The Grand Old Party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Warren and Reagan has disappeared.
Abraham Lincoln and Earl Warren are the two great pillars of our civil rights history, but the party has replaced the ideal of civil rights with support for blatant racism.
Teddy Roosevelt was the founder of the modern progressive movement, but the party has replaced progressivism and moderation with an adherence to the alt-right.
Dwight Eisenhower warned us of the undue power and influence of the military-industrial complex, but Republicans and Democrats now support enormous military spending with few questions asked and no audits.
Ronald Reagan advocated limited government with checks and balances. Checks and balances are now being ignored as powers traditionally held by Congress and the courts are being usurped by the executive. Executive power is growing with the appointment of new personnel who are chosen primarily for their loyalty to the president. Loyalty to the president is a given priority — even over defense of the Constitution and the rule of law.
According to the president, the work of the FBI and special counsel is a hoax. Three million voters cast illegal ballots in the election of 2016. Members of the free press are enemies of the people, and reports of our intelligence community are not trustworthy. In fact, we are told, our whole system is broken and only the president can fix it.
White nationalism is now an important supportive element of the Republican Party. White nationalists once called themselves the master race. The extreme right wing that now controls the Republican party is called the alt-right. The extreme right wing was once called fascism.
Joseph A. Bagnall, Oceanside, Calif.
The writer is a Utah native and a historian who has taught at several colleges in California.
