Sam Reed rewrites our political history

Sam Reed’s column on March 28 appears to be an attempt to rewrite our political history.

Labeling the Republican Party “the party of Lincoln” would cause Lincoln to roll over in his grave. Lincoln would be appalled at the southern strategies of race baiting used by both Reagan and Nixon. When President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 all of the southern whites became Republican.

“We also stood for protecting the environment” might be true if one ignored the last 50 years. President Reagan was obsessed with eliminating environmental regulations. Reagan’s cavalier dismissal of acid rain and Bush’s environmental record do not represent protecting the environment. The Republican Party’s history of denying global warming qualifies for membership into the Flat Earth Society.

As to winning elections, the Republicans all ran on how much they opposed President Obama. Republican legislatures have cut taxes at the expense of funding for public education, defunded Planned Parenthood and limited voting opportunities by passing the most un-American voter suppression laws.

Both Presidents Reagan and Bush passed deregulation policies that led to the savings and loan crises and caused the financial crash that plunged the nation into the Great Recession. Both presidents ended their terms with the largest deficits in our history.

What the Republican Party needs is to stop the deception of providing simplistic answers to complicated realities, stop the hijacking of religion, and stop labeling themselves as most patriotic because of the size of their American flag lapel pin.

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 2:17 PM with the headline "Sam Reed rewrites our political history."