Republican Party Kool-Aid? No thanks

Last week Hillsborough GOP Chairwoman Deborah Cox-Roush asked me, "Why do you hate the Republican Party?" I wasn't the slightest bit surprised or offended by the question as I've been asked this before.

The fact is I don't hate the Republican Party. But I don't love it either. For me, the party is merely the means to an end. When the party or its candidates don't support the end, they don't get my support.

As far as my Republican bona-fides go, I've been bleeding Republican red since I was a kid. At 10 years old, I made a hand-made sign boasting "Reagan for President" that I tacked to my bedroom door.

As an adult I've worked for the election of scores of Republican candidates. I've stuffed envelopes, walked neighborhoods, managed campaigns, attended conventions, and contributed money. I've been a registered Republican my whole life.

But I quit drinking the GOP's Kool-Aid years ago.

I refuse to support Republican candidates when I believe they are ethically challenged (think Marco Rubio and his Republican Party AmEx card), incompetent (Buddy Johnson), lack vision (Bill McCollum), are hypocritical (Jeff Atwater), take advantage of their office for personal gain (Mike Haridopolos) or when they think they are entitled to the job (again, Bill McCollum).

For many Republicans, not supporting the GOP candidate is heresy. For these Kook-Aid drinkers, Republican candidates can do no wrong — or, even if they did do wrong, they're still better than even the most saintly Democrat.

Thinking like this is what gives us elected officials like Jim Norman, David Rivera and Ray Sansom. Of course, the Democrats have their share of bums too — think Kevin White, Tim Mahoney and Alcee Hastings.

My critics have panned me for being overly critical of the GOP candidates and not being disparaging enough toward mischievous Democrats. When called out about this, my response is simple: I don't care enough about the Democrats to complain about them. Their broken ideology of big-government dependency can't be fixed — so why bother?

The Republicans, on the other hand, may still have hope.

I say "may still have hope" because it is not certain. While the GOP and most of its candidates profess fiscal conservatism, once in office they learn how to spend money like a drunken Kennedy with someone else's credit card.

I call these Republicans "conservacrits."

George W. Bush is a perfect example. According to the conservative Washington Times , "He [left office] … having overseen the biggest federal budget expansion since Franklin Delano Roosevelt seven decades ago." Bush's free-spending ways broke 30-year-old records as non-defense spending rose 19.7 percent under his watch.

Bush and the GOP Congress' unchecked spending added trillions of debt, including a new unfunded entitlement program in the form of Medicare prescription drug coverage. The purpose of their spending was simple: get re-elected.

Florida CFO Jeff Atwater is another fine example of a conservacrit. In his campaign for CFO last year, Atwater campaigned on a platform of fiscal conservatism. He bragged about how he supported an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to balance the federal budget.

What Atwater's slick campaign ads failed to mention was that he had no problem using federal stimulus money (borrowed in part from the Chinese) to balance the state's budget. For Atwater and his ilk, it was easier to take deficit-financed federal dollars than it was to balance the state budget by making painful cuts or tax increases.

Former Sen. George LeMieux — currently running for the U.S. Senate — is another brazen conservacrit. As a candidate he campaigns against pork barrel spending. And he hung a debt clock in his office and gave speeches from the Senate floor about cutting the debt.

But as a senator he lobbied for pork projects with a lame defense that went something like, "We deserve our share." And as chief of staff to former Governor Crist he had no problem advising Charlie to accept federal stimulus money. This is apparently what it means to be a "Charlie Crist Republican."

Many (if not most) of our Republican elected officials talk the talk, but few walk the walk. Showing leadership means making tough decisions, and few within either party are willing to risk electoral defeat in the interest of doing what is right.

For pointing these glaring hypocrisies out, I'll withstand the catcalls from my critics. Calling them out for the sake of a better future for our kids is far more important than party loyalty.