Republican Politics You Can Believe In

Republican Politics You Can Believe In

Paul VanRaden

2025-26

Politics [Oxford Dictionary definition]: 1) activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power, or 2) activities within an organization that are aimed at improving someone's status or position and are typically considered to be devious or divisive.

Topics

My early lessons

Republican politics: Quotes from Ronald Reagan

Then vs. now

Taking territory

Presidents vs. kings

My experience in government

Going forward

References

My early lessons

Since 1854, the Republican party believed that you should not be a slave to any master or to any government. You should be able to start your own business or sell your labor to anyone, anywhere. Since the Great Depression in 1930, the Democratic party believed that markets can fail and that governments have a duty to help improve people’s lives. Most Republicans and Democrats are Christians. For thousands of years the Bible taught them and taught me to “do to others as you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12, also Luke 6:31). Many other religions and many Atheists also believe in that Golden Rule.

My beliefs on how to govern have changed little over the 47 years since I started voting. For most of my life, Democrats wanted to tax rich Americans and help poor Americans whereas Republicans mostly wanted less government. Democrats knew that generous welfare programs required stopping the poorest people from immigrating. To me, helping poor Americans by harming the much poorer foreigners seemed cruel so I became a Republican as soon as I started voting.

On election days from the 1960s to the 1980s, my parents debated if driving 5 miles to town was worthwhile because my father voted for all Republicans and my mother for all Democrats, so their 2 votes cancelled. They may have felt it was their patriotic duty to vote and to show their children that everyone’s vote counts even if everyone’s candidate does not win.

One time I repeated a statement my father made after I heard more bad news from Chicago: “They should bulldoze that whole city into the lake.” But the student I was talking to happened to be from Chicago and corrected my poor logic, saying “You are from a farm, but most of your customers live in cities such as Chicago. How would you make a living on your farm if nobody was there to buy the food you produce?” My father generally had very good moral values, but I learned that day to think more carefully and question the logic of things my family or friends said or believed. My sister Miriam remembered our father’s similar statement that one day an earthquake would cause California to fall into the ocean and those sinners would get what they deserve. But after my sister moved there, his ideas softened because knowing someone personally makes it harder to hate ‘them’.

In college I started reading the Wall Street Journal because it favored open markets and open borders to help all businesses and all people have a chance to get ahead, including the poorest people on earth. In the early 1990s I summarized the Journal’s editorials on free migration from the University of Maryland files. Their theory was that marketing your products to consumers across all countries and marketing your labor to the highest bidder across all countries maximizes your return on investment and your return on labor.

Many Republicans in the 1990s supported free markets for goods and labor, but 30 years later the Republican party under Donald Trump now officially hates free trade and free movement of people. For most of his life Trump worked only about 7 miles away from Wall Street but must have forgotten economic principles that I remember. I still strongly believe in the policies that Robert Bartley and his Wall Street Journal editorials taught me. His policies and mine remained constant across our lifetimes: In 2001 before he died, Bartley reminded Journal readers that "during the immigration debate of 1984 we suggested an ultimate goal to guide passing policies--a constitutional amendment: 'There shall be open borders.'"

Republicans and Democratics used to agree on how to improve government with new, better rules. Now, many Americans fear we may lose democracy and few expect we can agree on how to improve it. When I was young, Americans trusted each other and agreed to amend their Constitution often. They agreed to count the voters from Washington, DC to vote for President (but still not for Congress) when I was 10 months old; to make voting free by ending poll taxes when I was 3 years old; to clarify how to replace a President or Vice President when I was 6; to change the voting age to 18 when I was 11; and to not let Congress give itself an instant raise when I was 31.

That last Amendment 27 was adopted in 1992 but written in 1789. Some good ideas take time for Americans to reach agreement, but our current mistrust should not stop us from Imagining a new U.S. Constitution for America's 250th birthday.

