However much it will pain me to no longer be able to vote in a major primary due to Pennsylvania's horrid closed primary system, after the 2012 April primary I will be leaving the Republican party.
I left the party in spirit many many years ago but stayed on paper to be able to vote. The last straw was seeing Newt say a few things that actually sounded close to true conservative principles and get mercilessly attacked for them.
Thinking about it I really started to become focused on politics around 2002/2003, and though I don't necessarily agree with him as a politician now, in my formative years I very much had an appreciation for what Newt accomplished in the 90's. Then the opposite happened to what had happened under Bush. With Newt and Clinton both sides agreed to reduce, Republicans on defense and Democrats on social programs. To see Newt show a glimpse into those principles and be attacked by Republicans is disgusting. It was also in those years that I still had hope for Bush, he had not come close to being the worst president since FDR at that point. For many years the Republican actions of the 90's and the first two years or Bush helped keep me in the party, but as the Iraq war was launched and Bush's domestic and foreign policies quickly grew into everything I hate I saw the party transform... I stayed on hoping for a change of course, but it seems obvious to me now that will not likely happen.
I oppose one party on principles and the other on actions, and like so many I have felt for years there are so few in Washington who even come close to representing my beliefs and principles.
I'll be spending the next year deciding whether to go full independent or join the Libertarian party.