Farewell, my Grand Old Party

*The general reaction to this piece has been “this is huge!” It’s an accurate descriptor, with a dig at the GOP presumptive nominee to boot. I did a podcast with Lionel Sosa about a month ago. It was huge as well. Sosa’s op-ed works well as a continuation of our conversation. When we spoke he had already decided that his party had left him. VL

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By Lionel Sosa, MySA (6 minute read)

Ronald Reagan, the man who became the Republican’s Republican, was once a Democrat. “I didn’t leave my party, my party left me,” he declared.

Today, many Republicans are feeling much as Reagan must have felt back in 1962 when he officially switched parties.

I became a Republican more than 60 years ago as a teen after watching Dwight Eisenhower give his acceptance speech at the 1952 convention. His message touched me because he sounded like my dad. “Republicans,” he affirmed, “believe in family. In God. In hard work. Patriotism. Low taxes. Small government. Freedom. Opportunity for all.”

That’s all gone.

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Instead of “Tear down this wall,” the party promotes a new and bigger wall. A thousand points of light has been replaced by a thousand points of anger. In place of compassionate conservatism, our nominee promotes callousness, extremism and racism. And instead of a unifier, the party now cheers the ultimate “us against them” proponent. Divisiveness incarnate. . .  READ MORE 

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[Photo courtesy of YouTube]

Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement is the most comprehensive account of the arduous struggle by Mexican Americans to secure and protect their civil rights. It is also a companion volume to the critically acclaimed, four-part documentary series of the same title. This volume is a testament to the Mexican American community’s hard-fought battle for social and legal equality as well as political and cultural identity.

Since the United States-Mexico War in 1846-1848, Mexican Americans have striven to achieve full rights as citizens. From peaceful resistance and violent demonstrations, when their rights were ignored or abused, to the establishment of support organizations to carry on the struggle and the formation of labor unions to provide a united voice, the movement grew in strength and numbers. However, it was during the 1960s and 1970s that the campaign exploded into a nationwide groundswell of Mexican Americans laying claim, once and for all, to their civil rights and asserting their cultural heritage. They took a name that had been used disparagingly against them for years—Chicano—and fashioned it into a battle cry, a term of pride, affirmation and struggle.

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