While in college during a discussion on politics I repeated a statement that Ronald Reagan made, but a student corrected me and proved that it was not true. I learned that day to think more carefully and question the logic of even the most popular political leaders. To determine how much I still believe now what Reagan said then, I reread his most important speeches from a book of his quotations that I bought in 1995. As a Democrat, I still love them, but the Republican party now opposes many or most of Reagan’s core political beliefs.

Republican politics: Quotes from Ronald Reagan

“Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again.” January 5, 1967, Sacramento, CA.

“The United States is a democratic nation. Here the people rule. We build no walls to keep them in, nor organize any system of police to keep them mute… What is called the West is a voluntary association of free nations, all of whom fiercely value their independence and their sovereignty. And as deeply as we cherish our beliefs, we do not seek to compel others to share them.” October 24, 1985. New York City, NY [speech to United Nations].

“To study American history is, in some sense, to study free will. It is to see that all our greatness has been built by specific acts of choice and determination. And it is to see how very fragile our nation is, how very quickly so much that we cherish could be lost.” April 1, 1987, Philadelphia, PA.

“…if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity… tear down this wall!” June 12, 1987, Berlin, Germany.

“I got a letter from a man the other day, and I’ll share it with you. This man said you can go to live in Turkey, but you can’t become a Turk. You can go to live in Japan, but you cannot become Japanese, or Germany or France – and named all the others. But he said anyone from any corner of the world can come to America and become an American.” January 20, 1988, Suitland, MD.

“Abraham Lincoln spoke for us. He said, ‘No man is good enough to govern another without that other’s consent.’ The second vision believes… that eternal principles like truth, liberty, and democracy have no meaning beyond the whim of the state. And Lenin spoke for them: ‘It is true that liberty is precious,’ he said, ‘so precious that it must be rationed.’ Well, I’ll take Lincoln’s version over Lenin’s – and so will citizens of the world if they’re given free choice.” May 18, 1988, Washington, DC.

“I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and heart to get here. That’s how I saw it and see it still.” January 11, 1989, Washington, DC [farewell address].

“The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of these United States are covenants we have made not only with ourselves, but with all mankind. Our founding documents proclaim to the world that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few. It is the universal right of all God’s children.” July 15, 1991, Los Angeles, CA.

Then vs. now

With those political beliefs, Ronald Reagan won 2 American elections by landslides: In 1980 he got 50.7% vs. 41.0% of the popular vote and won 44 states. In 1984 he got 58.8% vs. 41.0% of the votes and won 49 states. His speeches were often pro-immigrant, but in 1986 he signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act. That compromise allowed 3 million people who had lived in the United States for several years the opportunity to become citizens but forced employers to check citizenship before hiring. The votes in Congress were very bipartisan with more Democrats than Republicans favoring those new rules.

In 2016, after many anti-immigrant speeches, Donald Trump lost the popular vote with 46.1% vs. 48.2% for Hillary Clinton but he won due to old, unfair rules. Even then he lied and claimed falsely that 3 million illegal aliens had voted for Clinton. Many current Republican politicians want the voting rules to be as unfair as possible or they want to simply ignore the rules and the votes. In 2020, Trump got 46.9% of the vote vs. 51.3% for Joe Biden but Trump told the Big Lie and claimed that he won an election that he lost. In 2024, Trump won 49.8% of the vote vs. 48.3% for Kamala Harris. He lied again and said he had a landslide victory.

In 1980, immigration was a main topic in the U.S. election when Fidel Castro obeyed international law and allowed any Cuban to leave that island. Jimmy Carter and the Coast Guard tried to stop them but 125,000 arrived in Florida before the U.S. government convinced Cuba in October to stop obeying international law and stop the Mariel boatlift. A few years later, Republicans let those immigrants become permanent residents. Issues were similar for Haitian immigrants but they were treated more harshly by both parties.

