The GOP just lost my respect

I mean that sincerely. Until recently, I was open to voting for a GOP candidate. I consider(ed) patriotism and patriotic intent one of the crowning jewels of the Grand Old Party and patriotism is something upon which I place a high value. I voted, primarily, as a liberal (thinker), which allowed me the luxury of choosing candidates based on personal ideology and not party affiliation. Patriotism has always influenced my voting pattern.

Which is why I will no longer consider a GOP candidate at any level. Too bad, because I was one of those “good gets” for a GOP candidate – socially liberal, fiscally conservative.

But, the Republican partisan politics have reached a new low. We now have sitting members in Congress, elected by their constituents to focus on the best interests of the American people, writing to the leader of a foreign nation in open and direct defiance of the President of the United States. Just weeks before, these same “team players, we are all Americans” invited a foreign leader to take the Congressional podium, again in direct defiance of the expressed orders of the President.

This is more than (notice I said “more than” clearly implying that these acts could be constituted as…) insubordination, dereliction of duty, abuse of power, or treason. This is highly problematic for the United States on two levels.

First, this is a profound display of weakness to foreign nations. By essentially overriding the will of the executive branch publicly, the legislative branch makes our Commander-in-Chief appear compromised and unable to demand the support of his own countrymen, all of whom, by the way, swore an oath of allegiance.

Second, more reaching in its harmful scope in my opinion, this public dissension and breach of protocol by the GOP represents a fundamental break in the governmental structure of checks and balances (separation of powers). Each branch fundamentally has its own responsibilities in regard to this country’s well being. When one branch (read here: Legislative) works in direct, public, global defiance of another branch (read here: Executive), Americans suffer. Partisan politics and manipulations born by a few dozen men and women creep in like a silent killer and slowly eat at the fabric of our republic.

Guess who should know all of this better than a 6^th generation, opera-singing, blond Texan? The self-described “patriots,” defending our Constitution, Lady Liberty, and God-blessed United States.

All of you lost my vote and my respect. For those GOP leaders who stayed silent, I can only say what Jed Bartlett would probably say in this moment, “Qui tacet consentire videtur.”