Why I Left the Republican Party in New Hampshire and Became an Independent

By Jim on November 25th, 2008

I’ve been meaning to re-register as an independent (or undeclared as it’s called here in New Hampshire) for a while. I had registered as a Republican to vote for Ron Paul back in the 2008 Republican primary. I had no illusions about Ron Paul winning, mind you, but I wanted to express my support for him and I did.

Afterward I voted for McCain (mostly because I liked Governor Palin) and I more or less towed the Republican line during the election. But now that it’s over I’m going back to what I’m most comfortable with…being an independent. Some of my friends will no doubt accuse me of becoming a “moonbat” or whatever. Heh. That’s okay, I don’t mind being razzed.

So why did I leave? Well aside from preferring not to get so caught up in the silly red/blue thing, I also feel that today’s Republican party needs to desperately get back to its roots:

1. Fiscal Discipline (stop the spending madness!)

2. Small Government (in all ways not just in ways that are politically convenient at the time)

3. Individual Liberty (yes this means that sometimes people do things that we don’t like but we don’t seek to use the power of the state to crush them…it’s wrong whether it’s done in the name of Jesus or if it’s in the name of political correctness, authoritarian socialism, etc.).

These three things are what the Republican party should represent but it hasn’t in some ways for a long time (and neither has the Democratic party…don’t even get me started about that party’s trend towards absolute authoritarian socialism and mindless political correctness).

There’s some of these good things still left here in New Hampshire but it remains to be seen if the state party here will be able to get its act together and become more competitive with the Democrats in the years ahead. They have a lot of work to do if they do. This last election cycle wasn’t that great but there were some House seats (17 or so) won back so it wasn’t all bad at all.

As far as the national Republican party goes, it’s a disgrace and a mess. The spending orgy of the last 8 years has been horrific and the mindless “go-along to get-along” thing they’ve been doing with the Democrats has been truly awful to see. Bush spent Clinton under the table, hands down. And we’re all going to be paying for it for a long, long time.

For my part though I really prefer not having to tow the party line on anything. I don’t have to defend what the party is doing or has done and I can simply call things the way that I see them without getting caught up in the mindless party partisanship.

I’m still rooting for the Republican party in New Hampshire to make a strong comeback. I prefer that our state lean toward the Republicans because I’ve seen what Democrats have done to Massachusetts and the rest of New England. But I’ll be doing it as an independent voter and not as a partisan Republican.

What’s your take on party politics? Are you a member of a political party or do you go your own way?