The two-party problem

Many of my friends and family members know I'm yearning for a Republican candidate I can vote for. The closest I have come to voting for the big R was in 2008 with John McCain, and frankly that wasn't even close. Social conservatives and neo-cons have made the Republican pretty toxic.

It's not that I hate the Democratic party, but I am on the other side of the aisle when it comes to government size and spending. Of course the problem with this line of thinking is that Karl Rove and GWB's vision of a small government isn't much different than Barack Obama and Bill Clinton's vision of a large government; the spending is pretty close to being the same in non-stimulus years (a product of an administration drunk on essence of money-juice). So the proper response to all of those crazy problems we had to deal with in the wake of incredible fiscal irresponsibility (especially in the view of a Democrat) was to spend our way out of it, something I was begrudgingly on board with (given the size and scope of the problem, we had to do something, and damned if I knew what it was). And we're all familiar with the conservative refrain: Obama=Socialist.

Uncle Sam wants you driving one of his cars, writing checks at one of his banks, and using his health insurance. Are we saving the economy or headed toward socialism?

Now that's silly. The government trying to protect American wealth and conserve jobs is not socialism, especially given that these specific reactions were to very unique problems. If anything, this environment is closer to Corporatism than anything resembling socialism. But when I was lurking around the lefty blogs, this was a response offered by Liberal blogger John Amoto of crooksandliars.com (as well as the response given to anything even remotely bad that a democrat has done lately)

I'd like to remind Chris Wallace that Uncle Sam under George Bush gave us terrorist attacks, two wars, torture, illegal wiretapping, a stock market crash and almost destroyed the world's global financial markets and much much more in eight years. I could think of many more, but you get the idea.

Now, I'm certainly no GWB fan, but this cannot be the response to each and every hiccup this administration faces. It makes me angry that people think this is an answer to anything that is happening today. I mean (I know it's a long-shot, but,) what happens if in 2012, we all agree that Barack Obama is the worst president ever? No discussion, we just know, Obama is the worst president ever. What happens then? Is the answer still going to be "well it's GWB's fault!" That's just stupid, and it helps nothing.

EDIT::: To be clear, there are several Republicans I would -- and even a scant few that I have -- voted for, I meant for President. Sorry for the confusion.