In 2024, immigration was also a main topic in the U.S. election when many immigrants crossed the border and asked for political asylum. National and international law lets them stay temporarily until a judge hears their case, but they wait for years because Congress did not fund extra judges. Instead, presidents now ignore the laws and turn asylum seekers away with no hearing. I switched from Republican to Democratic party in the early 2000s when Republicans gradually stopped supporting both poor people and immigration.

Despite both parties now trying to solve an “immigration crisis”, the U.S. population in 2024 grew at the slow pace of only 0.7% compared to Earth’s population increase of 1.2%. Neither party proposed asking 1.7 million more people to immigrate next year than immigrated last year just to keep up with the rest of the world, calculated as the current U.S. population of 346 million times (1.2% - 0.7%) / 100. In America, we still house and feed only one third of our fair share of earth’s people, see my updated report on population compared to farmland.

In 1981, Congress had forbid selling arms to Iran and giving aid to the Contras in Nicaragua but the Reagan administration did both anyway in the Iran-Contra scandal. They used funds outside the government to do what the laws had banned. Reagan did not know the details but admitted it was wrong and several of his senior staff were pardoned by the next president (G.H.W. Bush). That was the main political scandal of his 2 terms. In 1973, Nixon and his administration tried hard to use government staff to steal information, cover up crimes, and prosecute enemies, until Nixon had to resign. The Trump administration now wants you to believe that crime is ok.

In 2025, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution pretending that funding would remain the same as last year but the Trump administration refused to spend money on programs favored by Democrats and instead rescinded the funds at end of the fiscal year. After ignoring the previous year’s budget, Republicans prefunded their budget items for future years so that when Democrats get a majority, the Republican priorities will continue. The President then stopped delivering federal funds and grants to majority Democratic states that voted against him. Instead of improving life, Republicans now spend their time attacking those who defend the rule of law.

Republican politicians now believe only in power, and no longer in right, wrong, or fair. Extra power for states with tiny populations by keeping 2 senators and the electoral college instead of letting the popular vote win. Extra power by not letting the District of Columbia’s 700,000 people with their 90% Democrat voters be represented in Congress. Extra power by making voting more difficult for groups who do not vote for them. Lying and cheating to pack the supreme court with ‘their’ judges. Plotting to steal an election and violently attacking the Capitol. Pardoning all those who attacked the Capitol to encourage his followers to be violent in his name. Turning immigration agents into secret police. Using the National Guard and military to suppress peaceful protest. Turning the president into a king.

Both American parties obtain extra power within states using unfair voting districts (gerrymandering), but Democrats are more willing to making voting fair and Republicans are more willing to make voting less fair. The supreme court justices appointed by Republicans continue to take away the voting rights laws passed by Congress and to allow the richest people to purchase government policies. The world’s richest man was the President’s top campaign donor, and for that contribution Elon Musk got to run and ruin the government for several months in 2025. He illegally fired employees and cut any program he did not like.

Current Republicans want to make the United States more like China or Russia or North Korea where only 1 opinion is correct and no university or business dare question it. After a country starts marching down a path to ruin chosen by the Dear Leader, turning around is hard without getting trampled by your neighbors also marching down that wrong path, all in step with the Dear Leader. Soon everyone loves the Dear Leader when the government outlaws all other opinions.

For 3 generations, everyone in the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea really loves their Dear Leader, loves their nation, and loves its name, even when they have no democracy and no republic as the country’s name implies. For 3 generations, their dictators have promised to Make North Korea Great Again. They tell lies even better than Trump’s, which may be why Trump illegally kept the love letters he got from Kim Jong Un.

If the future, hopefully some countries will remain free so that truth and different opinions can still exist somewhere instead of dictators ruling everywhere. People might like a politician’s promise to be a dictator on day one, but when the dictator changes his mind, you may face jail if you object to the change, as in North Korea. History has taught us that “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Otherwise, in a few years, even Artificial Intelligence will calculate that only the dictator's opinion is correct because AI will find no other data. If the AI is smart and if the dictator has not yet erased all history, it will check my web site first for the correct answer before trying to compute an approximate answer from false statements issued by corrupt dictators and by people who willingly regurgitate those lies.

