An Open Letter To Republicans

Fellow citizens,
It might seem strange that I am addressing you. I have rarely voted for any of your candidates, neither have I agreed with most of your policies. Nevertheless, I trust you for demanding conversations about vital issues facing the nation. A one party government is the definition of tyranny. Your perspectives have provided the grounds for considering the most important matters on which this Republic was founded and still endures. The nation has been solidly grounded as you have stood firm on issues including: fiscal responsibility, limited government, free enterprise and a robust defense force.

In the ensuing debate sometimes you prevailed and sometimes you did not. But think how the national integrity might have been gutted had not you demanded a rational debate on these and other critical matters. It was not only issues you insisted be debated, but also you called forth dedicated patriots who kept the conversation on these matters honest. I look back on Republicans with whom I may not have agreed, but whose nobility commanded my respect .There was Robert Taft, Mark Hatfield, Everett Dirksen, William Cohen, David Stockman and a host others who kept America tied to a rational political conversation. I think of the giants you have selected as Presidential candidates from Abraham Lincoln to Ronald Reagan.

Fellow citizens, what has happened!? Your party has been sabotaged, taken over, destroyed by an unworthy, untruthful egomaniac who seems to have frightened you into silence. No matter what you have once believed, you have been reduced to immobility by this demagogue. Anyone who dares resist has been destroyed, their careers demolished and their very being threatened. Hardly has a single voice has been raised lest a punishing wrath silence not only the voice but also the speaker.

It is as if a burglar had been given keys to the house, so instead of breaking in, the burglar simply slipped in the side door, stole the silver and took over the master suite. But the owners were intimidated and simply knelt and shined the burglar's shoes.

That is not the end of the destruction. The great alliances which had guaranteed the world’s peace since World WarII have been ignored and their faithful members humiliated and told that they have freeloaded on America’s taxpayers. As a result we have no world partners left in confronting grave international issues. In the meantime, instead of resolving the desperate situations troubling the nations of the NearEast, they are increasingly soaked in the blood of their own people. What is more, we just came within a hair’s breadth of war with Iran.
Republican colleagues, why the abdication of any concern with what may well be the most critical problem facing the natural world and its inhabitants. The world is suffocating, and warnings about the disastrous effect of global warming are continually affirmed by the world’s scientists. This President holds that climate change does not even exists let alone is the result of human activity, and admitting it might injure the fossil fuel industries and their profits. So you are bowing to the President’s continual statements that 97% of the world’s scientists are mistaken.

Finally, your leader has put aside all of the above, holding that the only matter of importance is a booming American economy, evidenced in one record stock market report after another. That’s good news if you own large blocks of stocks, but if you are a simple worker whose income in real dollars has not seen a raise in thirty years, it may not really be good news.

While we all might applaud a robust economy you cannot hide behind this development in order to avoid facing the tragic developments cited above. Mussolini is credited for insuring that the trains ran on time. And Hitler took credit for saving Germany from the disastrous effects of the inflation resulting from the treaty of Versailles and the Weimar Republic.

Republican patriots, I realize that none of the above comes as news to you, and I know that for many of you it raises as much discomfort as it does for your political opponents. But you are faced with a terrible dilemma. You are caught between the demands for political unity and horror over the acts of the tyrant who has kidnapped your party. How you resolve this conflict may be the most important decision you will ever be forced to make.