Mark Small

The origins of the Republican Party were as a force for progressive values, but the party was taken over by the GOP’s “Southern strategy.” Maybe Mr Beckwith did not cover that particular aspect of U.S. history in his home schooling. 8/21

The roots of the GOP are in what were considered progressive soil. Theodore Roosevelt was a guiding light of the progressive movement - he was a Republican. Robert La Follete of Wisconsin, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes and NYC Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia. 9/21

Not long ago both “major” political parties had conservative & liberal wings Some who label themselves as conservative & decry as “socialism” programs for clean air and water, & housing for the poor & want those ended 10/21

If one believes these programs are socialistic, one must agree the last “socialist” President of this country was Richard Nixon, who, despite many - many, many, many - flaws, was proud of these achievements of his administration. He was a lifelong Republican. 11/21

The SCOTUS decision that protects a woman’s reproductive rts & rts in so many other areas, Roe v Wade, was written by Justice Blackmun, a Nixon-appointee & is an excellently-researched history of a procedure that, for most of human history, has been legal. 12/21

Racism has bent this country since the first African indentured servants were switched to slaves to be bought and sold as chattel. The President Lincoln - a Republican - was key to The Emancipation Proclamation and passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. 13/21

As a native-born Hoosier who remembers the single class high school basketball, I understand how capitalism works. Competitors eliminate each other untl only a few hands control the economy, except there is no subsequent tournament. 14/21

The rich like to stay rich and rig the system so that money stays in their hands through generations. Teddy Roosevelt understood this, too, and busted monopolies at the same time as he advocated inheritance taxes. Again - Teddy was a Republican. 15/21

“I like Ike” was Pres Eisenhower’s campaign slogan in 1952 & it worked, as did tax rates under President Eisenhower. Ike was a Republican. Unfortunately, the very wealthy later redistributed wealth so that more money was in fewer hands. 16/21

I will address “originalism” in another blog. For now - or, since I’m a Hoosier, right now - I shall leave Mr Beckwith these examples of progressive politics in the Republican Party. 17/21

Mr Beckwith suggests that in my campaign effort I seek to “fake it” in the GOP. However, racism, bigotry and hatred were greatly imported to the Republican Party by the Southern strategy. 18/21

Barry Goldwater - grand-daddy of American conservatism - didnt want today’s evangelicals in GOP The Framers proscribed affirmation 2 a deity in oaths 4 offices of Congress & judiciary, U.S. Const., http://Art.VI , cl 3; & President. U.S. Const. Art. II, sec. 1. 19/21

As I said icpl of wks ago, CONSTITUTION protects everyone’s beliefs about cosmos & our places in it. Members of other Christian sects, Hebrew faith, Islamic faith, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans, Jainists, & even atheists & agnostics R protected in beliefs EQUALLY. 20/21