The Republican Party of 2015 is not the Republican Party that I grew up. Growing up during the Reagan era, I bought into the trickle-down economic theory that the people on the top of the economic food chain would spend money and create opportunities for the less fortunate. This in turn would create jobs and build a stronger economy.
President Reagan also showed strength and resolve. He stood up to the Soviet threat and helped create policies which led to the demise of the USSR. Reagan had a way of speaking that made it seem that he cared for all Americans. At that time I did not understand that he was creating policies that would have negative effects on minority communities for years to come. The War on Drugs which Reagan pinned has become a disaster and has led too many ethnic minority youths growing up in single-family homes. This has led to financial and economic ruin in ethnic minority communities.
The War on Drugs also created a situation where people who were convicted of a non-violent offense would be unable to find suitable work that would allow for them to financially support their families. As a result the people would take penitentiary chances in order to support their families, which only continued the vicious cycle.
The crazy thing about the war on drugs is that the CIA was funneling cocaine and weapons into the African American communities in order to make cash money to fund black-ops missions.
Fast forward to 2015, and you see a demonization of all poor people by the Republican Party. Since they are not seen as their constituency, it is okay to speak ill of them and not care about them. This can be seen by Mitt Romney’s statement during his 2012 campaign when he said that, “Minorities will not vote for him anyways”.
Republican politicians love to place the blame on the weakened economy on poor people. They say that because there is a security system in place to help people, that the people will take advantage of the system and become a permanent burden on society. This is certainly true in some cases, but in most cases people need a helping hand while they try to obtain the skills necessary to become a contributing member of society.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, I was in Utah. I would hear these Utah Republicans speak about then Senator Barack Obama. They would say that he was the anti-Christ, say that he was Muslim, or make other snide comments. I also heard comments made about his race. I never had in my life, up to that time, seen so much hate for a presidential candidate.
The same rhetoric can be seen by the Republicans now. However, they are no longer just demonizing the poor, and ethnic minorities, but they are attacking anyone who is not a white Christian male. Even white Christian women are not immune to their attacks.
Minorities that join the Republican Party are no better, but in fact they are worse. It is as if they feel that they must be extremely right-wing in order to fit in. They work very hard to appeal to get the votes of the mainly white male Christian Republican constituency. If you do not believe me just listen to any speech by Ted Cruz, Allen West, or Bobby Jindal.
There also seems to be a lack of intellectuals within the Republican Party. Outside of Condoleezza Rice or Rand Paul, I am unable to name a single intellectual in the Republican Party. This makes sense in the light of the fact that many people in the Republican Party have a disdain for the American university education system, blaming them for liberalizing young minds.
It is also within the Republican Party that you see a disdain for science as well. Many still believe that dinosaurs never existed and that God scattered the bones across the Earth to test their faith. They also negate the science of climate change when we can see the results in front of our eyes daily.
Instead of trying to create jobs and opportunities by acknowledging climate change, they can actually encourage companies to be more environmentally responsible, become sustainable, and eliminate waste, which would in fact increase a company’s overall profitability, but they are too stubborn to see this.
The attack against American universities makes no sense at all. Republicans have even proposed ending the Pell Grant and eliminating federal student loans making it impossible for the economically disadvantaged to obtain a higher education. This is not the only problem. We see a situation where universities are not being built, schools are closing down, but prisons for both youth and adults are being built. So instead of encouraging education that would prevent children from going to prison they are just building the prisons. Even school budgets are being turned down while prison budgets are accepted.
It seems that Republicans do not understand the simple economic concept that the monetary pie grows. That it is not a zero sum game that the pie is one size and that is it. I know this because I have spoken to Republicans and it never occurred to them that these programs can help make the country’s economic pie bigger.
Instead of speaking about issues that matter like how to improve the economy, and how can they improve situations to encourage economic growth like creating programs for minority entrepreneurs to be successful, they instead focus on issues to scare people. Some of these issues are terrorism, immigration, and abortion.
The Republicans have all of their constituency convinced that all Muslims are potential terrorists; that all Mexicans are illegal; that all illegals want to rape your daughter; and that only minorities have abortions.
They say that the issue is with illegal or undocumented immigrants, but this is not true. I challenge anyone reading this article to go to any right-wing Tea Party website and they openly say that they want to close our borders from all immigration. They want to stop immigration unless they immigrants come from white European Christian countries.
Another problem that I have with the Republican Party is all of the politicians that have come forward since the Tea Party’s inception. This party has given rise to the intellectually bankrupt politician, politicians that have made the Republican Party the laughingstock around the world.
People like Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin make such a mockery of American politics that I was ashamed when I was overseas by the comments made about these people. They really make Americans look stupid and uneducated. If this is the best that the Republican Party can produce then they are in serious trouble.
I am not saying that I would never vote for a Republican candidate again. I would if the candidate seemed to genuinely care about issues that mattered and not use fear as a way to steer votes. However, that is not the case now.
The Republican Party cannot survive with its current course. There needs to be serious self-reflection with the leadership in the Republican Party or they will continue to lose more members and votes. As the situation now sits, the Republicans will never win another major election.