Some time ago the question was asked as to how this nation took such a hard right turn and found itself held hostage by the tea party and its unreasonable and borderline irrational agenda. The vinegar of the late sixties had turned in to the venom of our time and the ability to reach any sort of middle ground on the spectrum of important issues has long since been abandoned.One cannot deny that tracing this frightening path is the path of the Republican party and over time, its driving the U S into what is clearly the “Great Regression” ! It is likewise clear that the future agenda for the GOP is to turn back the progress made since the turn of the last century, destroy a federal government, reducing it to simply a trade and war machine – all geared toward profiteering – and return to the days of a confederation of independent states.
While one can stipulate to a certain level of partiality in these discussions, the track of the GOP is almost irrefutable. It is rife with policy and process which has either directly or indirectly attacked so much of those elements in every day life which benefit the vast majority of our citizenry.
On 14 August 1935, the Social Security Act was passed. Over the decades, social security has kept literally millions out of the grip of dire poverty. It has provided, though lean, some income for those who have none or those who are disabled or survivors. It is indeed social insurance. On 15 August 1935, the Republican party began its drive to repeal the Act and return those millions to a life paralleled to the worst conditions in third world countries. To this day, that quest continues with attempts time after time to privatize the Act and turn over the management of it to the robber barons of Wall Street. Curious, the GOP  nominee for the presidency and his vice presidential pick are well in tune with that quest.

In 2010, Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Within weeks, the drive to repeal this legislation had begun. While the Act itself was flawed on some respects and the sponsors caved on certain essential elements which were critical to success, the blanket opposition was unmistakably GOP and specifically Tea Party. The Administration’s handling of the roll out was at best a disaster and the Secretary of DHHS failed miserably in following basic procedures for the implementation of such a broad scale program. Nevertheless, there was nothing but calculated opposition from Congress who no less than fifty-two times wasted time, energy and funds trying to repeal this monumental piece of legislation. Rather than discuss its merits and work toward repairing the deficiencies in the Act, the GOP preferred to waste its time trying to scrub the entire Act, this in spite of the fact that millions who never had access to heath insurance now had that opportunity. The GOP simply caved to the insurance lobby. It is well know that near all of the major industrialized nations, including those of Scandinavia and the United Kingdom and others have some system of universal health care. Nevertheless, the GOP fought it from the beginning, just as they did Social Security and just as in the case of Social Security, that obstruction continues to this day.

No one can contest that there is an increasing level of gun violence in this country. While the official statistics may be seen as showing a down trend in crime overall, the instances of gun violence have not only increased but have intensified. Some instances include 2007, thirty-two killed at Virginia Tech ; 2008, five killed at Northern Illinois University ; 2009, thirteen killed at Fort Hood , Texas ; 2012, twenty-six killed at Newtown Connecticut ;2012, 12 killed in Washington,D.C. ; 2011, six killed in Tucson, Arizona ; 2012, twelve killed at Aurora Colorado ; 2015, nine killed in Charleston, South Carolina ; 2016, fifty killed in Orlando, Florida ; and in 2016, five police officers killed in Dallas Texas.The country is demanding answers, some of which may never come.  However, with the prospect of more and more of these attacks, most with military style AR-15 rifles and high capacity magazine Glock pistols,the threat could be lessened to some degree by instituting some measure of common sense firearms control. Accept that these attacks may not have been stopped, perhaps the severity of them could have been lessened and perhaps some even prevented. Even one would be invaluable. In several national polls over the period of those years, 92% of people polled agreed that universal background checks for ALL purchases of firearms would be a serious step in the right direction. 89% of firearms owners agreed and over 80 % of NRA members likewise agreed. Nonetheless, when the vote came to the floor in the U S Senate, it went down in utter defeat. It was never taken up in the House. The GOP, in controlling the vote, caved to the NRA and made certain that there would be no legislation which even closely resembled gun control, common sense or not. And so, while some of these senseless tragedies will visit upon us again, the few that just might be stopped will not !

In 1872, the federal government set aside the Yellowstone Park for all to enjoy. In 1933, President Theodore Roosevelt established the National Park Service which took over the management of Yellowstone along with, over time, fifty-eight other national parks. These indeed are the marvels of our nation and are enjoyed by people form nations all over the globe. Millions come here to to see the wonder that is Yellowstone, the awesomeness of the Grand Canyon, the splendor of Arches and Canyonland, the beaity of the Great Smokey Mountains and the sheer unanswerable nature of the Mesa Verde. These are solemn lands, protected by the National Park Service under the Department of the Interior.
Now many members of the GOP, sadly especially the Congressional delegations from Arizona and Utah particularly, want to divest the federal government of their role with the national parks and revert that to the states which can open it up for development. In Arizona, Congressman Trent Franks, on more than one occasion, has introduced legislation to open the Grand Canyon National Park to uranium mining.In Utah home of Bryce, Arches and Zion, Rep. Bishop and Senator Lee are pushing legislation to force the federal government to cede ALL national park and wilderness holdings to the states with the express aim to open these lands to commercial developers.
The agenda is clear. remove any and all things that are there to enjoy unless they make someone or some group richer than they already are. It is indeed sad that the GOP has lost all sense of aesthetics and any taste for the gifts from the Creator.

Speaking of gifts, one of the great gifts, or rights, bestowed on citizens of this country is the right to Vote. As per the Fifteenth Amendment and the Voter Rights Act of 1965, all citizens have the right to vote and to vote their conscience. The Supreme Court gutting Part 5 of the Act notwithstanding, ( that part that mandates certain states have federal approval before making changes to their voting procedures ) we ALL have the right to vote. Red state GOP controlled legislatures don’t seem to see it that way. Phony voter fraud legislation abounds and ridiculous ID laws likewise. Case in point – Pennsylvania. In their action to federal court seeking approval for their voter ID laws, etc, they even stipulated in their complaint that there was no evidence of voter fraud prior to their filing. They just wanted to prevent it in the future. REALLY. And then there is the case of Arizona. In Arizona, the County recorder – the person responsible for implementing voter procedures – cut the number of voting places from over two hundred to sixty for the Presidential Preference Primary. This was in Maricopa County where near 74 % of the state’s 6.4 million people live. The Secretary of State, who is ultimately responsible as the chief election officer for the state, simply blew it off. These are just two of the many examples of the hidden agenda of the GOP across the nation. Maybe it is time for the courts to take a long hard look at this !

Let’s face it. The GOP track record working on behalf of this country is a bit dismal. At least since to post WW II era, through the Cold War period, we have had to put up with one war after another, usually less than justified or, in one case, even illegal. We have had to spend enormous amount of funds to support these ventures into insanity and then the Democrats who followed had to pick up the costs and bail out the those damaged by the profiteering war machine. Accepting some slant here, and also, it is not quite that cut and dry, the case can be made. After all, it was a GOP administration that not only got us in to an illegal war that lasted over a decade but, with the cost of two wars waged simultaneously and a completely reckless tax cut program for which we are still paying, we damn near lost it all. Yes,, lest we forget, it was indeed the 2000 – 2008 administration that cost us our credit rating. Things which are important to the every day functioning of a country – schools, health care, infrastructure, transportation – all have been sorely and ,one might add, criminally neglected. By comparison, for instance, our rail system is of third world caliber in comparison to other nations. Calculated obstructionism, which began on the very night of the Presidential Inauguration in 2009, has destroyed any effort at progress and has won the day. We are once again on the verge of collapse in many dimensions of our nation’s capacity to move forward. A new agenda is critical. It is necessary. It is essential to our very survival. The GOP agenda, focused on destruction rather than construction, is most certainly not the one.