“Our foremost goal here at home is simple: economic growth and full employment without inflation. Sweeping change in economic policy in America is needed so that Mr. Carter’s promise of hard times and austerity—his one promise well kept—can be replaced with Republican policies that promise economic growth and job creation. It is our belief that the stagflation of recent years not only has consigned millions of citizens to hardship but also has bottled up the enormous ingenuity and creative powers of our people.”
The former is a small excerpt from the Republican Party platform of 1980. I will attach the link to the entire statement. It was positive, and included policies which would improve the lives of all Americans, unlike the negative and fallacious platform of the party in 2016. Who became our 40th president in 1980? If you can’t answer that question, you do not truly care about what happens in our nation.
The most revered man in modern Republican circles is Ronald Reagan. His first term was successful and served our nation’s people domestically and in matters of foreign affairs. He believed in negotiation and formed a nuclear treaty with the Soviet Union. A study of his eight years in office reveals many blemishes, but compared to the GOP candidates today, who are Republicans in name only, he was a demagogue.
The Republican Party was destroyed in 2000 with the election of the Bush-Cheney Administration. A division between ideologies was moved far to the right and began the demise of our government. By 2010 when the Koch brothers created the TEA Party, Republicans of the past failed to appear in Congress in any manner. There was no Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Reagan, or George H.W. Bush. The GOP is but a memory today.
Patti Davis, the daughter of Ronald Reagan, had this to say about Republican presidential wannabees in 2016.
“My father would be so appalled at what’s going on, and he would be so appalled at probably all of these candidates,” Davis said. “I don’t think he would be a Republican. And if another Ronald Reagan came along, I don’t think the Republican Party would accept him.”
I was not able to vote until I was 21-years of age. The year was 1967. I made an early decision that I would never support a single party. I had admired the courage of John F. Kennedy who was assassinated while I was a senior in high school. I was angry at Lyndon Johnson for proliferation of a senseless war which resulted in the maiming and deaths of many of my friends. I failed to understand how anyone could vote for Richard Nixon. When he was forced to resign, my disdain for his arrogance was vindicated. Although Gerald Ford was a good man, he showed his cowardice by pardoning a man, who at that time had been the worst president in our nation’s history. Another good man became our 39th president, but was not strong enough to move our nation forward. I supported Ronald Reagan, mostly based on his history as the Governor of my own state, California.
During those time periods, I voted for some Democrats, some Republicans, and occasionally for third party candidates or ‘none of the above.’
Today I am unable to consider a single GOP candidate. If you read my rants, you know that I cannot call them ‘Republicans,’ they are not. They are a group of negative men and one woman who act like spoiled children; always attacking and failing to offer ideas.
We need to see the return of the Republican Party. Our government was never perfect, but it worked for the American people. Politics were often debated in a heated manner, but deliberation and compromise were the process which made it semi-successful. None of that exists today.
Extremism is destructive, it never results in the creation of actions and policies which are beneficial to a nation’s people. Our government cannot be efficient if one party’s only response to proposals from the left is ‘no.’
Personally, I need to have strong Republicans I can vet to possibly receive my vote; that’s the only way American politics works.
Op-Ed
By James Turnage
Photo Courtesy of The Official CTBTO Photostream
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The Truth With No Restrictions 