Like so many Americans, when I registered to vote, I registered as my parents were registered. So, like five generations before me, I became a Republican. After graduating from college I began my teaching career in, what was at the time, a rural farming community in Bucks County. At that time, Bucks was overwhelmingly a Republican County, and New Hope and Solebury was no different.
I remember my first time voting at the Carversville church in the 1969 primary.
A voter walked in, signed the voter register and declared themselves a Democrat. Everyone in the room turned around… they had never seen one!
As time has progressed and the population base changed, so has the voter makeup of the County, which has morphed from “red” to “purple”. In the early 2000’s I met Patrick Murphy while he was campaigning for John Kerry. I was impressed with his ethics and candor and ultimately worked to help him get elected to the congressional seat held by Mike Fitzpatrick.
Having been involved actively in that campaign led to my registering as a Democrat and working to build the Democrat Party in New Hope and Solebury. As time progressed the make-up of the party began moving in a very unsettling direction, with the positions on issues moving farther and farther to the left, and the positions not being upheld by rational, factual decision making. It seemed that it was not only the need to win but win at any cost.
Ultimately, I returned to the Republican ranks.
An interesting observation: when I left the Republican Party there was an expression of disappointment and questions as to what prompted that decision, but nothing more, and I didn’t have any strained relations with Republicans going forward. When I left the Democrat Party, I went to vote in the Primary. When I announced that I was Republican, I was met with immediate visible animosity by many Democrats. Many strained friendships followed. The most disappointing realization has been that it seems Democrats have an emotional, visceral response to many issues.
Republicans seem to have more rational, reasoned responses to positions. Even more concerning, is that trying to have a reasonable discussion and debate of issues and ideas in my experience with many Democrats, seems to devolve quickly into a heated exchange with the Democrat storming off in anger. This is not 100% and I do have several friends with whom we respectfully engage in political dialogue. Unfortunately, this is not the norm.
The positions of the Democrats have become increasingly more untenable, clearly against the best interests of America, with no logical explanations and attacks on the processes of our Constitutional Republic. Open borders, excessive government controls, lawlessness, liberal courts, gutting the military, flailing foreign policy, funding terrorism, DEI/CRT, broken public education system, curtailing American industry and oil production and the list goes on.
It has become crystal clear that supporting the Republican Party at this moment in history, is the only way to ensure that the pendulum of reason and compromise moves back to the center and the promotion of self-reliance, merit and exceptionalism again become the norm in America if we are to preserve our Constitutional Republic.
“When the people fear the government, that is tyranny. When the government fears the people, that is Liberty.”… Thomas Jefferson