I haven't left the Republican Party. It left me.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I sometimes think that I didn't leave the Republican Party, as much as it left me.
Half a century ago, Ronald Reagan, the man whose relentless optimism inspired me to enter politics, famously said that he didn't leave the Democratic Party; the party left him. I can certainly relate. I didn't leave the Republican Party; it left me.
I am still a Republican. I have not changed that.
I have been a Republican since 1966.
The Democratic Party went far to the left, I think, and left some of us stranded on the beach, so we went to the Republican Party.
I grew up in a Texas where people would say, 'I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me.' Now, the reverse is happening. People are leaving the Republican Party because the Republican Party is going too far to the right in Texas. And that's a source of great potential support for Democrats.
I had quit the Congress to form the Progressive Democratic Front in 1978.
Well, I've been a Republican for all of my voting life.
I left the Democratic Party basically on issues of national security during the end of the Vietnam War.
For a person of my sensibility, you're only left with the Democratic party.