Letter: Republicans, what have you become?

Published 5:56 am Monday, September 12, 2022

Because we are Americans I use to think Republicans and Democrats shared common values that ran deeper then party affiliation. And although I am a Democrat I admit to having voted Republican when the GOP candidate was the better choice. However, I have watched the Republican Party over these last 10 years and realize that our values are very different; and I have grown to dislike the GOP for what it’s become.

Ten years ago I saw gun-toting 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 that they did not represent the values of most. But along came Donald Trump and the 2016 presidential campaign.

It was during the 2016 campaign, when I saw Republicans cheer for Trump after he mocked a disabled reporter and made racists and sexist comments, that I 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 Donald Trump after he called for a Moslem ban and registry, called the press the enemy of the people, and encouraged violence against reporters and his political opponents. Republicans had indeed 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.

What’s particularly offensive is the approval of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection by many in the Republican Party, and the belief that the participants of that insurrection were patriots. They are not patriots. They were misguided people who had been deceived and manipulated.

I’m also offended by the willingness of GOP leadership to rationalize the stealing of highly classified documents by the former president. Never asking the question: Why did he take them?

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

In closing, it is not our party affiliation that define our differences now. What divides us 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 became fascists and sided with a bully.

FREDERICK LEHR

Grays River