The death of Bob Dole is an appropriate time to reflect, with sadness, on the passing of generations of honest, truthful dedicated, sincere, and patriotic Republicans who genuinely cared about our people, our constitutional l republic, and our country extending from the time of Lincoln through the early 1990s. We often disagreed with hose Republicans, but we seldom if ever doubted their sincerity, concern for our people, their integrity, their ethics their patriotism. In my lifetime many, many Republican politicians truly earned our trust and respect, among them Senators Bob Dole, Nancy Kassebaum, John Danforth, Edward Brooke, Howard Baker, Charles Percy, Chuck Hegel, Rep. Everett Dirkson. Johun McCain – as well as numerous State governors and state legislators.

Today, we have the sad and sorry situation of a few honest and sincere Republicans who feel so intimidated that they do not have the guts of act on the courage of their convictions, paired with morally and patriotically bankrupt ideologues dominated by their own lust for personal and partisan power, greed, and the protection of privilege for a few. They lie, they cheat, they steal, preach bigotry, hate, and fear and show not a trace of honesty, loyalty to our people, our country, our long honored values. They deliberately manufacture and disseminate pernicious disinformation and then lie some more to cover it all up.

Our pursuit of democracy has always been flawed and incomplete, but we were striving to better that pursuit. But, today, we must face the fact that we have a morally and patriotically bankrupt gang of Republican demagogues who, if they have their way, will a stop ALL genuine pursuits of government of the people, by the American people, and For ALL of the American people. To stop these thuggish demagogues, we must to two things. First, we must use every opportunity to expose authoritarian treachery by those thugs. Second, we must constantly tell our people what we intent to do, and how it will benefit them. Third, we must deliver on our promises.