Another Member of the Disillusioned Republicans Club

In this case, former Senator John Danforth:

I’ve been watching some of these republican debates and they’re just terrible. Terrible.  How many have they had?  Something like nine, ten, something like that, it seems like every week there’s a debate and, uh, and it’s embarrassing for me as a republican to watch this stuff.

[…]

What have been the big applause lines in these debates? Well, a statement that the governor of Texas is responsible for killing 234 people on death row.  Or that we favor torture. Or that we’re creating a fence on the Mexican border that electrocutes people when they try to cross it. Or when people show up at the emergency room at hospitals and they’re not insured don’t treat them. And that, I mean these are the big applause lines, people just hoop and holler when they hear all that.

[…]

It doesn’t have anything to do with the republican party that I was a part of. This is just totally different. And all of these people who are saying this, y’know, and claiming that, y’know, they’re for all this stuff, they also sort of ostentatiously say, “Oh, we’re very religious people.  We really, we’re just very pious, Christian people.”  They were for torture, and electrocution of the people on along the border and all of that. That doesn’t have anything to do with, is contrary to the Christianity that I understand.

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Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. rwb says:

    Exactly!

  2. doubter4444 says:

    Ahhh, he’s a RINO now too, I guess.
    Cue the “he was a big government guy, he’s part of the problem” parrots.

    I have a ton of respect for Danforth, and while I don’t agree with some (many, even) of his positions I think he’s honorable and worked hard to make this nation a better place. (disclosure: I’ve know the family and the Senator in a loose ind of way for a long time – though have not seen or talked with him in years)

    And the Radical TBaggers want to tear it down.
    I truly think the collective understanding of what the Tea party has become and what it is really wants to do is starting to shift (all a plot of the evil main stream media and George Soros, no doubt) – To the understanding that these guys are the real extremists, the real radical, the real “Saul Alinsky types”, hell bent on changing the nature of the country.
    I think and hope that The TBag radicals are losing steam, and that they’ll metastasize to small tumor of a group that is treatable. There are always cranks, there always will be, and that’s fine.

    But it’s the chutzpah of it all galls me – For all the empty and false piousness and professed love of country, they are the bad guys. And if I’m wrong, and things they are not containable, and the Baggers get what they really want – to force the Apocalypse, then I’m ready and willing to fight them.

  3. Dave Schuler says:

    To put his remarks into some perspective, Jack Danforth was twice re-elected U. S. senator from Missouri and is an ordained Episcopal priest. Old money (my great-grandfather worked for his grandfather). Noblesse oblige. He’s one of the good guys.

  4. @Dave Schuler:

    And when it comes to conservative bona fides, it was Danforth who introduced Clarence Thomas to the Senate Judiciary Committee when he was nominated for Associate Justice

  5. superdestroyer says:

    Danforth is just upset that he spent his time in a party that is now irrelevant to politics.

    What Danforth does not say is what he thinks the Republicans should be for. How would being open borders, heavier regulation, higher taxes, more social engineering in the schools, and more social engineering in the rest of the country do any good for conservatives.

    If the moderates are doing to offer an alteranative, they should at least describe an alternative that does not put middle class whites (the core of the Republican Party) is a worse situation than they are now.

  6. Peacewood says:

    @Dave Being Episcopalian is probably a huge, huge minus to the current Republican party crowd.

  7. James in LA says:

    @superdestroyer: ” that does not put middle class whites (the core of the Republican Party) is a worse situation than they are now.”

    “Middle class whites” have only themselves to blame by continuing to vote against their own best interests, by denying reality, and insisting that belief trumps all. And knowing that “middle class whites” are doomed as a majority in America, one would think you would find other words.

    The future is coming. Your hate matters not one iota.

  8. Scott says:

    Basically, the Republican Party has become the party of George Wallace. It is driven by the same resentments and motivations. That’s why I refuse to be a part of it anymore.

  9. gVOR08 says:

    I’ll follow the lead of Parker, at the link. Danforth does anything about it I’ll pay attention. Until then, who cares what he has to say.

  10. superdestroyer says:

    @James in LA:

    How does voting for the party of NAACP, La Raza, public unions, bar association, and academics help improve the living conditions for middle class whites who work in the private sector.

    Open borders, more regulation, less economic activity, and more government does not make their life better.