Part of the problem
Dear editor:
With Democrats proposing ludicrous ideas such as open borders, guaranteed universal income, free college, reparations, etc., I’d love nothing more than to rejoin the Republican Party. With their constant pandering to social hysteria such as Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ movement, their open endorsement of rioting in the streets and destruction of monuments and erasing of history, Democrats are practically begging me to leave them. I hypothesize, but suspect, many normal Americans feel the same way.
Yet the Republican party of today is not one I care to embrace. It’s devoid of the Ronald Reagans, the John Kasiches, the Jack Kemps of old. Bob Dole is not walking through that door. It’s a party dictated by the ego, power, and corruption of one man, Donald Trump. It’s a party rife with corruption, where at least 11 members of Trump’s own administration have either been indicted or convicted. The Republican Party of today is owned, lock, stock, and barrel by big business, corporate lobbyists, banks, and Wall Street. It’s a party devoid of empathy for the middle class, and just like the Democrats, only interested in fomenting division and conflict between classes, genders, and races of Americans. And that includes our own Arkansas delegation, like Tom Cotton and Bruce Westerman. They’ve become puppets and pawns to Trump and a handful of billion dollar corporations, blind to the destruction of our economy, our environment and our values.
Bruce Westerman, in his initial run for Congress, promised to reign in reckless spending. Yet our deficit has since grown by almost $8 trillion, the vast majority in reckless corporate tax cuts and subsidies that have proved to benefit only the wealthiest 1%.
So with a heavy heart, I will go to the voting booth this November and do two things: vote for Joe Biden and against any incumbent that is on my ballot, regardless of party. If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. And in my opin
ion, to vote any other way this fall would be the worse of the alternative choices.
Semper Fi.
Gunnery Sgt. Ron Collins, USMC retired Hot Springs