I'm ashamed of the Republican Party. Even though I am not now nor have ever been a Republican, I am ashamed of them. I am ashamed that my fellow Americans, and my fellow human beings, so often prove greedy, ignorant, hateful, and violent. It's an embarrassment to our species.
As the tributes to Senator Kennedy attested, the primary motivation of most Democrats, and of liberal Democrats, in particular, is our sense of humanity. Our core value that we are all in this together, and that we take care of our own. Republicans so often excuse their lack of sympathy, empathy, and/or basic human decency as being due to financial or political constraints. They are about money. We are about people. But even though they are about money, they so often end up getting even that wrong.
Republicans talk about family values, then pursue policies that hurt families. They talk about morality, then pursue policies that kill innocents. They talk about being conservative, but conserve nothing, particularly not the environment. They talk about discipline, but don't even bother to try to control their own ravening minions. Republicans talk about faith, but their paranoid defensiveness proves they lack faith not only in a higher power, but even in their fellow human beings. They expect the worst of people because they see it every day, every time they look in mirrors.
This country is fucked up. This world is fucked up. People with the very worst intentions too often have had the power to implement and enforce those intentions. In this country, particularly in the past several decades, people with the worst political intentions so often have been and are Republicans. We can disagree about how best to pursue policies that best help the most people; but Republicans rarely seem interested in pursuing policies that best help anyone other than themselves, and their families, friends and cronies.
I sometimes understand why some people want out of this country. I sometimes understand why some people want out of this world. I prefer to live, in this country, and to try to make it better. But I do understand why some despair of that happening. I also understand that there is no ideal place to live, in any country, on any continent. I also understand that so much of what is wrong in this country is due to the Republicans, and to the Democrats' failures to treat them as they deserve to be treated.
Not all Republicans fit the mold, but more and more do, as more and more Republicans of conscience leave their party. The Republican Party too often represents the very worst of humanity. From war mongering to war crimes to domestic spying to trying to block all Democratic efforts to pass legislation that will help people lead healthier, happier, more fulfilling lives, Republican values too often prove degenerate and despicable. As an American and as a human being, I am embarrassed and ashamed by the Republican Party.