...

It's her mother, you fool.

the WH, but they didn't listen. Unfortunately they are not as smart as the person mentioned in the OP; they're still repukes! I'm ashamed that they are members of my family.

in society and goverment. Now it's the party of manipulators who are simply incapable of caring about people. The have no empathy or regret or remorse or the ability to experience the pain they cause. Pull yourself out of the sinkhole before it closes.

I especially like your sentence on the sinkhole!

Welcome to DU!

Some are slower to reach the age of reason than others.

If you're just getting it now.....

if you voted with them for 70 years -.-

I need something from the government then I will change sides." Same kind of thinking from those that are against insurance until they need it's benefits. These are very selfish, empathy-less, people and the core of the REpublican party. Gov Christie is a good example. Against big government until he needs them.

the TeaPubliKlans going and becoming a particularly evil form of crazy to see the light.

We used to welcome all with open arms if they truly wanted to be here. And this is the mother of one of our long time posters! Straighten up people and behave like your mothers taught you to. Geez!!!!

The self-righteous tone of many of the responses is vile and indicates the same sort of mindset that might keep somebody in the wrong party for far too long.

I'm a bit surprised by some responses here.

We should always embrace* people who see the light, imo.

ETA: *embrace people regardless of age. Some responses smack of ageism. Once again, that could just be me --

Rampant chronic-compulsive snarkism abounds...

and you know that. If they've switched sides, even at this late date, good for them. But do NOT hold them up for praise or admiration, because they deserve none, at least not until the good they've done outweighs the harm. In this case, the harm done by support of Republicans for many decades.

Or just behind a keyboard?

any of what I've said, or are you just going to make personal attacks and call me "mean", because I failed to fawningly praise someone who has ardently supported the Republican party for most of their life? This is DEMOCRATIC Underground, if you hadn't noticed...criticizing Republicans is what we DO here. Lots and lots of people do it on this site every day. Do you go around tossing unsupported accusations of "meanie" at all of them? Does this person get a pass just because they're someone's mother? That's how despicable people like George Bush, Dick Cheney, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and a host of others get elected in the first place..because people's mothers and sons and husbands and daughters vote for them.

You've been needlessly mean to a fellow DUer just to prove you're right. That makes you unfeeling and mean in my book. I wasn't evading, I was making a statement. You're mean.

As unsupported as it may be. But it wasn't me that held her mother up here..the OPer did that. When you bring something up for discussion, you open it up to both praise and criticism. This is a discussion board, not a church.

I'm disgusted with her