printed in several publications, re: the GOP

The Grand Old Party Just "Ain't Republican" Any More

Republican?   What's that?

In a sense, I've been a Republican since the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration --- for those of you too young or without a memory, that's since the 1950's --- and yes, I'm old!  I was in elementary school and handed out flyers and "I Like Ike" buttons to anyone who would take them.

The current party just "ain't" the same.  It's evolved --- or intelligently designed itself --- into something totally different.  The old GOP believed in less government intervention into state affairs and no intrusion into people's lives.

Call me "the last of the independent pioneers" or just plain ornery, but I don't want my government telling me how to live, what books and movies I can watch, that my kids have to pray in public school, or that my property can be seized by the government for development purposes.

Perhaps the current GOP needs to change its name to something more contemporary and "catchy", something more in tune with its philosophies and platforms --- maybe like WWYMLU, short for the We Want You More Like Us Party.

Or maybe a name like NEO-CON, short for Neo-Fascist Conservative Party.  After all, when government believes it has the right to tell you and your neighbors unequivocally what you can and can not do, that nation goes from a Democratic Representative Republic to a Fascist orientation.

But if you don't like the name change idea, how about if the "real" Republicans of the current GOP leave it to start their own older version of the Republican Party, you know, with a platform like fiscal conservatism?  They could become the OGOP, as in the Older Grand Old Party.  Granted, it may be a bit much "old" in it and we all know the GOP needs new blood, but it makes the point and nostalgia is "in" these days.

The main idea I am trying to convey is that during the past several decades the Republican Party has become into a totally different organism than its founders had intended, one that believes in more government control, an increase of taxing the lower income general public under the guise of  "No New Taxes" and doing as little as possible to improve the overall quality of most American lives.

In addition, the GOP has become the operating mechanism and party of the wealthy corporate sector.  It has lost touch with and in the process virtually wiped-out middle America.

Clearly, a political and historical view indicates that the GOP no longer maintains a true Republican platform and philosophy.  Republicans have become sheep, without thought or reason. This is an instance of when "...a rose is not a rose...".

Former President Eisenhower must be shaking in his grave.

But don't get me started on the Democrats!