I have been a Republican leaning Independent voter for four decades until Trump took over the party and supported militant radicals. Almost all the moderates in both parties are gone. The people who were considered fringe elements of both parties five or six decades ago might be considered a moderate today. Ronald Reagan and his advisors would be considered liberals today. Even Senator Barry Goldwater would be a moderate today.

            Several GOP governors who have supported legislatures are racing each other to the bottom. They are pushing gun ownership, low taxes resulting in few social services and infrastructure maintenance, minimal regulation, gender identification, investigations and many other far right ideologue ideas. What is interesting is these same governors are telling schools and businesses what they must say or do to comply with their demands.

            The new Trump ideologues cater to the militias, gun lobbyists, and a few religious leaders. The Republicans of old used to criticize Democrats for being easy on crime and loose morals. Today the GOP is lead by a person who flaunts his lack of morals and criminal activities. How did the Grand Ole Party get so far from the center of America? They are causing their base to go farther to the far radical right by destroying the government they have sworn to “protect and defend against all foreign and domestic enemies.”

            As Pogo supposedly once said in a comic strip decades ago, “We have found the enemy and they are us.”