Watching the Republican Party burn to the ground in November will likely be one of the saddest, yet, oddly satisfying events in my adult life.

Believe me when I say this isn’t easy. I’ve been a Republican since I was 18. I’ve never voted for any other party. Now it feels like my party cheated on me and reconciliation is out of the question. If I needed any further push, the first night of the GOP convention in Cleveland, Ohio was the final straw.

How appropriate that it is serial adulterer, Donald Trump, who is driving me from my home.

In absolute honesty, I can say I tried. I’ve clung to the party far beyond my level of comfort with what I saw going on. I always said I would rather stick with the GOP and change what was wrong from the inside.

Like a forlorn wife who has endured months of cold behavior from her husband, despite her best efforts to please him, then one day finds a strange phone number written across an empty condom wrapper, it’s time to move on.

And possibly get checked for an STD.

This is not a decision I came to capriciously. Some of the people I admire most are figures in the GOP.

In spite of his current party man status, Governor Rick Perry will forever be my ideal and a conservative icon: tested, proven, and in a sane country, this would be President Perry’s reelection campaign.

Representative Trey Gowdy for his driven, no-nonsense directness. Senator Mike Lee for his unwavering stance on conservative principle.

And North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, who is willing to make the tough decisions for the sake of commonsense, even during an election season, where incumbents are expected to keep their heads down and avoid controversy.

It’s not easy, but the search for a new home has begun. Right now, I’m looking at the Constitution party and it has promise, speaking strictly from a platform perspective. You can actually read their full platform here.

In a nutshell, the Constitution party is just what the name implies. They promote strict adherence to the Constitution (imagine that) and list their 7 core values as:

1. Life

2.Religious Freedom

3. Traditional Family

4. Private Property Rights

5.Pro- Second Amendment

6. Anti-Socialism

7. National Sovereignty

One of the more interesting platform issues they propose are withdrawal from the United Nations.

Isn’t that enough to set your toes tapping?

From the website of the Constitution party’s candidate, Darrell Castle:

The overwhelming success of the U.S. politically, economically, and culturally, depends upon a set of ideas–religious, political, and legal that set us free to worship, think, and act as free Americans. Those ideas have never been replicated anywhere else on earth. Material prosperity springs from that freedom and it is a renewable resource as long as freedom remains. The ideas of America are not compatible with membership in the United Nations (U.N.). The U.N. is world headquarters for the church of unbelieving humanism. The fundamental doctrine of the U.N. is that the world should be a global collective, redistributing shares of material prosperity to every human on earth. That is a religious and not a political idea. Faith in God is replaced by faith in Humanity. The U.N. is the sanctuary of the idolatry of Man. To U.N. believers its very name is sacred, inspiring awe and devotion. The earth is the great mother who produces some resources but not enough so rationing is the result. Some have to be taxed so rationing can occur and provide equal shares. Injuring the earth is the crime of injuring the great mother. This thought process takes them back to ancient pagan days of gods thought to be mythical but are in reality satanic. When the U.N. headquarters was built in 1946, a meditation room was included in which the only object is a rectangular black rock symbol of the underworld thrust up from the world below. The ideas of the U.N. are in direct opposition to the ideas of America.

Interesting.

There is also much said about the sanctity of life, ending the Federal Reserve, and property rights issues, as discussed through Agenda 21.

Ok. That last one, I’m still a little unsure about, but I know Glenn Beck wrote a book about it and I know some really feel it is a concern.

As for who Darrell Castle is:

Darrell L. Castle, native of the Volunteer State of Tennessee, is a true statesman – volunteering to serve with the United States Marine Corps in Viet Nam, as the founder of a humanitarian organization serving orphans in Romania, and as a leader in his community. He has taken an active leadership role in the Constitution Party since its founding in 1992, at both state and national levels. With degrees in Political Science, History, and Law, as well as his own personal study, Darrell is well-versed in the founding principles of the American Constitutional Republic, and takes the long view of history, current events, and the future of our nation. He was the party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2008.

His running mate is Utah native, Scott Bradley.

Vice-Presidential nominee Dr. Scott N. Bradley, native of the Beehive State of Utah, has spent his life learning and teaching the principles of the Founders of the American nation. Having served his nation in the U.S. Army National Guard, he went on to earn degrees in Public Administration and Constitutional Law. He has experience working in both the public and private sectors, as well as serving in the Constitution Party of his state as well as at the national level for many years, including two runs for U.S. Senate. Scott is also the founder of the Constitution Commemoration Foundation.

So, two military veterans and Constitutional lawyers. That’s already a big plus.

All that being said, the two-party system has had a stranglehold on American politics for generations. Perhaps that’s why the establishment of both parties feel so comfortable in mistreating the voters. Perhaps that’s why there is very little difference in the parties, once you get to the top, and nothing ever gets done. Perhaps that’s why it is so difficult for any outside party to get a foothold.

The ballot access rules vary from state to state, and getting the Constitution Party included on the ballot, in order to give voters another option requires signatures and a lot of old fashioned footwork.

The party is currently working to get enough signatures delivered to the Board of Elections in North Carolina by July 27, 2016, in order to get on the ballot there in November.

So is this folly? Is it pointless?

I don’t know, but I know this: I cannot stay in a party that has betrayed every value and principle I hold dear at the altar of Trump.

I did not leave the party. The party left me.