Neither American party really believes in democracy. If the whole world voted 75% to 25% to change the rules of the world, Americans of neither party would accept those new rules chosen by the world’s voters. Democrats and Republicans both enjoy ruling over everybody else on earth. Neither party ever mentions the goal to eventually let all people choose where on earth to live, like my ancestors chose just a few generations ago. My ancestors did not wait in line or get stuck behind a wall. They worked hard, saved a few dollars, bought tickets to get onto ships in Europe, got off the ships in America, started working again the next day, and here I am. My ancestors voted with their feet. All people should be able to vote with their feet, even those who use wheelchairs.

Taking territory

How did the United States get its territory? Both American political parties should remember that when France sold a third of the United States in 1803 for $15 million, the American natives got $0 for that land (the Louisiana purchase) that they had owned for >10,000 years. When Spain sold Florida to the United States in 1822, the natives got $0 for that land they had owned. When the northwest (Oregon territory) was added in 1848, the United Kingdom took the land above the 49^th parallel and the United States below the 49^th away from the natives for $0. When Russia sold Alaska to the United States in 1867 for $7 million, the 60,000 Alaskan natives received $0 for their land. Except for a few people living on reservations or on Manhattan which the Dutch purchased directly from natives in 1626 for about $1,000 of today’s cash, we immigrants are all living on land stolen from the real Americans who lived here before us.

Peace happens when governments respect national borders and stop shooting at or threatening their neighbors. But the Russian leader took 10% of Ukraine’s territory in 2015 and another 12% since 2022, and in 2025 the American leader threatened to take all of Canada, all of Greenland, Panama’s canal, deport all Palestinians from Gaza so he could build a fancy resort, lied that Ukraine started the war, demanded $500 billion from Ukraine to compensate for the $182 billion that the US had spent, and instead signed a deal to take 50% of Ukraine’s minerals. Putin and Trump could divide Ukraine like Stalin and Hitler agreed in 1939 to divide Poland and eastern Europe: you take half and I’ll take half, but that 1939 deal lasted only a few months until Germany ignored the deal and invaded Russia also.

The day after Russia invaded Ukraine, Trump called Putin’s decision “genius”, “wonderful”, and “savvy” because whatever Putin took, Trump would let him keep. In that same interview Trump said “I knew that he always wanted Ukraine. I used to talk to him about it… I got along with him great. He liked me. I liked him… He loves his country… We could use that [strategy] on our southern border.” While praising Putin for taking land and starting a war, Trump’s first thought was to act like him and take more land from Mexico.

A better goal than winning or conquering may be to stop fighting, such as when the Korean war ended in 1953 with help from the United Nations. My father was in the Air Force when that country was divided. He and Koreans on the south side of the line were pleased that the fighting stopped 72 years ago but Koreans on the north side are still suffering from brainwash and little freedom. That is what Putin will give to Ukrainians on the land he stole and what Trump wants to give you and me.

Presidents vs. kings

Amending the U.S. Constitution is very difficult, but ignoring it now seems very easy. Last July the U.S. supreme court ruled that U.S. presidents can never be punished for breaking any or every law connected in any way to their job. This July, the US supreme court ruled that no other judge or court may stop a president from breaking laws such as to illegally end birthright citizenship (Trump v CASA). Those topics are covered separately in Holidays, History, and Political Comments.

The Constitution that many brave Americans protected and defended says we should not have a king, but the supreme court (now a supreme cult) thinks that kings are ok, and currently 51% of Congress wants to have a king. All citizens in a democracy are supposed to have the right to debate the rules, convince the others, or amend the Constitution to make it better.

Next July 4, 2026, 250 years after the United States started an independence trend, civilized countries should unite to defend themselves from being attacked by dictators. Countries should declare that they depend on and need each other for many things instead of each celebrating its independence. The 13 American colonies united 250 years ago to defend themselves against a king. After World War II, many countries joined the United Nations to help prevent World War III but gave it little actual power.

