“I Was a Republican Until They Lost Their Minds”

Retired basketball star Charles Barkley is again contemplating a bid for Alabama Governor, only this time he will be wearing a blue jersey:

Barkley continued to identify himself as a Republican until recently, when he switched parties. “I was a Republican until they lost their minds,” he said earlier this month.

Earth to Chuck: There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Republicans and the Democrats.

posted Jul 29th, 2006 by disinter
  • Terroja

    This is a new development for him? If sanity is a prerquisite for the support of a political party, then everyone in this country would stay home on election day (which, I guess, a lot of them already do).

  • http://www.themillerreport.com Dave Miller

    I’ve watched that interview about a dozen times (I Tivo PTI), and I’m trying to figure out why Charles felt that is only other choice was the Dems? And then it donned on me… He ain’t that smart.

  • Will Novak

    Charles lives in Paradise Valley, AZ, wouldn’t he actually have to live in Alabama to run for Governor?

  • Renee

    I think you are wrong about there not being any difference between the two parties. As a Democrat, I puruse a number of Libertarian sites and blogs. We certainly have a lot in common. Of course, philosophically I would associate myself with the Centrist ilk of the DLC, which enrages the Liberal wack-o fringe. The liberal blogragers are really noisy, but they don’t represent most dems, nor the majority of the folks in our Nation.
    We want the govt to stay out of our personal lives. We want sanity in the budget. The porkmeisters must go.
    I think we could work together to oust the present regime and then seriously find consensus on Budget Sanity.
    But first, we have got to get rid of the Bush/Cheney Cabal. I think we have more in common than you’d like to believe.

  • http://libspot.org/member/mlaursen/blog1/ Mike Laursen

    You gotta admit, though, that is one well-worded slam that he managed to get quoted.

  • Don Wills

    WRT libertarians and the Democratic Party, Renee wrote:

    “I think we have more in common than you’d like to believe.”

    What world do you live in? Here’s a few of the disagreements -

    gun rights, nationalized healthcare, social security, welfare, education, taxation, minimum wage, right-to-work, free trade, the Patriot Act, federal drug laws, property rights, the Real ID act.

    The biggest difference is that, in general, Democrats believe that government is smarter than the people, and thus should direct people’s lives for their own benefits. Libertarians are absolutely the opposite.

  • TerryP

    Renee

    The problem is those “wackos” in the democratic party are the ones in control of the party. The want as much of an authoritarian gov’t as the right-wing republicans do. I will admit that they likely don’t represent a large chunk of the democrats but that chunk continues to vote for them anyway. Maybe instead of the libertarians voting for these democrats who don’t represent you or libertarians, democrats like yourself should consider moving over to the libertarian party and voting for libertarians. Then maybe you will have a chance at being represented. At the very least since libertarians believe in individual choice and responsibility you will not have the gov’t imposing someone elses will upon you. Right now you aren’t being represented and by voting democrat you perpetuate this and are allowing the gov’t to impose the will of some people upon everyone else. Instead, please consider voting for a libertarian in the future if we have that much in common with you.

  • HippyChimp

    That last sentence is the point I try most to get across to people, “there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Republicans and the Democrats.” They’re both equally crooked and greedy.

  • jnice

    Don: You forgot to mention the conflict in Iraq, which enough Democrats supported to get us where we are today. Never let others forget this!

  • Paul Pace

    “There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Republicans and Democrats”.

    True in most states, but in Alabama, there’s actually not a cent’s worth of difference.

  • Graham

    ( I dont know much about Alabama other than what I read here, maybe the Dems there are hawkish bigots, too, idk) He may not be a libertarian, but he does understand the BS of all the fake issues and diversions. He at least has some understanding of the proper role of government and what really matters. At least he did a few years ago. If he isn’t smart, he is just like 99% of the people who matter who don’t think the LP exists as a viable option. The old “I’m smarter than you because I’m one of the less than 1% people smart enough to vote LP” line of thinking is lame.

    At this time , people who want to win are mostly going to choose between the “2 parties.” The Republicans have pretty much decided to brand themselves as bigots. Some go D by default. I dont know his stances these days,I am guessing he probably opposes the war, supports gay marriage, gambling, personal responsibility,etc. Probably too fiscally responsible for Rs and of course not “pure” enough for LP anyway.

  • HippyChimp

    I’m of the opinion that both major parties are equally broken. Both of them no longer serve the people, they are slaves to corporate interests and consumed by a hunger for ever more power. A vote for either of them is a vote for the status quo of ever increasing federal powers and assaults on the Constitution and Bill of Rights. It’s shameful how brainwashed most american’s are, hopefully enough see the light before it’s too late to effect any significant changes…