This is a comment I made to something that was posted by a Facebook friend:
For me, the turning point was Newt Gingrich’s reckless tenure as Speaker of the House, and Ken Starr transforming the Whitewater panel into Monicagate. Until then I was a registered voter with no party affiliation. Clinton gave the GOP Nafta and welfare reform, and they still kept attacking him. When they brought the Monica affair to light, I realized there had been a fundamental shift in the party.
Republicans were no longer interested in the two-party system. They would take everything they could get, offer nothing in return, and that was when I finally registered as a Democrat. Even after Clinton survived the beating of impeachment, he agreed to scuttling the Glass-Steagall Act, which was strongly favored by Republicans, and was the single biggest mistake of his administration. Clinton left office with a budget surplus, and of course Bush turned it into a huge tax windfall that mostly benefited the ultra-rich, putting the lie to the Republican assertion they are concerned about the federal deficit.
With all of that said, I voted for Masachusetts governor Charlie Baker. But he’s one of those “Massachusetts Republicans,” like former governors Mitt Romney and Bill Weld. To the rest of the GOP, they are RINO — Republicans in Name Only. Meaning they’re sane and reasonable (ignoring Weld’s recent turn as a Libertarian running mate). It was a shame to see how Romney had to fall in line with the hardcore Republican base in 2012 and denounce Obamacare, which was based largely upon his own Romneycare.
Fascinating and logical choice.