Diary of a Mad Voter: Republican turned Democrat due for an eye-opening

There is nothing more annoying than powerful women playing the victim card. It's a fact I'm reminded of this week as Debbie Stafford — a longtime Republican now turned Democrat — suggests that she was "battered" by her former party's leaders.

The state representative from Aurora asserts that her decision to become a Democrat had little to do with policy — and more to do with protest. "If I believe someone is being battered…I would tell them to pack their bags and get out fast. My party was trying to batter me into submission," she told a Denver Post reporter last week.

In trying to paint her party as abusive, Stafford only reveals her own impulsive weaknesses. She claims the final straw came during this year's legislative session when she says she was retaliated against for breaking with GOP leadership to support a bill that lowered the standard for construction defects lawsuits. According to Post reporter Jennifer Brown, Stafford broke down in tears as she recalled how her unpopular vote turned her into an "outcast."

While Stafford insists on wearing a victim label, we can only hope that she wouldn't instruct abuse victims to seek cover under another abusive relationship. But if we are to accept her accusations as gospel, this is exactly what she has done. Now as a Democrat, she is going to find herself and her conservative social views painfully at odds with her new party's expectations.

What an eye-opening she is going to get next January at the beginning of the 2008 legislative session, when the kisses, hugs and bouquets stop coming from her new party colleagues. Certainly, union bosses won't take kindly to her pro-school choice views. The feminist lobby isn't likely to pat her on the back for her pro-life stance.

If Stafford had logically thought through her decision, she would have fought back by demanding change within her party. If she really felt she needed to leave the GOP, she should have become an independent, rejecting partisan status altogether.

Fortunately, for Stafford's own sake, she is term-limited. Her switch will likely have little to no practical impact. She was overwhelmingly elected in a district that supported her conservative stances, including her opposition to gay marriage, stem cell research, and amnesty for illegal immigrants. Democrats now hold a 40-25 member lead in the House, and Stafford's district will likely once again elect a Republican in the 2008 election.

Lest I be accused of battering Stafford myself, let me give credit where credit is due. She has been through a lot in life. A few years ago, I joined in a standing ovation after she gave a speech detailing her experiences in an abusive marriage and her subsequent struggles to succeed — which she did — as a single mother. My admiration then strikes a strong contrast to my disappointment now.

Jessica Peck Corry is a public policy analyst with the Independence Institute in Golden, Colo.

How can she now retreat from the core ideals of her party, bowing her head in tears, so flabbergasted and so frustrated by the basic realities of our competitive political system? It sends a troubling message to women across the nation. It says we're weak and paints us not as leaders, but as followers.

As a Republican myself, I've been an outspoken critic of my party's leadership frequently over the years. When you believe in something, you've got to fight to make it better. Abandoning my core philosophy, even at a time when too many Republicans at the national level are pushing to expand the government's role in our lives every day, just isn't an option. Why would I leave a party weakened by the temptations of socialism for another faction that not only encourages government expansion, but lives and breathes such a philosophy?

Perhaps Stafford is finally home. After all, Colorado's most powerful elected female Democrat, state Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, has similarly pulled the victim card, bemoaning our political system as an "old boys" network. Give me a break. Girls are running the show and getting the headlines.

Let's mop up those tears and get back in the fight.

Editor’s note: Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of a feature on The Denver Post's PoliticsWest.com site called "Diary of a Mad Voter." The group blog, published in partnership with NewWest.Net/Politics, is intended to give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the '08 election cycle. Check back regularly at www.politicswest.com for "Diary of a Mad Voter."

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