Why Moderates (and others) Have Fled the GOP

"If you don't support your president, you don't support America" Rush Limbaugh (Current DeFacto Leader of the GOP) , 2004.
"I hope this president fails" Rush Limbaugh, 2009

That kind of hypocrisy seems to have permeated the GOP for some time now. When I was a Republican (Reagan Era), the words and actions of the party were pretty congruent: Less government, less spending and a strong military defense. Those were the days. Not anymore.
The right has made it clear that they do not want the government to interfere with Big Business or those things that work so well for us - like say, healthcare (ulp!). But they don't consider it Big Government to force a woman who has been raped, to carry the fetus as a 9 month reminder of the event. Of course after the forced labor and birth, Conservatives will complain about her collecting welfare. Conservatives seem to miss the irony that they are the party who most strongly support all three of the following: Anti-abortion, The Death Penalty, Protecting the rights of those who want to carry semi-automatic weapons around in urban areas. Ooookey dokey.
Conservatives and the GOP want to tell us who can get married to each other but that's not "Big Government". Conservatives and the GOP (really, they're pretty much the same thing nowadays) want to force the removal of sex education which teaches anything other than abstinence because, you know, that worked so well in their VP Candidate's family. This is the party that yells and screams about the "re-distribution" and "socialism" that would result from offering programs that would help the poor and middle-classes - but gave billions to bankers which until Obama, didn't even have any oversight.
Do you see a pattern here? Moderates do. If the GOP wants to re-name the Dems "The Democratic Socialist Party", perhaps we should be even more forthright and rename them the "Republican Hypocrites".
Moderates may not agree with everything the Dems propose. But while Republicans are holding Tea Parties to protest all the tax hikes, we moderates have noticed there haven't been any. Most of us are already taking more home in our paycheck and will pay less next April. The Conservatives and GOP's showboating doesn't do much for us.
While the GOP tries to figure out exactly how to "re-brand" itself, it's leaders genuflect in submission to a whack job radio host who used to preach that those caught abusing drugs in America should be deported - until he was caught abusing drugs, that is.
So the "less government" mantra has really come to mean, "Less government for the rich" to us. And it's not lost on us that the only re-distribution we've seen at all, has gone to those poor millionaires at Lehman, AIG etc...
Less spending? I know Americans aren't known for their long memories but really. The GOP blew the largest surplus in history and left us with the largest debt. So their credibility on this front is pretty much nil and viewed by moderates as pure hypocrisy.
Strong Military Defense. The GOP has not support our military. They have supported their war. Three bills presented in the last five years: 1. Raise the base pay for the military. Overwhelming support by Democrats. Voted down by the Republican majority (including McCain). More military families have gone bankrupt under GOP rule than at any time in our country's history. Dubious honor. 2. Equitable Leave / Deployment Time. This would give those in combat, an amount of time off with their family etc... equal to the amount of time spent in the stress of combat. Dems voted for it. Republicans voted it down. 3. Limit on Tours of Duty / Release Date Delays. Guess who voted that down. The result? More suicides in our military and more suicides in our special forces than ever before in history. THAT IS NOT SUPPORTING OUR MILITARY. But the GOP and Conservatives do support the war which was based completley on lies to the American People.
So pardon us moderates if we choose "The Other Party", whatever that party may be. We don't believe in the party which tells us that the healthcare used by every senator is not "good enough" for the rest of us. We don't believe in the party which tells us that the way to help the middle class, is to keep intact, tax breaks for the rich, and not give any to the rest of us. We don't believe in the party which tells us that government jobs (which will last years), shouldn't be offered to the 10% of us who are out of work because they're "not good enough jobs and temporary". And we don't believe in the party which is obviously controlled by the Religious Right and an Extreme Neocon radio entertainer.
Moderates are a long way from casting a vote for such a party. And if Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh et. alia keep their mouths open and their control strong, we won't be voting for the GOP for a long time.