I just watched a salute to Bob Dole, former senator from Kansas, who is now 98 and dying from cancer. I never voted for Bob Dole, but I recongnized him as a very decent person, a veteran who was a hero, as a good man. In 1997, President Bill Clinton bestowed upon him the highest honor a civilian can get from the government. In those moments, there was no Republican-Democrat divide. It was the simple acknowledgement of a member of one party to another that his sevice must be recognized.

I have never voted strictly party line, Democrat, simply because I recognized the huge failings of certain Democrats and would vote for their Republican opponent. In Massachusetts, where I spent most of my life, I am now living in North Carolina, I can remember as a teenager when Ted Kennedy first won a seat in the senate, there was something about him which I did not like, even though I could not put my finger on it. The, in 1967, when he caused the death of MaryJoe Kopeckne, my mistrust of him and his ability to escape prosecution he so richly deserved, was solidified. Not once did I ever vote for him.

I spent 11 years on active duty in the Army and was stationed in states such as Louisiana, Texas and Georgia, all of which had seen the old Dixie-crats (Democrats) switch parties in 1968. And even though I do not remember who I voted for in those states, they were solidly Republican. That never bothered me. Most of the senators and representatives for both parties were largely centrists.

Then in 1996, the Senator Newt Gingrich decided it was time to become devisive with his “Contract to America.” That piece of legislation, with the Republican controlled house, was passed into law and pushed the Republican party a little further to the right. Also at the time there were people like Pat Robertson, a man from the far right, who were trying to pull the party further to the right. It was Gingrich who first introduced the “us against them” sentament. And then when they decided to get rid of the most hated Democrat, Bill Clinton, they spent millions of dollars, with Ken Starr in the lead, to convict Clinton of an abuse of power charge. It failed by a single vote, as most have, but it set into motion a move that continues to this day.

But even in those days, the majority of Republicans were decent people. In the 2000 election, which the Republican party started using dirty tricks to win, George Bush won when Republicans usurped the power of the Florida State Supreme Court, and got a decision they desired to give George Bush the win. I never voted for George Bush, but even so, I found myself defending him against Democrats who liked to call him a draft dodger and druggie. I reminded them that Bush was a member of the Texas Air National Guard during Vietnam and was subject to activation to Vietnam just like so many National Guard units had been. He is a veteran and I almost always defend veterans against those who choose to demean them by spurious lies. That exact thing happened to John Kerry, a silver star awardee for his service in Vietnam, when a group called the “Swift Boaters” mounted a series of lies about Kerry to insure Bush’s win. I thing George Bush would have won anyway, but this was Karl Rover, the Republican architect of the early 2000s, working his dirt.

And now Republicans are giving homage to a man who is probably the worst president we have ever had, even worse than John Quincy Adams and Andrew Johnson, both of whom scholars show them as complete failures as president. But in the case of Adams, he returned to the U.S. House and became an extremely successful leader there. And so it is not unheard of for an former president to continue public service. William Howard Taft became a member of the U.S. Supreme Court after his defeat for re-election, and eventually became the chief justice and an admired member. I only wish the George Bush would consider doing the same in Texas.

The term “Moderate Republican” is fast becoming a name difficult to assigned to any Republican in either the house or senate. Why is that? Donald Trump managed to so polarize the American republic, they fear that to speak out against him will cause their defeat for re-election. Why are they cowtowing to the will of a single man over the greater good of their contituents? Why do they find it so difficult to speak the truth over perpetuating the great lie of 2020 that the election was somehow stolen from Trump even though Republican jurists around the nation have declared Joe Biden to be the legitamite winner?

To those few Republican who still stand for something, the truth, Liz Cheney, Chuck Grassely, Mitt Romney, Susan Collans and a few others, I truly hope they will rescue the Republican party from its death wish.