Veteran Gay Conservative Activist Leaves GOP - Calls Party 'Hopelessly Out of Touch'

Gay political activist and longtime Republican, Jimmy LaSalvia, did not merely leave the GOP last week. He loudly denounced his former party for its "culture of intolerance" and predicted it will never "win another Presidential election."

LaSalvia, who founded GOProud, and now plans to become independent, came to the inescapable conclusion that the party is just hopelessly "out of touch with life in America."

“The changes the Republican Party is implementing really amount to nothing more than lipstick on a pig,” LaSalvia said on Yahoo! and ABC News program Top Line, echoing President Obama’s observation in 2008. “It’s a culture of intolerance that I just don’t think any amount of policy changes can fix.”

The 2012 election that sealed the deal for LaSalvia. 

“It was the Romney campaign that really got me to understand just how severe the problem is,” LaSalvia told Top Line. “And after [that], I just thought, ‘I don’t know if [the GOP] will ever win another Presidential election again.’”

HIs analysis was as practical as it was brutal. The GOP is doomed because it continues to cater to intolerant people rather than tell them the word has changed and they need to get with it.

“The object of political parties is to win elections, and I’ve determined that the Republicans can never win a national election again, and so at that point, what’s the point?” While LaSalvia still identifies as a conservative, he feels he won't be alone as an independent. 

“42% of Americans are independents, because they don’t feel like either party represents their values or principles,” he continued. “I’m like everybody else, and I think that the 42% of Americans who aren’t represented by a party represent the new majority.”

LaSalvia said on air that he is still unsure what his next step is in identifying his role in establishing this “new majority,” but made it clear that he has received an outpouring of support from many on all sides, with some citing it as a historic pendulum swing. 

It remains to be seen what LaSalvia will name his new group.