The idea had been buzzing around my head like a pesky fly for some time - but finally landed with the impact of an epiphany.

The republican party has become more than just the party of 'no' - it has actually degenerated into a mean caricature of itself.

I'm not your average liberal democrat.  My first party affiliation was the republican party in the early 1980's.  I was a Reaganite in those heady days - appreciative of his strength, his clear message and ability to inspire nearly all Americans.

I've seen the party of my youth change since then - a long slow slide into irrelevance.  Those changes drove me - first to independence and finally to the democrats.

Where did it all go wrong?  It is difficult to say for certain.  The neo-con revolution gave voice to a new kind of conservative, one that placed desire for power ahead of integrity.  It was a movement that had no place for grace or statesmanship.  I think the current state of meanness and dirty tactics can be traced directly back to these folks.

By the time George W Bush was running the first time, I was solidly in the independent camp.  Eight years of he and his cronies was enough to push me further to the left and into the arms of the democrats.

Bush, who had the audacity to hail himself as a 'uniter' was the most divisive president of the modern era - possibly of all time.    He chose to squander the universal good will of post-911 America and instead push policies that would split the Country down the center.  His legacy will be that of violating the Constitution, invading a foreign Country on false pretenses and placing narrow, religious doctrine ahead of the freedom and liberties of all citizens.

The current state of the republican party is the foul fruits of those seeds - planted by neo-cons and nursed to terrible proportion under Bush.

A party that once stood for rugged individualism now has no greater purpose than to whine and moan at the steps of the White House.  The party that claimed government cannot solve our problems never-the-less blames that government for all our ills.  They decry 'socialism' but won't condemn medicare or social security for fear of losing the baby boomer vote. They do not even have the courage of their questionable convictions.

Rather than reinvent themselves for a new age, the republican party has chosen to pull old plots out of mothballs.  Trickle-down economics, deregulation, tax cuts - and let us not forget the politics of division and entitlement.  They envision the good old days of straight, Protestant, 3rd generation Americans occupying the highest rung of society while immigrants, gays and non-Christians are marginalized.

The tactics of Gingrich, Rove and Bush didn't create these dark  and dangerous pahologies but they fomented their worst incarnations.  Pandora's box is open and who will close it again?