Republican Party at a Crossroads

When I first registered to vote in 1986, I registered Republican. Largely because I trusted them to look through my voter registrations and deny me goods, services and opportunities less than I trutsted any of the other parties available to me. Which group was, I believe, coextensive with the Democrats.

And, I'm thinking the Grand Old Party needs saving. They've seriously lost their way. This is how Wikipedia describes their origin.

The new party was created in 1854 in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act that would have allowed the expansion of slavery into Kansas. Activists denounced it as proof of the power of the Slave Power--the powerful class of slaveholders who were conspiring to control the federal government and to spread slavery nationwide. The name "Republican" gained such favor in 1854 simply because as a title it connected voters with the original political organization of Thomas Jefferson in the 1790s. Thus the leaders drew upon the tradition of the National Republican Party of John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay, as well as Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party. The party founders adopted the name "Republican" to indicate it was the carrier of "republican" beliefs about civic virtue, and opposition to aristocracy and corruption.

I'm for civic virtue! I'm opposed to aristocracy and corruption! Not to mention slavery! Now, this somehow evolved into selling off our environment, stealing from the poor and engaging in bizarre acts of destruction meant to justify an insane defense contractor relationship.

But, I wonder if it's time the Republicans got some new leadership...