What happened to my old GOP?

What happened to my old beloved GOP? What has happened to the Republican Party? I stand in wonderment that the party I once embraced has now moved 180 degrees from its roots of being the party that stood for fiscal restraint, states rights and individualism.

The GOP adopted a party platform at its national convention in New York which no longer reviles deficit spending and would put further stress on individual states by shifting the cost of essential services. It also may put Social Security recipients at greater risk and would not recognize the right of states to determine their own definitions of marriage. It would remove choice from the most personal crisis some pregnant young women and their families may face and would hamper medical science’s stem cell research seeking cures for dreaded diseases. The GOP describes the quagmire in which we find ourselves in Iraq as justified and successful.

Naively, I thought the Republicans would move a little closer to the center, where most of us live. I had hoped that they could focus on the real problems we face as a nation. They have controlled Congress and the White House for the last four years. I’d like to know why our economy is still more than a little shaky, why our image overseas is so low, why they have taken steps to weaken environmental protections. I’d like to know, specifically, what they plan for the next four years and how they plan to pay for it.

I’d like to vote this November for Republicans who truly represent needs and freedoms for all of us. I’m confident that we are big enough and strong enough to confront the challenges of domestic terrorism, regardless of which party is in control. But the Republican Party has left this old, formerly supportive member behind and I’m mad as heck about it. This November I’m afraid I’m going to leave them behind when I enter the voting booth.

Tom Blossom

Snohomish

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