I grew up during the Reagan years. The first election I can remember is Reagan versus Carter. My parents identified as Democrats then, but they voted for Reagan. During those formitve years, I had an overall positive view of Reagan, and I still view him as having been a good President. And Reagan was a positive guy. It was morning in America, he told us. At the federal level, taxes had been very high for some time, and the regulatory schemes had become oppressive. Reagan wanted to get those things out of the way and let America prosper, and income taxes and the regulatory state were dramatically reduced during his term. He stood strongly against the Evil Empire. For those of you younger than Gen-X, that was the Communists led by the Soviet Union, who not only oppressed half the world's people, but built an Iron Curtain to stop the flow of people and information in either direction. Reagan stood in front of the Berlin Wall and famously said "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
As I grew into a teenager and young adult, I became a strong proponent of protecting and preserving civil liberties. I did not have a good handle on the American political party alignments, and at first I thought this made me a liberal/Democrat. But on the other hand, it was obvious that excessive economic control could be just as threatening to civil liberties as an overt police state. If most resources are owned in common or controlled by the government, then you do not own yourself and your liberties are sacrificed (automatically) "for the good of the whole". I discovered the Libertarian Party and identified with that movement, eventually joining that party after college. Even so, with the advent of conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh who did not seem interested in curtailing civil liberties, I identified more with the conservatives than the liberals during that time, and associated my views as overlapping to a good degree with the conservative movement. I would vote Libertarian for President for the statement it made, but I voted for many Republicans down-ballot. But I was quite active in the Libertarian Party also, being a delegate to several state conventions, being an activist and running for low level public office.
As I grew older, my political views became more moderate and pragmatic. I drifted away from the more radical views of the Libertarians, and the party showed no signs of moderating. I identified more as a libertarian independent willing to vote for any candidate who was pro-freedom but also pragmatic. By 2012, I came to view the Republicans and particularly the Tea Party as obstructionist to a fault, but I still voted for Republicans in some races if they seemed like the better candidates. And then Trump came along.
Donald Trump pandered to racist and anti-immigrant factions, and stirred up many bad feelings better left in the past and the fringes. He did. Do I even need to re-hash his campaign? If you were paying attention, you know this. There was a #NeverTrump movement within the Republican Party, by those who understood that Trump was fomenting racism and did not represent traditional Republican values. They failed. The Republican Party became infected with the sickness of Trumpism for the forseeable future. Many Republicans, even those who denounced Trump, became supporters after he won election. Mitt Romney is one example. So disappointing. Any party that would allow such a man as Trump to become their nominee for high office, and actively support him, is a party that is incapable of responsible governance. They have become corrupted by evil and are beyond saving.
I have also come to realize that the only force with any hope of opposing and counterbalancing the Corrupt Republicans, is the Democratic Party, whatever my differences with their platform. Unless and until our election system changes, we will have a two-party system, and only a unified big-tent party can oppose the Republicans. The Democratic Party supports civil liberties for all people. Increasingly they support the Second Amendment and do not support taking guns from law abiding citizens. And importantly, they oppose racism and strongly support civil rights for minorities.
So I hereby pledge, before God, my family, and everyone else. That I will never support the Republican Party in any way, nor will I ever vote for a candidate who has "Republican" next to their name on the ballot. Whenever I have the time and opportunity, I will actively work to defeat Republican candidates and all anti-freedom Republican legislation.
I will teach my children that we are Democrats because the Democratic Party supports ordinary American values, while the Republicans support a darker vision for America. This and everything I teach them will be true.
I will teach them that Republicans are a party that is okay with pandering to racism and saying racist things to get votes. They supported Trump, and Trump did these things.
I will teach them that America is a nation of immigrants, but the Republicans are an anti-immigrant party. Trump's core supporters want to severely restrict immigration from current levels. Trump has pledged to build a prison wall on our southern border, further restricting the free movement of people.
I will teach them that Republicans oppose First Amendment protections. They want to establish a registry of people who practice the Muslim religion, even though the First Amendment protects free exercise of religion. This is a Trump platform plank. They want to suppress the news media using burdensome libel laws, so that media organizations would constantly spend money defending themselves in court. This is another Trump platform plank. He called the media "terrible terrible human beings" among other things.
I will teach them that the Republicans support punishingly high tariffs on imports, which will make most goods more expensive for all Americans, will suppress economic activity and tank our economy. Trump promised 35% tariffs on Chinese imports in his rallies, and more recently has promised to implement a 10% tariff by executive order as soon as taking office.
I will teach them that Republicans advocate proliferation of nuclear weapons. Trump has recently done so overtly.
I will teach them that Republicans oppose NATO in its current form, the alliance that helped to defeat Soviet Communism and still maintains international order.
I will teach them that Republicans admire totalitarian dictators. Trump has repeatedly and enthusiastically praised the murderous Russian dictator Vladimir Putin as being a "strong leader". He had also previously praised the Chinese Communist government for their handling of the peaceful Tianamen Square protests and falsely characterized them as "riots". If Republicans admire that sort of thing, how can we be sure they don't want to bring that sort of government to us?
For these reasons, all of which are true, the Republican Party is dead to me. I will tell my children, and anyone else who will listen, that Republicans do not support their interests nor the interests of ordinary Americans. For this reason, we are Democrats for the forseeable future and so they should be as well.