I grew up loving the Republican platform and admiring previous Republican elected officials like Presidents Lincoln, Reagan, Bush, Congressman Randall “Duke” Cunningham, and others. My information and understanding of these politicians was relatively shallow and limited to what information was out there in the times before smartphones and the internet. I was also a product of my environment, as I was born and raised Catholic, went to private Catholic schools, and was raised by fairly conservative parents (who ironically tended to vote more for Democrats than Republicans). 

Serving in the Marines strengthened my conservative beliefs and values, because growing up, I saw Democrat Presidents downsize the military, and or, get involved in military operations that ended in either failure and or embarrassment, mainly President Clinton’s foreign policy disaster in Mogadishu, Somalia, failure to kill Osama Bin Laden when we had the chance, and allowing the USS Cole bombing attack to go relatively unanswered. I served in the Marines pre- and post-9/11 and saw the military (at the time) supported and utilized in ways not seen before. 

After leaving the Marines in 2005, during my time as a peace officer, I re-registered to vote as a no party preference voter. I did so because I was frustrated with the Republican party and my assessment of them as weak on principle. I still voted along with them, but felt I could not give them my loyalty or fealty due to my perception that they compromised on their principles at times, or they did not fight hard enough to support the things that they and I believed in. 

In the last 12 or so years I’ve experienced a political revival, if you will. I’ve met many wonderful people, some of whom have become some of my closest friends. I was able to learn so much more than what I had been taught up until that point, and I continue to learn every day. I expanded my knowledge and understanding of politics, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, political parties, and more. I re-registered again, this time back to a Republican, and ran for elected office within the local Republican Party and won. I served on my local central committee for about two years and two more years with the L.A. County Republican Party. I thought that I could help steer the party back to where I thought it needed to be, a strict and constitutionally conservative party. A party that held strict allegiance to the Constitution and Bill of Rights and small, limited government. 

The last four years have been increasingly frustrating for me, because I have seen the Republican Party for what it has been for several years in my view, a “uniparty.” The Party has become a large “RINO,” where the vast majority of the party has aligned itself more and more with the Democrats in spending and the size and power of government. A great friend and mentor of mine, Chuck, said it best when he said that we have the party of big government and the party of bigger government. An obvious play on the Republican Party slogan of being the party of small and limited government, when they are quite the opposite. 

It was President Bush, after September 11^th, that expanded the Federal Government by creating the Department of Homeland Security, in the biggest expansion since President Carter created the Department of Education. It was a Republican Congress that introduced the Patriot Act, which saw serious infringements on civil liberties in the name of public safety. These infringements, like the FISA warrant and application system, were later used to target President Trump during his first term and target many more American citizens since their passage into law. 

It is of my opinion, the Republican Party has become more like the Democrat Party when it comes to keeping government power and expanding it whenever possible. Money flows into Congress like water into the ocean, from lobbyists and donors alike, ensuring that the special interests come first. It was President Trump during his first term that enacted gun control by executive fiat, bypassing Congress by enacting a bump stock ban, with the willing participation of the ATF. It is President Trump now who is considering suspending Habeas Corpus in order to more effectively expedite the process for removing illegal aliens. The last time this was done was during World War II, which mostly targeted Japanese Americans and sent them to internment camps without any due process.

There are good, strong, conservative Republicans out there, like Kentucky's Rep. Thomas Massie and Senator Rand Paul, and former Rep. Mike Garcia of California, who have fought and continue to fight the good fight. But more and more Republicans have started to introduce legislation that in my view violates the Constitution, yet nobody seems to care because it is either done to advance Trump’s agenda, or to give him more power. 

My first metric when legislation is introduced is always to determine if it is Constitutional. Does the potential legislation violate the Constitution or any civil liberties? If it can’t pass those two metrics, it shouldn’t proceed. But more and more Republicans are ignoring those metrics, and it sickens me. Furthermore, when it comes to defending our civil liberties, like the 2nd Amendment, more Republicans will block pro-2A legislation rather than advance it, which is occurring now as we speak. I see more Republicans on the local, state, and Federal level compromising their principles, their values, the Constitution, all for money, or exposure, or whatever reason they tell themselves, and I have had enough. 

I am no longer a Republican. I am, and always have been, a Constitutional Conservative before anything else. When I re-registered as a Republican to run for party office, I did so regrettably because I felt as if I was compromising my values, even if I WAS trying to reform the party from the inside. While I do support Republicans and some very good friends of mine who are doing admirable work at the local, county, and state levels with the Republican Party, I have decided I will no longer be a member of the Republican Party and have instead joined the Libertarian Party. 

I firmly believe that my Constitutional Rights come first, and regardless of the good that may come with a bill, if it violates the Constitution, I will never support it. For example, I will never support a Federal abortion ban, the same way I will never support a Federal allowance of it, because it is not up to the Federal government to say it is or isn’t okay to have an abortion. That duty falls to the states and their voters. The 10th Amendment is clear; abortion is and always will be a state’s rights issue. I believe that our civil liberties are pure and unadulterated, as in I can own any and all forms of firearms and weapons I can afford, because the 2nd Amendment says I can. I can say what I want, when I want, because the 1st Amendment says I can. If I do not want to wear a seat belt or a helmet when I ride a motorcycle, that is my right to do so, because it doesn’t protect anyone else; my life is lived how I want it lived. 

Both Democratic and Republican parties have done, or tried to do, more to harm the Constitution than they have protected it, especially in the last 10 years. Republican Senator Lindsay Graham proposed a federal abortion ban shortly before the midterms of 2022, likely costing the Republicans the predicted “red wave.” More importantly, though, Republicans have squandered their opportunities more than once to restore the Constitutional rights that have been whittled down over the years. When they had the chance to repeal “Obamacare,” they voted to keep it. Furthermore, Republicans stupidly campaigned on a “repeal and replace,” when they should have run on a straight repeal because “Obamacare” was and remains unconstitutional. Tell me where in the Constitution it says that the Federal government has a role in healthcare and that it is a right.   

Even now, the party refuses to take this two-year golden period and advance some conservative agenda, like eliminating the DOE, ATF, and other agencies that are also unconstitutional. It took a handful of principled and dedicated Republicans to reinstate the Hearing Protection Act into the "Big Beautiful Bill" that just passed the House. And those Republicans were being blasted by conservatives online because they held up Trump's agenda. President Trump and his Press Secretary actually called for Massie to be primaried because he refused to vote for the "Big Beautiful Bill." Trump even said that Massie "didn't know how government works." 

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt answers question about Trump’s call to primary Rep. Thomas Massie.

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— AF Post (@AFpost) March 11, 2025

Let's be clear: A representative like Massie, who has strong Libertarian leanings, knows exactly what he is doing and is absolutely correct in criticizing a bill he doesn't agree with.

So, I say again, I left a party that either does nothing to preserve and protect the Constitution, or does more to undermine it while claiming to do the opposite, to join a party that, at the very least, stands by its principles.