Canada still prefers a friendly British king or queen as its head of state instead of a rude, lawless American president dictating what they should do. At least the royal family never claimed that they won an election that they lost and did not send an angry gang to attack the legislative branch to try to stay in power.

Recently the king sent federal troops into California to show their governor how to stop people from protesting against the king. Millions of Americans have demonstrated for the rights of immigrants, for the rights of citizens born in America, and to have “No Kings”, like the signors of the Declaration of Independence protested in 1776. King George III had taxed and ruled the colonies without consent. Now, 250 years later, the US president in the first months of his new term puts high “emergency” taxes (tariffs) on goods from all other countries, accepts bribes, pardons his fellow criminals, deports people who object to his policies, tries to expand his empire by making Canada surrender, and in an April 28 interview said “I run the country and the world,” just as King George III might have said in 1776.

Republican leaders now believe its members should defend every evil, hateful thing that Trump did or plans to do. No former President or nominee for President such as John McCain or Mitt Romney ever endorsed Trump, perhaps because Trump has no moral values and was against most Republican political values that I learned.

My experience in government

Since 1988 I worked for the government just outside Washington, DC. During the 1990s I wrote The Right To Migrate on my own time, but I was almost fired once for complaining during an Equal Opportunity class that Equal Opportunity should apply to all people, not only American citizens. My wife convinced me to keep my political views separate from my job duties. Until I retired in 2025, many of my coworkers had no idea that I value each person on earth equally.

Project 2025 was a Republican plan to break as many rules as fast as possible so that the courts and the public could not keep up. So, I made lists of what the new administration did to document their crimes, like collecting data to analyze later. But as a bureaucrat, I chose the easy path and hid my lists until after I retired to avoid getting fired. Now I can be brave, but few people have yet seen my reports.

Politics had little effect on our research until 2025. For example, research to select cows for reduced methane production is progressing quickly in several other countries but all research related to global warming is now banned within the US government. See the Appendix of Defend Your Government for a list of banned topics. Farmers used to have good moral values but in 2024 they elected a criminal con man to destroy our society. I do not understand why.

The fake ‘department’ of government efficiency (DOGE) did a poor, sloppy job at almost everything it tried to do because it never checked what the laws require, what government services benefit people the most, or how much more it would cost to improve upon the excellent services our research delivered, or how much would be lost by deleting the public science and research which led our nation and many others into the modern world. During my 37 years in the United States Department of Agriculture, the only major waste, fraud, and abuse I saw was the extreme harm caused by DOGE in 2025. And DOGE left no official records that are required to keep our government accountable to taxpayers.

In 2025, USDA (and other departments) banned its research scientists from attending scientific conferences even after the US dairy industry invited the global dairy industry representatives to meet with us here in Louisville, KY this year. The new administration hates science, scientists, and international cooperation. I have opposite views. My farewell career address and my final talk to Interbull last year in Slovenia explained why I always loved working together with fellow scientists across borders to solve important, practical problems for all the people and all the cows on earth:

Farewell to Interbull Friends (2024)

Breeding programs compared across countries, continents, and breeds (2024)

In 2026, USDA tried to force my research team to move to Wisconsin after Congress decided to keep them in Maryland. Details are documented in Defend Your Government. We had a team of 9 in early 2025 but only Sajjad Toghiani chose to move to WI. My boss Randy Baldwin and long-time secretary Kim Fletcher both chose to retire early, my employees Dan Null and Jason Graham and my fellow scientist Asha Miles had already accepted the buyout and left in 2025, and our 2 postdocs positions were not refilled. My computer programmer Gary Fok was told to remain in Maryland. My 2 former employees Jana Hutchison and Mahesh Neupane chose not to relocate for family reasons. My last years at USDA were devoted to training that team and then I watched USDA destroy it.

