I may have come late to the party.......... becoming very aware of it by 2005-6, with a Republican president and a Republican Congress, and what happened to Ken Blackwell here in Ohio........ but I'm also observant enough to know that we have now been completely pushed aside.
It took nominating a NY valueless Liberal and shoving the Conservatives out of the convention to make me make the break entirely (I'm loyal to a fault ), but I have no regrets in removing the label "Republican" from my political affiliation.
@musiclady Well, you are a bit more patient than I... For me it was 07, when Duncan Hunter was purposefully locked out of the primary debates, even though he won every one he participated in, and had carried a state early on... As soon as he hit the South, where he would have certainly walked away with it, he couldn't buy air, and then got shut out of the debates. That was it. When he stepped out of the race, I stepped out of the party, having pulled the lever straight Republican ever since my first vote for Reagan.
Enough is enough.
What a relief to be under no obligation when the enemy of everything Conservative (McCain), and the most liberal Republican ever (Romney), and finally, a liberal carnival barker from NYC went parading by...