I’m assuming you are a registered Republican, fully vaccinated and wear a mask when appropriate. If not, ignore what follows. You are beyond reason, enlightened self-interest, or concern for your fellow man, woman or child.
My question is directed at those who still think of themselves as Republicans. Operative word — think. You are what I would call an Eisenhower Republican. You may not recall the ‘50s. If you weren’t Black or Latino, or a woman, it was a good time. It was a time of change — civil rights, equality and great music.
Republicans would still talk to Democrats and things got done — the interstates, education, polio shots. It was when conservatism meant going slowly, not stopping, and not wanting to go back. Then came Goldwater, Schlafly, Nixon, Reagan and Newt. Well, you know the rest. So, here we are. What’s next?
We have stalemate in Washington and ideological strangulation here in UtALECh (my shorthand for a government of, by, and for Koch-Libertarians, the oligarchs, the rich). Stuart Adams is president of the Utah Senate and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). They make most of our laws and the laws of other red states. Laws favoring the rich. Haven’t found the link for Brad Wilson, but it’s there.
My point is we are ruled by libertarian ideology — no government, no regulation. Same for taxes, starve the beast — education, health care, housing, climate change. There is no Republican Party. It is not even a Trump Party, though much of it is. It is a party of the extremely wealthy, the 1%. Those who will never have enough. They want it all. On Jan. 6, they came close. The COVID calamity is theirs.
So, why are you still a Republican? Your party left you.
Dennis Read Hanks, Salt Lake City
