the (G)et (O)ut (P)arty?

This morning (well, technically it's afternoon even here on Maui) has found me feeling pretty pensive about the events of yesterday, not just the Presidential results, but the snapshot of what's going on all over America.

When I registered to vote, I became a member of the Republican party, just like my parents and their parents. I did it because my Catholic-school values and cultural influences pointed me toward the right, and because in upper-middle-class suburban South Jersey, it just seemed like the thing to do. Unless you lived in Cherry Hill, but now is not the time or place to get into that.

In college, they sent me a silver Republican Party card, and I carried it in my wallet for a while. I always wanted to whip it out at a party just for a laugh, but on campus it isn't all that popular to be right-leaning, and my own political opinions weren't yet well-formed enough to argue policy.

I didn't know when I registered to vote that the G.O.P. was the party of Abraham Lincoln, a party which fought for abolition, or that there was even a faction of the party which argued that Lincoln's moves against slavery weren't strong or fast enough. As in, of course, spearheading the bloodiest war in our nation's history.

All this is to say that in the past decade, I have run the gamut from amused to horrified to disgusted at the antics and political positions of the party I joined. It is not just the Rick Santorums and Bill O'Reillys and Michael Savages of the world who have hijacked what was once a party of progress and positive social change. It is the 52% of California voters who chose yesterday to write discrimination into their state Constitution, and the far-right factions that encouraged and bullied and fearmongered enough to make that happen. How the hell did we get from the extreme and daring position of going to war for the sake of equality to memorializing disenfranchisement in the governing documents of our states?

It is a stunning reality that the landscape of the G.O.P. has shifted sufficiently that all day today, journalists have been pointing to Sarah Palin as the new face of Lincoln's party--a woman who opposes equal marriage rights and believes that Christian doctrine should be permitted in public schools.

Over the past several years, I've reached several moments where I've been tempted to throw in the towel. I have not always voted Republican, and my feelings on a number of social issues are certainly left of the party platform. I know that I'm not a liberal, but I think it's fair to say that I could probably switch my registration to Independent and call it a day. Where Mike Bloomberg leads, I will willingly follow.

But what happens then? What if all the moderate conservatives like myself, who are probably closer to Libertarians than the current manifestations of Republican ideals, just jump ship? What if we stop voting in primaries? What if we cede the right to the theocrats, who want government not merely to govern but also to be used as a weapon of fear and power? A weapon, dare I say, of God? Who imply--when they don't say it outright--that our country was founded on the ideal that marriage is between one man and one woman? Funny, I thought it was "all men are created equal" and entitled to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" as inalienable rights. In case you haven't looked up "inalienable" lately, Merriam-Webster pegs it as "incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred." As in, these are you your non-negotiable, un-fuck-with-them-able natural-born rights. Not privileges to be given and/or taken as government sees fit.

I will say this. It's not much of a secret that there is about to be an all-out bloodletting for the soul of the Republican Party, and there's a power vacuum at the top. Bush is pretty much irrelevant as of today, and McCain's too old--and, I think after this go-round, too over it--to step into the fold. Giuliani's starving for it, but he needs a major political resurrection after this year. Which leaves who? Romney? Huckabee? God help us--Palin?

There's more to be fought, and a lot at stake.

Where's that damn silver card?

-ks-