It’s time to retire the moniker of The Grand Old Party. It is old, it’s tired, often not so grand and traditionally white. Did you see the Republican National Convention? Have you looked at actual policies enacted? Time, indeed.
The Republican Party should formally reclaim the roots of the Republican party as the party of Lincoln — the POL — and the diverse populations that this party has historically supported. The Republicans must keep on track with the values behind historical positions such as ending slavery, and establishing the right to vote for women, Black people and each American citizen regardless of ethnicity and gender.
With the new name, the platform must also adopt a Lincoln Litmus Test (based on his Gettysburg address with reference to the Declaration of Independence) to apply to policy decisions and positions: Do policies and positions support liberty and freedom for all people, as equally created? Are the laws proposed and enacted by the people and for the people? For any political party to be about liberty and the people, the practices of first taking care of special interests, donors and Congress members themselves must end. And laws should be enacted to make it illegal to put other entities before the welfare, freedom and liberty of the people, whom our government serves. Of course, all of this should be self-evident. But it hasn’t been.
Greer Marshall, Sandy
