Reasons some members of GOP are leaving party

In case many readers haven’t noticed, the Republican Party has changed. It has accepted the idea that the rich need to rule the country and the middle class and poor are here to serve corporations and big business. This is not an exaggeration at all. In fact, it may be understatement.

Here are a few of the groups running the Republican Party these days. The Koch brothers are pouring billions into GOP coffers to make sure they stay on their agenda of capitalistic fundamentalism. They support and fund the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is in the business of lobbying state legislatures across the country (including Arkansas) to support bills that benefit corporations they represent. They actually write some of the bills and send them to Republican legislators who may make small changes to them or present them in committee just as they came from ALEC. Other groups in the business of writing legislative bills across the country are the NRA and the American Petroleum Institute. This bill-writing by groups that work for or support corporations may have been going on piecemeal for some time now. But lately there is huge amounts of money behind it, so it is happening on a widespread basis all across our country. This is not some kind of conspiracy theory. Just compare bills from several different states that Republican legislators have passed recently and see how obviously similar they are and who they really benefit.

So, the question is why are Republican legislators at the state and federal level not listening to or caring about what their constituents want and are, instead, acting on what outside groups are telling them to do? Do they think it is good for America to be run by corporations and big business while they act as their puppet legislators? Do they want America to become the land of “the haves or have nots”? Because the idea that you can become anything you want if you live in America is quickly fading away. They stand behind a president who is sexist, racist and a liar for no other reason than to do the bidding of these outside groups and stuff their pockets with money.

Some Republicans are switching parties, not because they want to but because they cannot stand seeing what their party has become. STEVEN TRULOCK

Fayetteville