I was a Republican for 20 years. I voted for every Republican presidential candidate from 1992 through 2012. I voted for every Republican gubernatorial candidate in MD since 2002.
But the party that I was a part of is gone. The party dedicated to conservatism has been replaced by angry populists. A party that once celebrated the power of the individual and a limited government has been taken over by folks who want to deny people the right to define themselves and live their lives free from intimidation and state control.Today's Republican party has been taken over by those who envision an activist and overpowering role for government. A government that would impose morality and judgment upon the populace. I do not recognize the party. I do recognize the folks who have taken it over. They are the ideological descendants of the folks who backed Joe McCarthy and McCarthyism and the idea that communists were hiding under our beds. The folks who joined the John Birch Society who called Dwight Eisenhower a tool of the communists. The folks who opposed the Civil Rights movement and accused Freedom Riders and Civil Rights protesters as... communists.
Why the non-stop focus on communism? Because they want to keep the decent folks in the party distracted from what's really going on. It's not a new strategy. The CRT scare? Just a way to scare and distract folks. The nonsense about LGBTQ+ indoctrination? Another distraction. The demonizing of immigrants and asylum seekers? More of the same. These folks know that they must portray the Democrats and dangerous extremists so that the decent folks in the GOP will continue to overlook the cancer that is killing the GOP and threatening the country.
