When I turned 18 in 1992 I registered to vote. I selected Republican as my party because I looked at both parties, and I identified most with the platform of the Republican party.

• I believe that workers should get to keep most of their money and spend it as they see fit.
• I believe that charity begins at home and not in Washington DC.
• I believe that all life is precious, and therefore abortion is murder and euthanasia is either murder or suicide.
• I believe that capital punishment is just and right for crimes that warrant it.
• I believe that our nation’s borders should be secure so that those who belong here (i.e. “citizens”) can enjoy the freedoms and responsibilities of being Americans.
• I believe that immigration is good so long as it is legal. Humans have not always lived on this continent, and therefore EVERYBODY’s family came here from somewhere else.
• I believe that Americans should have the right to worship, speak, and spend their money as they see fit, no matter who gets offended.
• I believe that there are three good reasons to preserve our citizens’ right to have pretty much any gun they want: to hunt for food, to protect ourselves from criminals, and to protect ourselves from our government.

I have donated money, supported, and spoken out for Republican candidates, with the hope that the representatives I voted for would hold to the values that they and I shared (supposedly). They have not.

Last month I was happy that the American people sent a message to Washington. We said, “We don’t like the policies of the Obama administration and the liberal Democrats in power. We don’t like Obamacare. We don’t want amnesty for illegals, etc etc.” The Republicans picked up NINE SEATS in the Senate, giving them a 54 to 46 advantage. That is the most seats picked up in a single election by Republicans in the Senate since the 1980 election. Anybody remember the Reagan landslide? Yeah. That was how big this election was in the Senate.

And then, in response to the expressed will of We the People, President Obama issued an executive order granting asylum to people who broke the law by coming here illegally, spitting in the face of the American voter.

In response to Obama, the Republicans cried out against his executive order, railed against his dictatorial style, and then, last night while many of us were asleep, wrote him a check giving him the financial power to implement this and other policies. In short, we were betrayed by the very Republicans we were counting on to defend us from Obama’s policies. I would say it will get better after the new guys take office next month, but the leadership will not change. It’s still going to be Boehner and McConnell. To quote Steve Deace:

“President Obama said his Marxist policies were on the ballot in this year’s election, and we overwhelmingly rejected them. Nonetheless, we’re going to get them anyway. All thanks to the same House Republican leadership that promised us more transparency, no more massive omnibus spending bills nobody had read, and to stop Obamacare and Obama’s amnesty. Yesterday, they betrayed every promise, broke every vow, and will fund for at least 9 months everything they told the American people they would stop.”

And so today, I am stating with emphatic resoluteness: I am no longer a Republican. If Republicans stood for the things that I mentioned at the top of this post, I would gladly be counted among their number. If Republicans returned to the positions Ronald Reagan held, I would stand up for them. But until that day, I declare myself a “Conservative,” and that only.