The Bruce Bartlett Apostasy

What happened to the GOP? Only nine million articles have been written about the demographic shift so I’m not sure. JK, but I really appreciated Bruce Bartlett’s story of how he woke up to his own party’s delusions. He explains his own awakening and subsequent denouncement of the Republican party from an economic standpoint. It’s courageous, moving stuff and it certainly resonates with me as I used to think of myself as a right-leaning independent (as opposed to the Moderate Anarchist I call myself today).

Anyway, here’s Bruce:

I know that it’s unattractive and bad form to say “I told you so” when one’s advice was ignored yet ultimately proved correct. But in the wake of the Republican election debacle, it’s essential that conservatives undertake a clear-eyed assessment of who on their side was right and who was wrong. Those who were wrong should be purged and ignored; those who were right, especially those who inflicted maximum discomfort on movement conservatives in being right, ought to get credit for it and become regular reading for them once again.

I’m not going to beat around the bush and pretend I don’t have a vested interest here. Frankly, I think I’m at ground zero in the saga of Republicans closing their eyes to any facts or evidence that conflict with their dogma. Rather than listen to me, they threw me under a bus. To this day, I don’t think they understand that my motives were to help them avoid the permanent decline that now seems inevitable.

For more than 30 years, I was very comfortable within the conservative wing of the Republican Party.

Keep reading:

Revenge of the Reality-Based Community (American Conservative)