If the Republican Party kept to his principles and not veered right, I would still be a Republican today. I highly doubt that President Eisenhower would have approved of the militarization of space, but to feed the needs of America's people.

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In listening to tonight’s Republican debates held at the Reagan Library, I went into the mindset of being a Republican and having to choose between all ten candidates. What most of my readers may not know is that at one time, I was a Republican.  It was during the nineties when I witnessed the extremist right-wing religious faction take hold of the party, it left me wondering if there was room for moderate Republicans within the party. 

The last straw for me was when this new brand of Republicans impeached President Clinton.  That is when I switched to Democrat.  I did not leave them, they left me.  Even if I stayed, I would have realized my beliefs would not be mirrored within it.  Leaving a party is a hard decision, because it becomes a person’s identity.  If truth be told, I do not always vote straight party line, and never have.  I vote for the person whose beliefs best mirror mine.

During that political Salem-witch-hunt known as the Clinton impeachment, this new brand of Republicans foolishly derailed the nation’s business when it came to terrorism.  Not to excuse the former President for bad acts, but was it really in our best interests as a nation to go that route?  One only has to look at September 11th as a prime example.  Perhaps if this new brand of Republicans were doing their job, leaving President Clinton to do his and more importantly working together, those that died on September 11th, would still be alive today.  Was the impeachment of Pres. Clinton that important?

Instead of listening for divine intervention, all should have been listening to the intelligence reports which told all of us of that Osama bin Laden was coming after us.  Speaking of Osama bin Laden, while Senator McCain said he would chase him to the gates of hell.  Where was the collective voice of all ten candidates calling President Bush a failure in his failure of capturing the mastermind of September 11th?  Wasn’t it that attack that led us down this road in the first place?  Former Gov. Mitt Romney said of Osama bin Laden, "It's more than Osama bin Laden. But he is going to pay and he will die." To, Gov. Romney, try telling that to the 3,000 plus victims who died on September 11th, that it’s more than Osama bin Laden.  You may wish to remind President Bush of his promise to capture this terrorist when he said he would capture him “Dead or alive.”

Speaking of terrorism, two terrorists responsible for the 1993 attacks on the World Trade Center whose names are Ramzi Yousef and Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman are currently spending life in prison.  They are housed at the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

When the Oklahoma City bombing took place two domestic terrorists were captured, tried and convicted.  One was Timothy McVeigh who suffered the ultimate punishment, the death penalty and Terry Nichols received a life sentence. He is currently housed at Supermax in Florence, Colorado.

Even the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski who terrorized many was finally caught. To avoid the death penalty, Kaczynski entered into a plea agreement, under which he pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. He too is housed at the Supermax prison.

Many Republicans just love to blame former President Clinton for September 11th.  During his administration, five terrorists were caught and actually punished.  Oh and here is the rub, they actually were responsible for these acts of terrorism unlike Saddam Hussein who had nothing to do with the September 11th attacks.

In listening to the saber rattling coming from these Republican candidates, I am of the opinion that all wish to police the world and use our military to further imprint our way of life on other countries namely the Middle East.  As the domestic agenda suffers at home, one has to ask these candidates; what about our way of life?

Have these Republican candidates learned nothing from our illegal invasion into Iraq?  The only one who did not vote to authorize our invasion was Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.  In fact, he was the only candidate that reminded all of us of the value of our United States Constitution which has been ripped to shreds during this current Republican administration.  Paul even reminded all of Habeas Corpus which makes us very American.  It defines us from the terrorists we are currently fighting.

While candidates such as former Gov. Jim Gilmore, former NYC mayor, Rudy Giuliani, former Gov. Mitt Romney, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, and former Gov. Tommy Thompson were not authorized to vote for this invasion, I did not hear a real change in direction from the current Bush policy.  Senator John McCain, Rep. Tom Tancredo, Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep. Duncan Hunter who voted for this war want to continue our military presence in that country.

I have often spoke of the blow-back affect and wonder what blow-backs await us down the road due to the lies that led to this invasion of Iraq.  When you have killed over 600,000 Iraqis and displaced millions more; one wonders of the blow-back that awaits us all.

What I was hoping to hear in tonight’s debate was for one of them state that they would extricate our troops from Iraq and divorce themselves from a failed foreign policy.  I was hoping to hear that one would see diplomacy as our best answer to calming a volatile world.  No such luck!

In watching a CNN report of a soldier who came home from Iraq having lost two legs in which he counted himself lucky, one must wonder how many more soldiers will come home just like him.  My faith tells me that the soldiers who have died are with their creator, but it is the ones that come home wounded they will suffer this war for the rest of their lives.  How many more must we put through this meat grinder?

Speaking of the world, I wonder how this debate was seen through the eyes of the international community as we have isolated ourselves due to President Bush’s foreign policy. It was this statement made in Pres. Eisenhower’s farewell address to the nation made on January 17th, 1961 that came to mind, “Throughout America's adventure in free government, such basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among peoples and among nations.”  How I wish that the Republican Party would go back to his guiding principles.

The AP reported that these candidates “called for lower taxes and a muscular defense and supported spending restraint.” If I were still a Republican, I would be listening for the wisdom of the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower to come forth.  He always warned us of the military industrial complex and military spending.  You cannot cut taxes and continue to fight this non-ending war.  In fighting this un-ending war what spending restraint will be forth coming?  Something has to give. 

President Eisenhower once said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”  Now that was true compassionate conservatism and he was my kind of Republican.  I often wonder if there are Republicans that still carry the spirit of Dwight D. Eisenhower and more importantly; where are they? 

When it comes to this muscular defense the late Pres. Eisenhower also stated in his farewell address, “We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.” Those are wise words that came from a wise man.

I also noticed that the majority of these Republican candidates placed their faith in God or even just faith itself at the center of their debate in order to cater to the religious right.  What about the more moderate Republicans who may not see it as being that important?  I wonder how many blue-collar and moderate Republicans have found themselves working on Sundays in order to make ends meet due to Bush’s failed domestic policy.  One must wonder if their faith in God has been tested as many have lost their jobs, do not have health care and have lost their homes.

What I also noticed is that all believed in the sanctity of life itself especially when it came to Terrie Schiavo and abortion.  Yet, how can they be pro-life when many innocent Iraqis are dying including children?  How can they be pro-life when many Iraqi mothers are terrified in giving birth due to our use of depleted uranium?  Many of their babies are born with hideous birth defects.  Even the offspring of our soldiers succumb to these same birth defects due to these munitions. How many Iraqis have succumbed to the same fate as Terrie Schiavo? How many Iraqis are now in a persistent vegetative state due to this war?  How many soldiers have come home brain damaged?  While not as severe, but one that I can commiserate with since I am an epileptic, Newsday reported on March 29th, that some soldiers with brain injuries can develop epilepsy.  There is no dignity as one convulses. 

If I were still a Republican, I would urge all of these candidates not to invoke Reagan’s name as they did so many times, but to read the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address to our nation.  There are many great lessons from that speech and other past speeches made by this once great president.  If the Republican Party kept to his principles and not veered right, I would still be a Republican today.  I highly doubt that President Eisenhower would have approved of the militarization of space, but to feed the needs of America’s people. 

Author’s note: To contact me, my email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Authors Bio:
I am a writer who currently writes pieces for my own blog http://www.mary-macelveen.blogspot.com I have been published by Buzzflash.com, TheLiberalPatriot.org and MikeHersh.com. I was a guest on the Jay Diamond Radio Show on WRKO in Boston and have appeared on CNN.  I have done numerous web broadcasts for sites such as RadioLeft.com, TVNewsLies.org and FranklySpeakingRadio.com.

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