Not-so-grand GOP

To the editor:

On May 20, 1998, my uncle, Kenneth “Bud” Bruce, died.

Every newspaper in Kansas carried his obituary because he had been owner and publisher of the Hillsboro Star Journal for 34 years, had been president of the Kansas Press Association, and had won the association’s Boyd Award for Community Service.

He was Kansas born and bred. After graduating from Marquette High School in 1932, and then from Bethany College in Lindsborg, he taught social studies and coached at Agenda, LeRoy, and Lawrence high schools.

In World War II, he was executive officer of a landing ship tank in the Pacific theater. His service earned him a personal commendation from Admiral Chester Nimitz.

Uncle Bud was a consummate Republican. He was Marion County Republican chairman, Fourth District Republican chairman, and a delegate to the 1968 Republican National Convention.

My father, an attorney, had been a delegate to a National Democratic Convention, and he was as passionate a Democrat as his brother-in-law, Uncle Bud, was a Republican.

I grew up fortunate enough to hear the two men discuss politics at holidays and family vacations that brought the Kansas Bruces and the New Mexico Gores together.

Listening to these discussions helped me understand that true Republicans love this country as much as we Democrats do.

Neither man ever doubted his brother-in-law’s love for this country.

Neither man name-called the other or any member of the other’s political party.

They discussed policy issues. While they disagreed on many issues, both were gentlemen who never questioned the other man’s loyalty to this country.

Donald Trump would have been an anathema to my Republican uncle.

Uncle Bud would not recognize what used to be called the party of Lincoln.

He would be called a RINO by MAGA because he was a gentleman who cleaved to traditional conservative principles.

He would be horrified to have a candidate who resorted to name-calling like a third-grade boy who needed his daddy to tan his hide.

He would be unable to believe that Republicans would select a candidate for president who would call veterans who were disabled or sacrificed their lives for their country “suckers” and “losers,” or who mocked men who had been disabled by torture when they were POWs.

He would have been stunned that Republicans would support a man who put his own hunger for power over policies that would benefit citizens of the United States.

Most of all, he would grieve that any citizen of Kansas, the state he loved so dearly, would cast his precious vote for such a man.

Were they alive today, I have no doubt that Kenneth “Bud” Bruce would tell my father, “I do not support all of your Democratic platform, but I cannot vote for a man who is a cheat, a liar, and interested only in personal power. Character counts. This year, I will have to cross the aisle and vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”

Millie Gore Lancaster
Hot Springs Village, Arkansas