An Open Letter to the Republican Party

[tannybogus]

To All:

After the last 8 years of George W. Bush and the RNC Convention in St. Paul, it is time for you to rename your party. Your campaign manager Rick Schmidt said the Republican Party began only a few days ago. I believe that, and I think you should choose some new title to use. The word Republican should be laid to rest along with Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. The fact that you hold up Lincoln and TR as YOUR party standards is so rich in irony that the amount of it can’t even be quantified.

If Lincoln suddenly had appeared at the dais, he would have been so astounded it would have taken a few moments before he could speak. It would have taken him forever if he had tried to find your African-American delegates. Lincoln would have wondered if he had stumbled into a Copperhead rally. He had lead a Republican Party that had turned into this? Then there is the fact that the VP candidate chosen has close ties to a group that wants Alaska to secede from the Union. Lincoln’s head might have exploded. If he didn’t just turn around and leave the hall altogether, he would have tried to shame you beyond measure when he spoke. That would have been futile. You are shameless, and would probably have booed him.

I doubt if Teddy Roosevelt would have even tried to speak. He would have found a big stick and started whacking everybody in sight. He was a Police Commissioner for NYC who rooted out corruption. Here he would have seen the party that has supported the most corrupt administration in American history. He was a conservationist who set aside land to use for parks. The GOP has done everything in its power to thwart environmentalism and has ruined wilderness right and left. He was a big game hunter, but I doubt if he would have seen much sport in hunting wolves from helicopters. Roosevelt was also a trustbuster and he broke Standard Oil into 33 companies. McCain and Palin have played fast and loose with the terms reformer and maverick. The oil companies don’t fear them in the least.

Lincoln once wrote during the Civil War that “We shall nobly save, or meekly lose, the last best hope of Earth.” You as a party are the best of hate and fear and the last of hope.