Republican Party Jumps the Shark

I need a twelve step program...

Here it is:

"Hello, everyone.  I'm Sand's Spot, a blogger, and I'm... <breaks down>

<... regains composure...>

I'm a ... <breaks down again, begins sobbing>

I'm a republican."<sighs deeply and continues sobbing>


From the group:  "Hi, Sandy."

OK, I should now admit, I'm a recovering Republican.  I'm leaving the party because I believe the party has "Jumped the Shark" - here's my evidence:

• Mainstream republican candidates are vowing to fight the just passed health care bill, calling it, in a blatant lie, a government take over of the US health care system.  It is demonstrably and clearly not so.
• A large number of Republicans say they believe the Christian man we call President is a Muslim.  My WTF meter just exploded.
• A surprising number of Republicans think this Constitutional Scholar, the one we elected democratically, is a Socialist.  The real socialists are laughing now, they likely can't tell the difference between a Republican or a Democrat based on ideology (Democrats and Republicans are much closer ideologically than either is to any type of socialist.)
• One quarter of all Republicans believe President Obama is the Anti-Christ.  Never mind that there will never be such a person, and many worse men have applied for that position, President Obama is clearly no sort of Religious Icon, certainly not the Anti-Christ.
• Almost half of all Republicans believe the birther argument that Obama can not be President because he was not born in the United States.  When the state of Hawaii produced the document that state uses to document births, the birthers complain that it is not a certification of live birth.  News to the birthers, I do not have a certificate of live birth either.  They state I was born in doesn't issue them.  Yet I am fully a United States Citizen with all the rights, including being POTUS (not that I have any desire for that job - I've seen the job and I don't want it).
• An amazing number of official Republicans (that is, party officials) seem to be advocating violence or at the very least are allowing the advocating of violence.
• The extreme racist overtones that are becoming apparent in the party rhetoric lately. 

This is only the tip of the iceberg, too.  So, that's it, I'm done (stick a fork in me?).  I hereby renounce my affiliation with the Republican Party.  In their race to the Right, they've left me, and many more like me, behind.

Now, a look at these points might remind my readers of the Tea Party talking points.  The Republicans seem to have adopted them.  I have no fondness for either group.

They are both racist, homophobic, anti-American, and insane groups of people.  They likely hate me and what I stand for, and I must admit, I have no love for them.