The Pendulum isn't swinging both ways these days

My bent is naturally leaning towards a progressive government. I'm fiscally conservative by nature, yet the arc leans toward progressive policies on social issues.

I've got to say lately I've become more and more resigned to the fact that I'm disappointed in all GOP candidates and elected office-holders. Not because I believe the Democratic candidates are so far morally superior. But the policies of the Republicans have pushed them out of the middle completely.

There should be common ground on many divisive issues. All Americans should have backed banking and finance reform and worked to carve out a strong bill. Instead the Dodd-Frank bill was rendered toothless in many respects because of GOP opposition and pressure from big banking interests. Campaign finance reform should be a national cause from both parties. Instead the Tea Party groups are sponsored again by big money interests and powerful lobbies.

It's not that Democratic candidates don't have these same problems. It's simply intensified in the Republican party. The idea they can win regionally but not nationally-meaning presidentially-has taken hold.

The pendulum usually swings both ways but the GOP Presidential candidates are leaning farther and farther away from the center.

The center backs immigration reform. Background checks for all gun purchases. The center backs clean air and water. All the things that denote freedom, not just speech and toting guns, are at stake in our elections. Our quality of life and how we choose to live. Invasion of privacy and wire-tapping, how we rein in big corporations-as influenced by the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.

Who sits on the Supreme Court, how we administer health care to our citizens, all these things matter. They should not all be partisan issues. That is the greatest disappointment I've found with the GOP. They have politicized everything, even Foreign Policy issues that always left partisanship at the waters edge in past times.

Now the only thing continually branded as Un-American by Republican lawmakers is the President himself. That's a major disappointment. The saying, "I vote for the man, not the Party" used to make sense at some levels. But no more.

I vote safe these days. I vote for freedom and liberty. It's a safe bet to vote against the GOP in this day and age. Here's hoping that will change in the decade to come.