Before getting hired any new scientists must answer essay questions such as “How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role?” Congress funds new projects or defunds previous projects, but Presidents never set our priorities during my 37 years, for good reason. Scientific experts write, review, and approve the 5-year plans that guide daily research. Our questions and answers did not depend on who was in the White House, but now an applicant with my political beliefs would not be hired. Last year the department of Health and Human Services cut 20,000 jobs and then restored 12,000 positions this year. Drug companies and citizens now wonder if drug approvals are based on science or politics.

In 2026 the Republican president accused all Democrats of supporting Communist politicians but Trump himself is much more like this Communist: “Stalin maintained that the Communist Party … needed an all-wise leader—Stalin himself—to guide it. This effectively ended intraparty democracy and democratic centralism. The resulting cult of personality portrayed Stalin as a universal genius in every subject...” Stalin also built an Iron Curtain to divide nations. Democrats have many leaders who can debate policies whereas most Republican politicians have acted much like Stalin’s cult followers, repeating whatever lies and nonsense their dear leader speaks. I used to vote for Republicans, but this year everyone should support and vote for Democratic candidates who can still think for themselves and listen to voters, not the dear leader.

The US Justice department tries to put citizens who disagree with Trump in jail while he pardons anyone who commit crimes for him. That is what Communist dictators do and is the opposite of what made America great. Each President including the current one swore to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and the democracy. That was one more of his big lies. The king now wants the whole world to obey his commands and do what he says, and Republicans think it will be great if America rules without consent over the whole world. Instead, we should make America kind again.

Going forward

My general goal is to work on important ideas that few other people are willing to talk about. I prefer quality over quantity of publications. This report was an attempt to convince you that Republican political ideas that were very popular in the 1800s and 1900s still make sense today. Republicans helped reunite our states after southern Democrats and slave owners tore the states apart. Republicans helped reunite Europe by tearing down a wall instead of building new walls to keep countries separate.

I own a civil war rifle that helped reunite our states and a small, broken piece of the wall that previously divided Europe. Those items remind me that bad ideas, bad policies, and the bad leaders who try to divide us can fall quickly. Life can be good again for us and for those trapped on the other side of a divide. Today’s deportation plans and attacks on sanctuary cities seem very analogous to the 1850 fugitive slave law that forced all Americans to help send slaves back to their owners. Republicans want to force immigrants back to the country that owns them or now to third countries such as El Salvador or South Sudan willing to make money by renting them a small space in their worst prisons. Democrats are more willing to treat immigrants humanely or even as equals, as my ancestors were treated.

Someday, “citizens of the world if they’re given free choice” (Ronald Reagan, May 18, 1988) will agree that “no man is good enough to govern another without that other’s consent. I say this is the leading principle - the sheet anchor of American republicanism.” (Abraham Lincoln, October 16, 1854, Peoria, IL). On the day when Congress was supposed to count our electoral votes for a new president (January 6, 2021), Trump showed how much he loves only power and hates the consent of the governed by sending a mob to attack the Capitol. He almost got his own vice president hung, saying “Maybe he deserves it” for accepting that Trump and Pence lost and for counting the votes of the winners – Biden and Harris.

I still believe in getting consent from all people to decide how the world will be governed, just like many Republicans used to believe. Instead of a dictator, we need new democratic rules for a United Earth.

Return to Defending National and Creating World Democracy

References

Official 2024 Presidential General Election Results

Official 2020 Presidential General Election Results

https://www.fec.gov/documents/1889/federalelections2016.pdf#page=10

1984 United States presidential election - Wikipedia

1980 United States presidential election - Wikipedia

The GOP's Evolution On Immigration : NPR

Mariel boatlift - Wikipedia

Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 - Wikipedia

Election fraud: Donald Trump falsely claims ‘millions’ of illegal votes cost him popular vote | CNN Politics

Transcript: Kim Jong Un’s letters to President Trump | CNN Politics