When someone asked Ronald Reagan why he left the Democratic party, he replied that he didn’t leave the party – it left him.

Reagan would be shocked to learn that now the Republican Party has also left him. Remember when Republicans were against the communist Russian regime? Now, the U.S. has joined Russia, North Korea, Belarus and Hungary in voting against a U.N. resolution condemning Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and has stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine.

If you were asked a few years ago to think of a leader who tries to suppress open media coverage, wants to build an empire by taking over foreign lands, and threatens to imprison those who speak against him, would you have guessed that this could ever be a U.S. President? Would you have guessed that the Republican Party would support this?

How many of you had been thinking that what the U.S. needs to do to fix things is to take over Canada, Gaza, Greenland, and Panama, declare a trade war on Canada and Mexico, join Iran, Libya, and Yemen as the only non-signers of the Paris climate agreement, bar the Associated Press from the White House, and let an unelected billionaire from South Africa start dismantling the government?

Ten years ago, would Republicans have endorsed Musk, who fathered 7 children out of wedlock in the last 5 years and named some of his 14 children Techno Mechanicus, Exa Dark Siderael, and X AE A-Xii? Would they not question whether his billions of dollars of government contracts might be a conflict of interest?

If you were a Republican ten years ago and you prefer the new Republican party, that’s your prerogative, but please realize that your party’s values have changed.

Tom Richmond

Bowling Green