This is not your forefather’s Grand Old Party. That GOP has been replaced by extremists whose rebranding is now saying “GOP” now stands for the “Party of Growth and Opportunity.”

Where’s the beef?

The new GOP stands for “Greed and Phoniness.” Powered by appeals to greed and fear, extremist Republican policy proposals offer millions of opportunities to become unemployed if you are a government employee, millions of opportunities for retirees living on Social Security to learn to live with less, millions of opportunities to pay more taxes if you are poor or middle class.

Those policy proposals offer more opportunities to get shot by untrained gun-toting vigilantes, more opportunities to be deported if you are an illegal immigrant, more opportunities to be fearful of refugees and Muslims, more opportunities for less health care if you are poor or a woman, more opportunities for your vote to make no difference if you live in a recently gerrymandered district or can’t produce a photo ID.

Those policy proposals offer more opportunities to pay fewer taxes to fund public education, more opportunities to get stuck in minimum-wage jobs, more opportunities to experience destruction by unchecked climate change, more opportunities to be victims of risky financial and environmental deregulation.

Those policy proposals offer more opportunity to enrich members of the military-industrial complex by greater involvement in wars in the Middle East, in addition to more opportunities to help even more wounded warriors with voluntary monetary contributions.

I wish I had my forefather’s GOP back.

The one some thought whose heart was black.

For it was as white as a sacred cow.

Compared to the one that we have now!

Tom Driscoll
Poulsbo