Why I am a Republican

I am a straight ballot voting, and proud of it, Republican now. But once upon a time I was a Democrat.

I voted for Jimmah Carter in 1980. And why not? My Daddy was a Democrat. All my kinfolk was Democrats. And the stories I'd read, and what I'd seen on the TeeVee about Reagan made me sure the we'd all be radioactive crispy critters ten minutes after he was swore in. So, I voted for the Peanut Farmer.

Well, I woke up one morning, Reagan was president, the sun was still shinin', and we was all still alive. And guess what! The hostages, that had been held in Iran for over a year, well they was back!

As time went on and the country got back on its feet from the "malaise" of the Carter years. The house loan I'd taken out at 21.5 percent interest was reduced to 16.5, and finally 7.5 percent when I paid it off. Long before I paid the house off, I began to realize that I'd been sold a bill o' goods by somebody, but I didn't really know who.

I began to be suspicious of the media. I looked deeper than the newspaper headlines, and the talkin' heads on the 6 o'clock news.

I realized the media, was trying to portray Ronald Reagan as a fool and a master manipulator at the same time. That was too much even fer a dumass like me to go for! The deeper I looked into it, the clearer it became that reality, as portrayed by the media, was being twisted to serve an agenda. This agenda's aim seemed to be the eventual dissolution of the USA as a functioning country. I still haven't figured out if it was on purpose, or not.

I took a hard look at the people who made up the Democrat and Republican contingents from Texas, in Washington. I didn't depend on the media's story of who they were. I looked at their associates, their families, and their public pronouncements. I watched them on C-Span whenever I could.

I determined that Jim Wright was a crook, a long time before he had to leave Washington, two steps ahead of the sheriff. You know why? Because his right hand man, John Mack, had beaten a woman in the head with a ball pean hammer, stabbed her, and slit her throat. She almost died! Mack's brother was Wright's brother in law. Wright wrote letters for Mack and promised to give him a job (even though he had neither Hill experience nor a college education). Mack served TWO YEARS in jail and then went on to work his way up the Hill. Mack was Wright's muscle when the latter became speaker.

It dawned on me that the media outlets, for the most part, were in the Democrat's pocket, and the Democrat party in Washington was run by a bunch of socialists and communist sympathizers. But at the state and local level it was still controlled by people who were conservatives.

So I became an Independant. Voting "for the man, not the party." Then I realized that every time I voted for a Democrat, even if it was for the post of Dogcatcher, I was supporting a party in which the top people, in Washington, were working to destroy this country, my country.

I examined my values and compared them to the two major parties. I found that the Republican party best represented my beliefs and values. That the USA would be governed more the way I wanted it to be governed if the Republicans had the power.

So in 1994 I cast my first straight ticket for the Republican party. And I've never looked back.

It's so much easier too, one mark and you're done!

Gowain