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Ex-GOP Activist joins Libertarian Party, delivers GOP '2x4 between the eyes' letter

I'd like to share one of the best of these letters below it was sent to RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson in response to a membership renewal letter he had mailed to Republicans all across the country. The letter is written by David Shaffer of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I think you'll enjoy it.

Dear Mr. Nicholson,

For my entire adult life I have:

* Voted Republican,
* Walked door-to-door for Republican candidates
* Donated the maximum amount of money possible to Republican candidates,
* Worked at polling places for Republicans,
* Ferried voters to the polls to cast Republican ballots,
* Tried to recruit new Republicans from the ranks of Democrats and Independents, and...
* Suffered the enmity of my friends for advocating a limited constitutional republic.

You can therefore imagine my elation at the election results of 1994!

Yet, here I am in May, 1997, a proud, new, card carrying member of the Libertarian Party. I presume, therefore, that you will wish to withdraw my nomination as a sustaining member of the RNC. Should you, for some inexplicable reason, choose not to withdraw, I nevertheless do not accept.

If you will take instruction from the defection of so long a loyal and energetic party member, then I am only too anxious to offer it. To wit,

I did not work to save immoral Social Security and Medicare programs, but to repeal them.

I did not contemplate a rise in the minimum wage, but its abolition.

I did not expect that the defeat of Clinton-care would be followed by Kennedy-Raasebaum and now Kennedy-Hatch.

I did not expect the continued deployment of US troops overseas following Cold War victory.

I did not expect the 'end of welfare as we know it' to include continued federal taxes on to support welfare as we know it now.

I did not anticipate that promised deregulation would place tobacco under the FDA.

I did not dream that the demise of politically correct speech would be succeeded by proposals to censor the Internet.

I did not expect the dismantling of corporate welfare to be blocked by Republicans.

I did not think that the equal protection of the law meant that parents are more equal than the childless in structuring the tax code.

I did not consider that the arbitrary powers of the LSC, ATF,IRS, SBA, NEA, NLRB, FDA, Bxport/Import Bank, EEOC, and on and would continue as if no change in legislative control had ever happened.

I am still amazed that no shrinkage in the number of Cabinet departments has occurred, that the number and complexity of the forms that I must submit to the federal government in order to operate my small business has not decreased, but increased.

I certainly hoped that the Republican majority would not continue to permit the war on drugs to justify assaults on liberty (RICO, asset forfeitures, forceful entry and destructive searches of property without compensation to innocent targets.

I do not understand why there is a war on drugs in the first place (apart from educational and rehabilitational efforts which can all be done voluntarily), and particularly why this war should be a FEDERAL one.

I do not understand how it is that the agents of the federal government who caused the loss of innocent life at Ruby Ridge and Waco, not only were not prosecuted, and did not suffer the loss of employment and benefits, but were instead promoted.

I am dismayed that the group who rightly attacked liberal Democrats for forcing secular humanism down our throats should find no contradiction in forcing fundamental Christianity down our throats, regardless of its benefits when taken voluntarily.

No one can prevent a person from praying to his God, short of killing him, and I have as yet had no report of a teacher taking this step.

And while homosexuality, prostitution, pornography, and other such activities voluntarily engaged in by consenting adults may offend the morals of some, or even many, they most certainly do not circumscribe the liberty of anyone.

I could continue in this vein, but I won't.

Now I come to the letter of nomination itself, wherein you list what you believe to be the most compelling reasons for concerted Republican action, and what do I find?

1. A complaint about Clinton/Gore scandals.

If you can find sufficient grounds for so doing, impeach one or both of these scoundrels. If not, why not embrace enthusiastically the serious and pressing business of restoring our liberties?

2. Balancing the budget.

Excuse me, but the early reports of how Republicans are planning to do this do not bring comfort. The end of deficits as far as the eye can see will not occur without the accompaniment of real spending reductions as far as the eye can see.

And the absence of such spending cuts will only mean that the monster state is simply frozen at its present freedom-crushing proportions.

3. Crime and drug abuse among our children.

I have read the U.S. Constitution many times, and more books on the Constitution than many Americans have read books, and nowhere do I find an enumerated power of the national government to concern itself with crime and drug use amongst our children, our adults, or anyone else.

Nor, while we are at it, with 'improving our schools,' helping 'working and retired Americans struggling to make ends meet,' helping parents defend their children against 'television and the Internet,' or helping us 'prepare for retirement.'

You have, it seems to me, been seduced by the enemy's propaganda.
No, I do not think you are on the right track, notwithstanding the fact that I wish to arrive -- through unfettered personal efforts -- at some of your stated destinations.

I did not, after all, choose the Republican Party as my political vehicle simply to conserve fuel on the 'Road to Serfdom.'

That I want my voice to be heard in Washington is certain. I am convinced, however, that a higher decibel level will be registered by my departure to the Libertarians than any size contribution I could make to the RNC. If, in this conviction I am mistaken, then God help us
all.

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