Doug R said:

dick:The only response I can think of to your post listing the Republicans that have repudiated the party is: horsepucky! I would like to think that you spent a few too many hours at the local pub before your posted that message. Four of the five names mentioned have gone on to their great reward, and unless you have a super duper form of communication with those in the great beyond, you are full of you know what.

Okay, let's look at the list:

Bill Buckley, deceased, left the Republican party to co-found the Conservative Party in New York. His lifelong identification was more with conservative positions than with the Republican party as such.

Eisenhower? I certainly don't remember his having left the Republican Party. He was, as I recall, essentially apolitical until he decided, after some wavering, to run as a Republican

Goldwater? I don't remember his leaving the Republican Party. He DID endorse Bill Buckley for mayor of NYC under the Conservative banner. I don't know that he gave up being a Republican.

Ronald Reagan? He was originally a Democrat, and eventually ended up a Republican.

Christopher Buckley (Bill Buckley's son) recently endorsed Obama. I don't know what he considers himself now.

So three of them might be said (however vaguely or temporarily) to have deserted the Republican party.

Dave Oesterreich