Quote:
Originally Posted by Munchkin03
I am really sorry about that, C. No one should be so disappointed with their party to the point where they don't support the candidate. Quite a few Republicans in my family have voiced their discomfort with what's going on right now--and keep in mind, my family is chock-full of naval officers, small businesspersons, and people who are in the highest tax bracket. Meaning, these aren't "NASCAR Dads" or "Wal-Mart Moms," but people who have backed the Republican Party for decades.
I honestly think the turning point was the Palin selection. Although it energized McCain's base, a Romney, Jindal, or Huckabee could have done that with much more experience. Granted Jindal's a bit younger than Palin, but the man is brilliant. Palin turned off a lot of moderates, like myself, who were waiting on VP choices to make a final decision.
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I think a big part of it is how firmly I was in the Romney camp. When you support a candidate to that extent, to the level that the highs and lows of the campaign really affect you, it can be a tremendous downer when the candidate has to withdraw from the race. It was really like a punch to the gut when he left in the primaries, and it was a second punch to the gut when he didn't get the VP nod. Again, I know that he's my "irrational" candidate, but it was still tremendously disappointing.
I was willing to give Palin a chance, and it hasn't cost McCain my vote; however, that may be more of a function of the other candidates involved.
I just have this feeling that the anti-intellectual wing of my party has grown quite a bit recently, including in this campaign season. Part of that may have been a way to criticize Obama, but I've seen and heard it used to criticize certain candidates during the primaries. I understand that the smartest guy or woman in the room doesn't always make the best candidate, and there are considerations to look at beyond a person's education.
My sense has been, though, that to a wing of my party, education is a drawback. Education is immediately equated with liberalism, even though that's not always the case. There are some brilliant conservatives (Romney and Jindal, to name a couple) out there, and there's a large base of the party that is both educated and conservative.
I'm quite realistic about my level of education, and I realize that I'm not an Ivy Leaguer by any means. But, there's a small part of me that wonders if someone like me (reasonably intelligent, two bachelors degrees, and 1.5 years away from a law degree) is still welcome as a member of the party by certain segments of the population. I'll be a Republican until the day I die, but I really hope that people in my position aren't being forced out of the party because of some form of anti-intellectualism.
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