{"id":54956,"date":"2023-05-21T00:00:52","date_gmt":"2023-05-21T00:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=54956"},"modified":"2023-05-21T00:00:52","modified_gmt":"2023-05-21T00:00:52","slug":"maga-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=54956","title":{"rendered":"Missing the GOP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>You may choose to believe or disbelieve this; it doesn&#8217;t matter to me. However, I am going to speak the truth about something that has troubled me since the arrival of the MAGA\/QAnon\/Big Lie crowd.<\/p>\n<p>It is that I miss the Republican Party I used to know and that I grew up studying and seeking to understand.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican Party has been consumed, swallowed whole and re-cast into a political organization I don&#8217;t recognize.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not that I am a closet Republican. Indeed, I consider myself to be an independent who tilts more toward Democratic policies than to Republicans&#8217; world view.<\/p>\n<p>I do favor a strong national defense; I generally support nuclear energy; I am a strong family values American patriot.<\/p>\n<p>I also believe rich Americans should pay more in taxes; that government can be an instrument to help those who need assistance; and that American Civil Liberties Union&#8217;s mission to embrace our Bill of Rights should be a model for all pols to emulate.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican Party is now run by a cabal of kooks who insist that our 2020 presidential election was stolen from the most recent GOP president; that a tyrant in Moscow is somehow justified in invading a sovereign nation; that we should overturn a standing law that legalized abortion in this country; that conservative judges indeed can legislate from the bench; that climate change is a hoax; and that globalism &#8212; in a world that is shrinking &#8212; means we are surrendering our sovereignty.<\/p>\n<p>How in the world does one debate with that crowd?<\/p>\n<p>Thus, it is that Republican Party that once stood for principles worth defending no longer exists. The Grand Old Party is being run by wackos, fruitcakes and extremists. What&#8217;s more, the GOP insists that everyone else in this great country join them! Those of us who disagree with &#8217;em are the &#8220;enemy,&#8221; and must be destroyed.<\/p>\n<p>I want a return to some semblance of what we used to have in this land: two major political parties that could debate their differences and then honor the decision of the voters who then decide which side has won the argument.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><a href=\"mailto:johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com\">johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may choose to believe or disbelieve this; it doesn&#8217;t matter to me. However, I am going to speak the truth about something that has troubled me since the arrival of the MAGA\/QAnon\/Big Lie crowd. It is that I miss the Republican Party I used to know and that I grew up studying and seeking &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=54956\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Missing the GOP<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[9631,1941,7419,9490],"class_list":["post-54956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","tag-big-lie","tag-gop","tag-maga","tag-qanon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54957,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54956\/revisions\/54957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}