Acceptible Republicans?

There is no such thing as an "acceptible" Republican. Yes it's true that the positions of a few members of PTR (formerly the GOP) on a few issues are comparable to those of a few Democrats; e.g. I think of the two Republican senators from Maine. However, when push comes to shove they tend to vote with their party. For example, both Maine senators opposed the healthcare reform bill and the bill to make corporations and other large sponsors of ads identify themselves (in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in the Citizens United case).

Furthermore, any Republican rep or senator could be the one that puts the PTR over the top and gives it control of one or both houses of Congress.

The PTR has been a force uniformly supporting big business over small business and workers, an unstinting opponent of regulation, a consistent opponent of science and friend of the religious right, a consistent climate-change deny-er. Also, it has claimed to be against big government and for the rights of individuals, but in every case, when push comes to shove, it has voted exactly the opposite. Every Supreme court justice nominated in recent decades by the Republicans has favored big companies over individuals and oppressive laws over the rights of individuals (though not the "rights" of corporations). It has consistently thrown money at the military, even for programs the military doesn't need and doesn't want.

Over the last few decades the history of the party on minorities has been terrible. It has consistently opposed gay marriage and cozied up to fundamentalist religious sects that believe homosexuals are sinners and will be damned; it has endorsed the worst of the Tea Screamers and their extreme no-nothing positions on immigration and government. These anti-people attitudes as well as the racist and homophobic rants of people like Rush Limbaugh (effectively the offical spokesman for the PTR and right-wing) have created a climate of hate that enabled recent physical and cyber attacks on gays and the verbal and even physical abuse of perceived liberals (including a few members of Congress).

While the Democrats are not, in general, great bargains, their hearts are in the right place; this cannot be said of the Party for The Rich. There is no excuse for voting for any of them.


BTW: Russ Feingold of Wisconsin needs all the support we can give him; we just sent him some money. He is the real thing (though I don't agree with him 100%).