I'M A REPUBLICAN IMMIGRATION LAWYER--AND TRUMP IS KILLING MY PARTY OPINION
As an immigration lawyer, there is a presumption I am a progressive liberal. The fact I am former military and a life-long Republican is often greeted with incredulity, as if witnessing matter and anti-matter occupying the same space. The subsequent reaction generally is one of loathing, premised on the belief I am a Trump supporter. I am not.
The juxtaposition of the values of the Republican Party that first led me to lean to the right and the present state of Abraham Lincoln's party merits comment. But first, I must indulge myself in a retrospective journey into the evolution of my political alignment with the right.
I became of political age during the Vietnam war. Like many Americans, I saw Vietnam as an endless and deadly quagmire. Nixon's pledge of "peace with honor" was a welcome political cowbell. Later, Watergate culminated with Nixon's abdication of his presidency. The saving grace of Watergate was the Congressional Republicans placing country before party. This impressed me.
In 1979, the fall of the Shah of Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan shook me out of my post-Vietnam hangover. These shifts in the geopolitical landscape ushered in my abandonment of isolationism.
Next came Reagan's presidency. The cold war battle against the "Evil Empire" was a potent blend of realpolitik and adherence to ideology. This combined with Reagan's commitment to smaller government, fewer taxes, national defense, immigration reform and American values solidified my identity as a Republican.
https://www.newsweek.com/republican-lawyer-trump-killing-gop-1454077
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The Republican Party ceased to be the Party of Lincoln when Rutherford B Hayes ended reconstruction in order to win the Presidency in 1876. The Democrats of that era were openly racist, especially in the South, but that was the signal that Republicans were willing to do whatever it took to be in power. Hayes ended what Grant, flawed as he was, made a particular goal, protecting Black civil liberties in the South. Grant's flaw was the classic Republican Flaw as well, "Business over everything". Grant appeared a decent man, but he believed that business was best when left alone and that led to the scandal plagued presidency that weakened Reconstruction.
So let's talk about your "Republican Values", and I am not excusing Democrats of the time either as they fell in line with the Cold War mentality. Eisenhower, the war hero, "America's grandpa" was sought by both Democrats and Republicans to run. He chose the Republicans. He also brought in the Dulles brothers, who prodded him into supporting the French in Vietnam, who got us into that quagmire. Kennedy was looking for a way to get out when he was killed. Johnson, a Texan macho man, went all in, which derailed the legacy that would have had him remembered as one of the greatest American Presidents, Civil Rights and his Great Society. If you actually knew your history, then you would know that it was the Civil Rights Acts that caused the Southern Democrats (Dixiecrats) to leave the Democratic Party and for George Wallace to run for office against the Democrats in the election that Nixon won in 1968. Do you know what else Nixon did during that election? He went behind Johnson's back and derailed the peace process which was under way, promising the South a better deal if they scuttled the talks. Your beloved "peace with honor" was bullshit, was treasonous, and extended the war another 5 years. How many more Americans and Vietnamese died so that Nixon could win the 1968 election.
Your being impressed with Watergate? Also crap. Republicans didn't put country over party. They knew Nixon was going to go down hard and take the party with him. Nixon, the Republican, would have been the first President ever removed from office. It wasn't about saving the nation it was exactly about keeping the Republicans from being destroyed.
Your solidified identity as a Republican came about through following a B list Hollywood actor who was able to blow sunshine up peoples ass, who called African people "monkeys", who went behind the government's back in 1979 and dealt arms to Iran to keep the hostages in captivity until after the election in 1980 in case you don't remember the Iran-Contra Affair. The same Reagan that made his presidential run announcement in Philidelphia Mississippi, the place where civil rights activists were murdered in the 1960's talking about "States Rights". He spent the whole campaign talking about "welfare queens driving Cadillacs" and "young Bucks eating steak and lobster". I'm sure those were coincidences though. His campaign slogan? "Make America Great Again".
Your Republican party IS the Party of Trump. It has been so since Hayes ended Reconstruction, since Taft sided with business interests instead of his mentor Theodore Roosevelt, when Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover drove us into the Great Depression because of their stupid idea that "The business of the United States is business", when Eisenhower warned us against the military industrial complex but left the Dulles brothers to make sure that we kept up the perpetual state of war, when Nixon ramped up the resentment of conservatives to the changes in the 60's and devised the southern strategy, when Reagan followed suit waging war against Unions and poor people of color, when Bush launched the military into a fight against a tactic and raised paranoia against a religion, when McCain and the GOP introduced a "know nothing half-term governor from Alaska" who glorified stupidity. All of this has been a straight line to where Trump is today and where the GOP is from Newt Gingrich to Tom Delay, to child molester Dennis Hastert, to Boehner handing out tobacco lobby checks on the floor of the House, to Paul Ryan (policy wonk 
) Straight line to Trump.
Flush out your headgear dude.
