originally, the first Republican Party -- the Party of Lincoln -- was progressive, but their positions changed. Only a few decades ago, the Party still stood for something Americans could identify with -- fiscal conservatism, traditional family and Christian values, law & order, and service to country while still preserving individual freedoms. Today's Republican Party has made a mockery of all those things.

my father voted for Nixon, so as a kid, I was on board with that. One of my earliest and clearest political memories was his Watergate scandal -- you know, when Republican voters and Congress still cared about maintaining an ethical posture. Nixon was forced to step down by his own Party.

who's to blame for their new look? I'll tell you how i'd rank the culprits. I'm interested in your rankings...

the Republican Party decay over 30 years, as i remember it:

1. Blacks, Hispanics, Gays, and women were making strides in society.

2. Rush Limbaugh gave white male listeners a bold, racist rant to listen to during their daily traffic grind to work.

3. FOX News took those divisive sound BITES and added 24 hour video -- in a bright, colorful studio with handsome, articulate men in suits and news-model women in short skirts to ogle while their fears were manipulated to keep them tuning in and buying from corporate sponsors.

4. The G.W.Bush campaign leveraged Republican officials in Florida and conservative judges on the Supreme Court to stop the recount of election 2000 (I recall a continued WP recount indicated Gore won). The Gore campaign and DNC gracefully conceded without further investigation. It was the beginning of the Dems ongoing, "when they go low, we go high" approach.

5. Despite the 9/11 terrorist being Saudi Arabians, Dems did not have the courage to oppose Bush's Afghan War. And despite outed lies of "weapons of mass destruction" they went along with his "shock & awe" Iraq War. It led to W's re-election.

6. Americans were so hungry for change and integrity that they elected a Black man named Barrack Hussein Obama for 2 terms. But Obama had the White-Right seething, despite him presiding moderately.

7. Bernie Sanders momentum as a change-candidate, was handicapped by the DNC in favor of Washington insider, Hillary Clinton. (4 years later, Bernie would again "feel the Bern" when Dem leaders circled the wagon around a faltering Joe Biden to prevent Sanders from locking up the Primary).

8. Before Obama left office he let the Republican leader block his Supreme Court nominee, and kept quiet about Russian election interference, assuming Hillary had the election in the bag. A bag loaded with her opponent's scandals -- which were not fully exploited (see 4. "going high").

9. Despite GOP Senators showing signs they might turn on the scandalous, would-be Lyin' King, Dems passed early on impeachment talk, with leader Pelosi declaring it was "off the table" when they took back Congress. So began the Dems "let him fall on his own sword" campaign. On CNN her response to the Dems low approval rating, Pelosi replied, "at least our approval is higher than the Republicans." The "just be better than them" strategy is still alive today.

10. Republican Senators learned that their voters would, indeed, stick with their Prez-a-King even if he "shot someone on 5th avenue" so they also stuck with him through 2 impeachments, an insurrection, and about a hundred other scandals that would have doomed any Dem politician (see Al Franken).

11. By the time Obama's Dept of Justice realized the Lyin' King wouldn't fall on his own sword his criminal prosecution and conviction was too late.

12. Despite serious election irregularities, no Democrat in office dares speak of 2024 "election rigging."

thus, the order of most blame for the ethical and moral decay of the Republican Party, as i see it:

1. FOX News

2. Republican Voters

3. Money corrupted election system

4. Republican GOP, House & Senate

5. Social networks and internet bubbles

6. The Lyin' King

7. Weak Democratic Party

FOX poisoned the sensibilities of Republican voters, politicians and judges. Those judges allowed money to corrupt elections and elect corrupt congresspeople. Internet bubbles accelerated the dumbing-down. The Lyin' King thrived. But if it wasn't him, it would be some other damaged extremist because the Dems play it too safe & cozy with donors to nominate their own change-agent. They won't take on the corrupted system they successfully navigated to secure their own seats in office.

"The original sin was failing to send x x to prison for the rest of his life for mounting a violent coup to overthrow the election of 2020." - David Frum

The current state of the GOP can be mostly attributed to cuts in public education, and the subsequent decay of our public school system. We have been dumbed down enough to where there are enough low intelligent, simpletons that the GOP media can wrap around their little figure to make the elections close enough so the richest man in the world can order a few switches and clicks to determine our president.

I'm old, but I still have a brain., and have learned how the world really works, sadly enough. But I still never learned to be greedy or selfish, so I remain a proud socialist. If others choose differently, that's their right, but it doesn't mean I have to like them or agree with them.. I guess that's why I've seldom been friends with any Repubs, and would also never date one of them, almost never voted for any of them either..

As for being open in public about my political beliefs, I recently bought a ballcap that says Keep Immigrants Deport Racists, and frankly I'm not afraid to wear it anywhere, even in my suburb, because if people have a problem with it, they pretty much would have to do it to my face and confront me directly, since all the public places that I park my car, all seem to have cameras these days in the lots, so anyone who connected my hat with my car, would leave video evidence for me to take to the cops for pressing charges for vandalism and also referring it to their insurance company.