Republicans, What have you become?

To The Eagle:

I use to think Republicans and Democrats shared common values that ran deeper than party affiliation. And although I am a Democrat, I admit to having voted Republican when the GOP candidate was the better choice.

However, I’ve noted the change in the GOP these last 10-years and realize that our values are very different.

Ten years ago I saw Tea Party Republicans holding signs that portrayed president Obama as a monkey and heard their talk of revolution. I ignored those Republicans back then, believing they did not represent the values of most. But along came Donald Trump and his 2016 presidential campaign.

It was during the 2016 campaign, when I saw Republicans cheer for Trump after he mocked a disabled reporter and made racist and sexist comments, that I first realized the GOP and I had very different values.

Then later, I watched what looked like a scene out of 1930 Nazi Germany. Republicans were cheering for Trump after he called for a Muslim ban and registry, called the press the enemy of the people and encouraged violence against reporters and his political opponents. Republicans had lost their soul.

Since then I’ve grown to dislike Republicans even more. Their leaders undermine American democracy by repeating the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and by refusing to accept provable facts that don’t conform to their perception of reality. Many also approve of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, believing the participants in that event are patriots. They’re not patriots; they are misguided people who were deceived!

I’m also offended by the willingness of GOP leadership to rationalize Trump’s stealing of highly classified documents; never asking the serious question: Why did he take them?

Instead, Republican leadership tries to distract Americans of the threat created when President Trump stole classified documents, suggesting Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server, was some how equivalent. It wasn’t equivalent! Secretary Clinton never stole classified documents nor were secret or top secret documents ever on her server.

In closing, it is not our party affiliation that define our differences. What divides us now is this: A majority of Republicans apparently never learned, or have forgotten, the principles upon which our country was founded. And when our democracy was at risk, they sided with a fascist, they sided with a bully.

Frederick Lehr

Grays River