I’m 18 years old. My politics are still amorphous, shaped largely by my parents’ prejudices (both are liberals). I’m pro-life. I come from a prosperous background; I’m suspicious of big government and increasingly likely to support tax cuts. I’m becoming more viscerally opposed to the ‘nanny state’ as I study law; the rhetoric of many liberals on personal responsibility is becoming increasingly objectionable to me.

And yet, I can not, within the reasonable future, support the Republican Party? Why?

Torture.

I still haven’t come to grips with the idea that American soldiers, those who our culture is brought up to value and respect, could commit acts of torture, on the orders of an American administration. The internet is a libertarian place.

Young people are growing up more suspicious of government, more interested in increasing personal control over their lives, more prepared to challenge government bureaucracy. The rEVOLution (which I did not support) captured this perfectly. This could have been a Republican generation — brought under the big tent under a low-tax, socially moderate, fiscally conservative platform. An earlier John McCain may have been just the man to do this, as he was in 2000. But I cannot imagine how anyone else of my age can look at these reports, look at these pictures — and then vote for the GOP in the foreseeable future. It’s beyond my understanding.

Mine too. Until the GOP purges itself of these fascistic, sadistic elements, lovers of freedom should stay away.