The message below sums up in very terse verbiage my problem with the GOP. I'm from Kansas, so my reference to Brownback and Kobach is a bit localized, but I'm trying to clean it up for submission to every newspaper in the state, perhaps closer to the election. Any constructive comments are welcome.
The Republican Party – both here in Kansas and in the nation – has come to stand for assaults on democracy, humanity and common sense. Here are a few of them:
1. Voting restrictions and voter suppression, ostensibly to combat the virtually non-existent problem of voter fraud, but really to suppress the Democratic vote.
2. Denial of health care to those most in need by refusing the Medicare extensions and opposing Obamacare.
3. Destruction of our public education system by defunding necessary programs and – in the process – hurting our future by depriving our children.
4. Defunding social programs that help people cope with poverty, which in turn makes them even more needy.
5. Blocking extension of unemployment insurance (made necessary by the GOP-generated recession) for millions, thereby reducing consumer spending and devastating families unnecessarily.
6. Opposition to minimum wage increases in amounts which only help the economy.
7. Blocking common-sense immigration laws that can only help the economy.
8. Assaulting women by denying them both equal pay and control over their own bodies.
9. Pushing regressive taxation (property taxes, sales taxes) at the expense of graduated income taxes, a policy that hurts the poor and middle classes while helping the rich.
10. Opposition to equal rights for people who “don’t look or behave like us,” such as minorities and LGBT people.
11. Mindless support for no restrictions on gun ownership and licensing, even while we do restrict – and charge fees for – the far less lethal ownership and licensing of cars.
12. Support for economic disasters such as the government shutdown and obsession with the debt ceiling while doing nothing to alleviate the real problems.
13. Opposition to scientific facts in preference to preconceived beliefs and prejudices, as in the case of education about evolution.
14. Denial of man-made contributions to climate change and trying to block solutions, thus imperiling the future of the planet.
15. Mass production of lies and misinformation to support their unsupportable positions.
The GOP offers nothing in the way of programs to actually help ordinary people and protect the planet. The real puzzle is why anyone other than the Kochs and the super-rich would even consider voting for people like Brownback or Kobach in this day and age. The only answers must lie in soullessness, ignorance, self-delusion or stupidity.