The difficult photo above is of a billboard I came across in north central Pennsylvania. I took the photo in July 2015. I don't know if it's still there.
But the ugly and racist sentiment that motivated someone to erect it still exists. It put Donald Trump over the top to victory in 2016. And it's the force that I pray we defeat in the fall of 2020.
Why am I raising this now? I miss My Old Party. I was a registered Republican until 2016. From time to time I harbor a small hope the party can take a more optimistic and healthy path. So I read David Brooks' most recent essay with interest, an essay in which he analyzes the possible directions leaders in the party could lead it in a post-Trump era.
But he ends his essay acknowledging that the odds of any of those thought leaders' ideas resulting in something good as "under 50-50."
I miss My Old Party. I don't think it's coming back. Ever. And that's a shame. And perhaps it's not worth saving after it decided that catering to and feeding to the racist sentiments in our country was a path worth taking in the 21st century.
