This is Not My Republican Party

An Open Letter to America

My fellow Americans,

As a Republican, I’m sorry. We have failed you, as a party, and as individuals.

We didn’t see this coming, and we absolutely should have. We should have been able to see what the instigators of frustration and outrage were fomenting within our base. We should have understood the implications of the last eight years, the rise of the Tea Party, and that its foundational frustration and obstinacy towards progress would lead to a monster of our own creation. We didn’t, and now it’s here.

But please believe me when I tell you that it is not what we stand for as a party, no matter how it may seem on the surface. This is not what I was raised to be a part of, and it embarrasses me to see what our public face has become today.

The Republican Party I know and belong to is not xenophobic.
We don’t want to build a wall, or believe that all Mexicans are drug dealers or rapists. We don’t believe that all Muslims are terrorists or want to ban them from our country. These are ridiculous concepts belched forth from the mouth of a man playing on the fears and frustrations of a segment of America that’s sick and tired of government not working as it was originally designed. This country was founded as a haven for immigrants fleeing from…