The Dems aren't winning me over, the Reps are pushing me away

I have long been independent politically.  I would say I'm a slightly left-of-center moderate. I'm often too liberal for my conservative friends, and too conservative for my liberal friends. Years ago someone said I, and most people, would tend to get more conservative as I got older.  That has been true overall, though I would say just barely.  I have slid a bit to the right, or rather from the left towards the center.  On some positions I am fairly conservative.  But generally I am middle of the road, or maybe just over the centerline. I have plenty of conservative views, plenty of liberal ones.  Like most people- there are shades of grey in everyone.

I probably appear to be far-left from the vantage point of wacko right-wingers who think Obama is a Kenyan/Muslim/socialist intent on destroying America.  He's as socialist as an ice cream social...  And I'd like to discuss facts, not the latest conspiracy theory, and talk more about policy than personality. There was/is no reason to question Obama's citizenship.  He has a funny name?  He might be of a different religion?  So what?  But now, ridiculously, and yet seriously, we should look at all candidates' birth certificates.

You would think that political parties would try to win voters over to their side, so that they could get more votes and thus win more elections.  They would use reason, and emotion.  But the Republican party, and the broad conservative movement, seems to have given up this strategy.  They are losing the battle for my heart and mind.  I can only speak for myself, but I am an independent moderate, rarely vote for the two big parties in presidential elections, and vote for Republicans, Democrats, and other parties in local elections.  You know, I do that thing called "thinking" that is apparently a lost art in America.  I look at the candidates running, and select the one I think will do the best job.  Nastiness and truth-stretching tend to turn me away from the candidate spouting them, not toward.

Conservatives lately (and, yes, both sides often) have been giving up on the truth, knowingly spreading lies, cynically manipulating their 'base'.  They have given up on what is good for the country, and focus on what is good for their party.  Or, perhaps, they have decided that the ends justify the means- maybe they think there is no way to win other than to lie.  And once you reach that point where you need to mislead/lie/vilify in order to further your cause... you ought to rethink the justice of that cause.  You ought to be asking yourself if the truths you believe are worth selling your soul.

Maybe it's unintentional.  Maybe it's a subconscious effort to align reality with their beliefs.  A study recently found that conservatives twist facts more than liberals:
http://www.salon.com/2012/08/27/study_right_twists_facts/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

But I find, in conversations with conservatives and in observing Republican "leaders," that it's more conscious, more cynical.  Cynicism is a disease.  Chronic.  I have it.  Politicians have nothing but cynicism.  But it is spreading from conservative leaders and media players to the rank and file.  I have heard individuals say things like "Whatever it takes to win."  "I'm done being nice." "Lying is what I'm going to do now."
Take a little nugget of truth, blow it out of proportion, and get some of the facts wrong.  People will talk about it at water coolers, and soon it becomes "fact," that "I heard."  And the American people get dumber, and the country goes downhill.  But hey, at least the Republican candidate won!

I think another thing that has changed is that before, reasonable people didn't buy much of the wacko stuff.  Numerologists said Reagan was the antichrist, and few listened.  Even with Bush, you didn't have Democratic leaders pushing the election thing after he took office.  Maybe they didn't believe he won, but they were quiet about it (and witness Kerry's quick concession, to avoid the same mess.)  Now?  Republican politicians and party leaders say these things.  And people I thought were smart believe them, not just the bottomfeeder set.

I think it's obvious that the right has gone overboard, has gone far right.  There are of course still some that oppose torture, oppose McCarthyism/Bachmannism.  But not many, and they are being drummed out of the "GOP."  The John Birch and Larouche people used to be treated as nuts, as fringe, and now they are the center of the party.  People talk about those ideas as if they were normal. In other words, they've gone fucking nuts.  Sure, there are nuts on the left too, but they are still on the fringe.  On the right, they are the party.  Now the Tea Party has mostly been assimilated into the Borg, er, Republican Party.  Even though I disliked them, I had at least a hope for a 3rd party, and maybe more small parties.  I think that would be good for America.  But I think we need more moderate parties, not crazies on either end of the spectrum.

Conservatives say they're smarter, and more decent.  So I hold them to a higher standard.  I'm intolerant of hypocrisy.  You say you're better?  Prove it.  This is another part of why conservatives are pushing away, not winning over, moderates.  It's true of liberals too, but they're more earnest (too much for politics?) and nicer (again, too much?)  What it comes down to is that nowadays, conservatives don't have America's best interests at heart.  Only their own; and the values they think they're upholding are not American ones- not our best ones, anyway. They're the leftover, backward, intolerant, mean ones that we have been trying to get rid of for decades.

The Republicans could be thoughtful, and contribute to the civic discourse.  And then hey presto! Democracy!  They could win the hearts and minds of moderates like me.  But they don't even bother anymore.  All that matters is getting "the base" excited and to the polls.  So, they throw red meat, and the hyenas come.  Yes, the Dems do it too.  But, as usual, not as viciously, and cynically, as the Reps.  Way to go, conservatives.  You're actually driving me away from you.  You might get me to vote for a major party candidate for the first time in 20 years.  And it won't be the one you want me to vote for.  I'm not a big Obama fan, but I'll probably vote for him this time around just to spite you.  Shame on you.  Your nasty tactics have spread from talk radio to the whole country.  To my friends, even the smart ones.  They are lying, and saying incendiary things.  I have other friends, former Republicans, who say "I didn't leave the party, the party left me."  And I can see that.  The Republican party has decided that it's their way or the highway, and have chosen to be divisive and exclusionary.  Compromise is a dirty word to them, even though it's, you know, THE WAY LIFE WORKS.

So, good job, conservatives.  You could be reasonable, but you've decided not to be.  I know there are plenty of people, even a few politicians, on the right who are decent people and try to be reasonable, and do what's right for the country, not just their party.  But they are losing to the jackasses.