GOP Has Its Roots in Michigan: Can We Unroot It?

There is a grand tradition of the Grand Old Party in Michigan. The name was launched by Horace Greeley. A Republican was someone who cherished liberty, and didn't want to be called a Whig for opposing slavery. In 1854, the first Republicans took the state of Michigan, and by 1855 held a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. The majority we have in the House of Representatives today is not the same Republican Party we found forming "Under the Oaks" in Jackson, Michigan. The demonstration - and arrests - in Lansing today bear that sad news. Republicans value local and state government, less centralized, less federal government and yet, in Wisconsin and Michigan and Ohio, there has been a hostile takeover legislated of cities, municipalities, townships and school districts. This is not the Republican Party I knew, the candidates the party fielded that I voted for, or the party that held the finest goals of the United States first in their hearts.