Tipping Point

“I should be supporting Allen. Instead, I’m leaving the party.”

I'm a Christian, a writer, a military parent and a registered Republican.

On all those counts, I was disgusted by an e-mail I just received that's being circulated by campaign supporters of Republican George Allen, who's trying to retain his Senate seat in Virginia.

The message goes like this: "First, it was the Catholic priests, then it was Mark Foley, and now Jim Webb, whose sleazy novels discuss sex between very young teenagers. ... Hmmm, sounds like a perverted pedophile to me! Pass the word that we do not need any more pedophiles in office."

…I've been voting Republican for years. My late father – Dr. Francis Schaeffer – was an evangelical theologian, friend to Jerry Falwell and White House guest of Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and the first President Bush.

I have nice handwritten letters from various members of the Bush family, including Barbara, thanking me for my books on military service. So I have every reason to stay in the Republicans' good graces. (It's nice to be complimented on television by the First Lady.)

But enough is enough. I've had it with Republican smears.

…My wife and I have reached the tipping point. We plan to go to town hall to dump our Republican voter registration and reregister as independents. I don't care anymore what party someone is in. These days, what I care about is what they're made of.

Wartime demands leaders with character and moral authority. The political party smearing Mr. Webb proves it has neither.

It perplexes me that there are people who are only just now opening their eyes to the things we’ve been seeing for so long. I’m not sure why this stuff matters now, but didn’t matter in 2004, or 2002, or 2000—or during the long, disgusting display during the late 90s. I can’t believe it’s only because the Republicans are going to lose. This piece doesn’t strike me as being written by a man who just wants to be on the winning team (or, at least, dissociated from the losing team), as have some other “changed mind” commentaries we’ve seen. I really don’t know or understand why we’ve reached the tipping point we have, but I’m glad of it. Whatever the reasons, I’m pleased that at long last the stinking whiff of the putrid GOP has become too much to bear for even some of its lifelong members.