I don’t know what to call the convention being held in Cleveland this week. I know the Democratic Convention begins next week, and the Libertarian Party has completed theirs. I guess that leaves the Republican Party, but it can’t be. This group and its standard bearer, Donald Trump, have no resemblance to the GOP party I respected for most of my life.
I was fortunate to have witnessed Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan’s first term, and George H. W. Bush. I studied the beliefs and courage of Abraham Lincoln, and the tenacity of Teddy Roosevelt. These great men are the epitome of what it meant to be a Republican.
I see no one today who is fit to shine their shoes. They lack all principle and have devolved into a group of racists, bigots, and misogynists who support special interests while ignoring the needs of the majority. This party’s platform describes them perfectly. In the document are specifics which would harm the gains of the LGBT community. Prejudice towards Hispanics will rise. Women will be relegated to second class citizens with no rights over their own bodies. They favor the continuation of violations of the first amendment by supporting a single religion. The control over most or our nation’s undeveloped land would be removed from the federal government.
Teddy Roosevelt loved his country, and its beauty. Thanks to him, a Republican, we have national parks, national forests, and land protected by the Bureau of Land Management. But today’s “Republicans in name only” want to remove these protected lands, and allow greedy men to destroy our nation’s natural beauty.
This group of ambitious men and women want to allow unrestricted drilling in our wilderness areas. They also favor allowing cattle ranchers to let their herds feed off of BLM land without compensation. To place these ideas in a truthful and direct way, they favor profits of big business over the will of the people.
Their proposed amendment reads: “Congress shall immediately pass universal legislation providing a timely and orderly mechanism requiring the federal government to convey certain federally controlled public lands to the states. We call upon all national and state leaders and representatives to exert their utmost power and influence to urge the transfer of those lands identified.”
This is what Teddy Roosevelt, a real Republican, feared most. His control over what are now federal lands was to prevent hunters, miners, and ‘timber cutters’ from destroying the land for their own ambitions.
Maybe that’s what this convention is; there must be a new party of which I was not aware called the “Party of Destruction.” In addition to allowing the destruction of our natural beauty, they seek the revocation of many programs established to aid the American people which were accomplished over the last 60 years. Yep; that must be this party’s name.
Not a single well-informed, intelligent, or patriotic man or woman could belong to this party. They even have a leader whose success comes from hatred and prejudice. This “orange man” is a blight upon our nation.
I wonder what happened to the Republican Party; I truly miss it.
Op-Ed
By James Turnage
The Truth With No Restrictions 