The number of Republicans jumping the good ship GOP and diving into the Democrats’ life raft is on the increase. Take this Kansan who had been a lifelong Republican and what he decided to do. Democrats looking for positive trends should be heartened.
Not only did P. Ryan Hussey quit his party this weekend, he sent a letter so hot it nearly burned the words off of the page to his Senators Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Representative Sharice Davids (D-KS).
People often think of Kansas as a red state, but that has not really been the case. We are a more independent people. Talking heads have even begun describing Kansas as a purple state these days.
Hussey had it with Republican behavior. Former Governor Sam Brownback drove the state economy into the ditch. After his grand trickle-down experience was an abysmal failure, he ran to Trump’s White House.
What really got Hussey, though was the way his party had changed under the current president. In his letter, he torched the Republicans’ behavior in the impeachment hearings as “too much to stomach.”
He wrote:
‘The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back occurred during the past few weeks when Republican House Intelligence Committee members abandoned all semblance of sanity/ I was disgusted to hear members of my former party challenge the patriotism of a career military veteran and intelligence officer simply because his testimony did not subscribe to their shallow narrative.’
Hussy shredded the hearing Republicans for their fake conspiracy theories trying to con the American people into believing the Russians were innocent, and the Ukrainians were to blame for attacking Americans’ free elections.
He called the GOP ‘s behavior “textbook Russian disinformation.” Then, the Kansan wrote
‘[I] could no longer, in good faith, consider myself part of a party that subscribed to these absurd positions.
‘An open letter to my Congressional representatives @JerryMoran @SenPatRoberts , and @RepDavids’
‘In 2016, I witnessed my party behind the slow degredation of casting aside those values for the sole purpose of capitulating to the ego of a reality television host who boasted of the utility of trade wars, touted empty promises of curbing budget deficits, incited rising nationalism, and regularly elevating the declarations of authoritarianism over the voice of democracy.’
Then, the typical Republican added these insults:
‘For the fast few years, I have been repulsed by the President’s refusal to condemN white nationalism, his expansion of policies permanetly separateing children from their families immigrating through our southern border, his support of exponentially increasing the national debt, his disregard for conflicts of interest, his use of public office for personal gain, and his inexplicable attachment and deference to authortarians who aim to elevate chaos and rule over the values of freedom and peace.’
If we could reverse engineer time starting in the 1800s, we could see this anti-slave state gave birth to the Civil War, Boot Hill Cemetery, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and Brown vs. The Board of Education.
Do not forget the powerful women who sprung for the loins of this state: pilot Amelia Earhart, the first female mayor in the U.S. Susanna Salter, environmentalist Erin Brockovich, and first Native American woman elected to Congress, Sharice Davids.
