Republicans, where have you gone? This country needs you, but you’ve sold your soul to something else. You’ve lost your way, and not just at the national level.
Locally
In Lorain County, west of Cleveland, where I live, Republicans earned a majority on the county board last November for the first time in decades. The two new GOP members on the three-member board, David Moore and Michelle Hung, made their presence felt almost immediately.
Earlier in 2020, the county board – then comprised of three Democrats – reappointed a Lorain County Community College board member, who had served in that position since 2010. The new board, however, before that board member’s term officially began in January 2021, overturned the reappointment and replaced him with a Republican.
There were no controversies with the longstanding board member, no reason at all for the change – except for the “D” and “R” before the board members’ names.
Next, the county board fired the 911 director, as well as the Job and Family Services director. They didn’t say why right away, but the reason became clear soon enough: Hung, a new GOP county commissioner, was having an affair with the 911 director.
While the 911 director lost his job, Hung did not. She refused to resign and still continues to serve.
Another move early in their term: The new county board eliminated the Lorain County Race and Equity Alliance, which was formed in November 2020 “to identify and address policies, practices and power structures that intentionally or unintentionally create inequities and help create a system that works for all residents,” according to a commission resolution.
Hung and Moore apparently didn’t see racial inequities that the previous Democratic-led board saw. After the George Floyd killing in May of last year by a white police officer in Minneapolis, awareness of racial issues became mainstream. The new county board apparently didn’t care.
They did a few other controversial things too, then complained when they received pushback from the public. They have turned county government into a circus.
Statewide
On the statewide level, Republican opposition led Dr. Amy Acton (see the main photo) to resign as Ohio medical director in June 2020. She and our governor, Republican Mike DeWine, held daily press briefings in spring 2020 to update Ohioans on statewide response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Acton offered charts, graphics, research and pleas to wear masks and social distance (vaccines were still being developed at that point).
Republicans wanted none of this. All they saw was the income lost by business during the lockdown imposed by DeWine at the time.
Yes, businesses suffered, especially small businesses. But there’s a balance. We were – and still are, actually – in a pandemic. Millions were (and are) getting sick, and hundreds of thousands were dying. Masks and distancing were a stopgap measure until vaccines could be developed and approved. Acton knew this and told us this, literally every day.
Until she resigned under pressure from Republicans, who rejected the advice and leadership from their own governor.
Nationally
Unvaccinated Republicans are blamed for a major increase in violence against nurses and doctors in hospitals and other health care settings.
My U.S. representative, Republican Jim Jordan, remains clueless on the impact of COVID. He also was, and still is, a huge supporter of former president Donald Trump.
Where to start with Trump?
He also was clueless on COVID-19, which led to untold numbers of unnecessary sicknesses and deaths, until he got the disease himself. He later received a vaccine and encouraged his followers to get one as well.
Trump did not support African-Americans in several high-profile situations, including the wrongful conviction of the Central Park Five in 1989, and he repeatedly criticized NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the National Anthem. He softened his approach when Floyd was killed, because that happened during an election year.
Trump courted white evangelical leaders, and many white evangelical Christians supported Trump, while non-white Christians often did not.
Russell Moore, a theologian who also is the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), blamed Trump for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Time magazine added this: In criticizing then-President Trump, Moore has diverged from such influential evangelicals as Franklin Graham, who compared Republicans who voted for Trump’s second impeachment to Judas Iscariot; Jerry Falwell Jr., who said he’d give Trump a third honorary degree if he were still head of Liberty University; and author Eric Metaxas, who devoted almost his entire Twitter feed after the election to increasingly bizarre and implausible conspiracy theories on the method by which it was stolen. Moore’s position differs even from that of the guy tipped to be the next head of the SBC, the Rev. Albert Mohler, who voted for Trump in 2020 and said – even after the events at the Capitol – that he’d do it again.
Trump has lived his entire life in controversy. He prefers glitz, from his business dealings to his three wives to his ownership of the Miss Universe pageant to his TV show The Apprentice to his ascent to the presidency. He can’t let all that go, even today. He has to be the center of attention.
The sooner the Republican Party divests itself of Trump, the better off the nation will be.
Getting along
If my blog has one over-arching theme, it’s that we as people should learn how to get along with each other, even if we disagree on issues, lifestyles or politics.
Storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 goes against everything I stand for. It hurt personally when some of the people who did that said they did so in the name of Jesus. Those people have no idea who Jesus is or what He is about. Even a cursory reading of the Gospels, where we learn about the life of Jesus on Earth, will prove that.
One of my Republican friends – who I met at church – in the weeks before Joe Biden was officially installed as president claimed that Trump would continue as president. Just wait, he said, and watch.
Well, I did. So did the nation.
We were shocked.
Defying the U.S. Constitution and the duly elected laws of this country is how Trump was to continue leading us. When George Washington peacefully ceded power over leadership of this nation to John Adams in 1797, history was made – history that was unprecedented. The United States is nothing without the peaceful transfer of power every four or eight years.
Trump never did peacefully cede power to Biden in January.
Republicans, who are you? If you’re about religious freedom, I wish you would practice that.
Conservative Christianity is not the only religion in this country, and that’s the rub, isn’t it? There’s a reason Jesus kept his nose out of government and politics. He had a much bigger stage to stand on.
I wish evangelical Christians understood that. The Republican Party is not our Savior. The Church is, actually – when Church is done right.
Neither Democrats nor Republicans have all the answers. We are all sinners. Let’s work together to figure out public policy.
I tried to read the 2020 Republican Party Platform, but it’s full of statements like this, on “Freeing Financial Markets:”
Unfortunately, in response to the financial institutions crisis of 2008-2009, the Democratic-controlled Congress enacted the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, otherwise known as Dodd-Frank. They did not let the crisis go to waste but used it as an excuse to establish unprecedented government control over the nation’s financial markets. The consequences have been bad for everyone except federal regulators.
Democrats did what they did for a reason. If the GOP disagrees, offer a response, and then gather in the same room and work it out. Name-calling solves nothing. Learn how to get along with each other and actually get it done.
Republicans, I’m tired of your glitz, arrogance and false religiosity, locally, statewide and nationally. Grow up.
That’s how you will make America great again.
the liberal conservative 