I don’t have many opportunities to write about where I live. The Northern Nevada cities of Reno and Sparks compose a population of approximated 350,000 men, women, and children. Yesterday, a situation which occurred here may portend the future of the Republican Party nationwide.

Washoe County stretches from Carson City on the south to the Oregon border on the north. If that doesn’t compute for you, just know that Nevada is geographically the fifth largest state in the United States. However, we are one of the least populated; most live in the south in the cities of Las Vegas, and Henderson.

Northern Nevadans are unique. They are both passionate and private; informed or compelled by emotions; and mostly composed of middle to low-income residents.

Politics is never ignored here. As of the Caucus last month there were 84,444 Democrats, 91,538 Republicans, 42,987 Independents, and ‘others’ numbering 15,857 registered to vote; a very sizable total of 234,826 considering the adult population of Washoe Country.

Yesterday the four leading officials of the Washoe County Republican Party resigned citing ‘irreconcilable differences.’ In a statement one official offered the primary reason for their resignations in a general election year.

“This has been brewing for close to a year now,” said Tom Dickman, Vice Chair of the Party. “A very intense and vocal group within the party has been successful in moving its agenda forward. In my opinion it’s just too ineffective to pursue goals. So it’s time for us to move on to other things.”

A well-known professor at UNR said the following:

“This just isn’t moving the party forward,” said Eric Herzik, Political Science Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. “It’s not moving issues forward, and now you have personal vendettas and fights and that doesn’t benefit anybody! Right now in the GOP you can never be a good enough Republican for another Republican who disagrees with you.”

Will this be a national trend if Donald Trump wins the GOP nomination? If he doesn’t, what sort of action will those who strongly support him take?

The implosion of the once Grand Old Party has begun, and maybe Washoe County is the spark which lights the match, which ignites the fire under Republican voters across the nation.

Please pass this article on to others. You can see by the variety of political affiliation in my area how demonstrative this might be for the future of our nation’s politics.

The GOP is a party living in abject fear. Their efforts to insure that Marco Rubio became their candidate have completely failed. He was unable to draw a large crowd at a rally in his home state of Florida yesterday near Miami.

Two candidates Republican leadership feared the most are now the only to viable offerings remaining. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz offer the worst of their party, and are not representative of great Republicans in the past.

Sadly, if you read as much as I do, Trump is truly the better choice. He occasionally displays some common sense, and has promised to work with Democrats and repair our nation’s government. Cruz has consistently said ‘no,’ as he refuses to deliberate and compromise.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

Source

Photo Courtesy of Ken Lund

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