When Republicans debate or appear before their supporters there is a great deal of emotional rhetoric. They constantly tell voters what they would do, but never how. They have no solutions, they have complaints. Are their complaints valid? Not very often. There are no ‘quick fixes’ for America’s problems. It will take an exceptional president and a supportive Congress with a tremendous work ethic to address and solve our nation’s ills.

Like many others I continue to search for a member of the Republican Party who has a plan to make our nation great once again. I am losing hope. Without positive ideas based on realistic blue prints for our nation’s resurgence, the GOP continues to be the party of divisiveness and destruction.

Nothing proves that the GOP is imploding more than the fact that Donald Trump’s poll numbers continue to rise. Although Ted Cruz is gaining in Iowa, he is experiencing the same support as Rick Santorum did in 2012. His base is composed of evangelists; Christian religious extremists who hate everyone who is not white or believes in another religion, or none at all.

The American people cannot accept a candidate who panders to special interests and ignores the majority. Our nation and the world will continue to suffer and die from mankind’s greed unless our president believes in science. The working class will experience an ever-widening income inequality if the person living in the White House fails to represent the majority of Americans. The focus of the next administration must be the resurgence of the United States and insure that it joins the most respected countries in the world with forward thinking which will result in the betterment of life for all people. Racism and bigotry cannot be ignored any longer; they are the fatal ingredients in the toxic pill politicians expect us to swallow. Our next president must continue the efforts of President Obama to insure the safety of all Americans; both overseas and at home. Terrorism will be defeated, but so must the lobbyists be vanquished. Although the GOP continues to focus on the dangers of ISIS, the truth is that in 2015 more mass shooting have occurred in the United States than days on the calendar. The politics of fear must be rejected.

The Bill of Rights must be strictly enforced and our next president must disallow efforts by those who attempt to bend these amendments to satiate their own agenda.

These are serious times. Our nation and the world cannot afford an unqualified buffoon or a TEA Party Extremist to destroy what remains of our once great nation. The words at the end of the Pledge of Allegiance must mean something once again. America must return to a nation which truly believes in “liberty and justice for all.”

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

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