HispanicVista Columnists
To Be or Not To Be ... a Republican
-
By
Sal Osio, JD - From the Publisher's Corner
- November 4, 2006
- From the Publisher's Corner
- To Be or Not To Be ... a Republican
- By Sal Osio, JD
- What are those of us that don't belong in the party's present regime and structure going to do? Shall we join the Democratic Party? I, for one, cannot make the jump. Because I still believe in my brand of Republicanism. In my view my Party left me. I am still a true Republican. My Party has been betrayed by the collection of bigots and machos whose joint effort has been the destruction of American principles at home and prestige and leadership abroad. I choose to remain a disheartened Republican and wait for the next change in leadership. The nightmare will be over soon. Hang in there my fellow disillusioned Republicans - liberated women, gay activists, ethnic diversity neighbors and common sense Americans - let's take back our Party!
- _______________________________________________________
- Sal Osio, JD is the publisher of HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com). Contact at: SPosio@aol.com
If you are an emancipated woman, free of religious indoctrination, who values a woman's right of choice on issues such as abortion ... you are not a Republican.
If you are gay and believe that you are entitled to the same social contract and rights as a heterosexual couple, free of discrimination based on your sexual preference ... you are not a Republican.
If you believe in the Constitutional guarantees of free speech, freedom of the press, against false arrest, unreasonable search and seizure and a fair trial ... you are not a Republican.
If you believe in an ethnic diversity free of prejudice, and oppose the WASP policy of discrimination against non-Whites, camouflaged under the politically correct moniker of 'social conservatism' ... you are not a Republican.
If you are opposed to imperialism and unilateral military intervention, other than to protect our national security, in the implementation of our foreign policy ... you are not a Republican.
If you believe in the separation of church and state ... you are not a Republican.
The above is not to say that you are not a Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rove Republican. In fact, that is exactly what you are ... if you are in agreement with the above tenets of the current Republican Party. Under Bush, the Republican Party has been hijacked by the radical right wing, religious extremists (albeit betrayed) who are committed to a 'macho' foreign policy at the expense of our economy and human life and dignity, ours and theirs. The Party is governed by bigots and self-proclaimed guardians of our morals.
Although a minority member of the Republican Party, the moderate and social liberal wing, I still cling to the hope that this nightmare may pass. I still believe in individual rights, self-help, economic integrity, states rights, separation of church and state, limitation on Federal intrusion on business and individual interests, protection of the environment, limitation on our overindulgence of oil consumption, and a bilateral foreign policy based on economic empowerment. It can be said that I am a 'Clinton' Republican. After all, wasn't former president Clinton a 'Rockefeller' Republican?