1. August 25, 2016 • THE VILLAGER | PAGE 5
OPINION
To learn more, please contact:
TOM YOUNG, MURRAY DELINE or DENNIS DRISCOLL
(303) 322-0800 | www.madisoninsurance.net
MADISON INSURANCE AGENCY LLC is proud to have
been awarded the Best Insurance Brokerage Firm
2015. Our goal is to create a long term
relationship with our clients as we strive to offer
the best service of any broker by putting our
customers’ needs first. We pride ourselves on
being a trusted advisor in the protection of
valuable assets of the most responsible,
successful individuals. Our partnership with PURE
is yet another benefit we are proud to offer our
clients.
*Average annual savings on homeowners insurance for members nationwide who reported prior to carrier premiums from Jan ‘11 through Jun‘15. Actual
savings, if any, may vary. | PURE® refers to Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange, a Florida-domiciled reciprocal insurer & member of PURE Group of
Insurance Companies. PURE Risk Management, LLC, a for profit entity, (PRM) serves as PURE’s Attorney-In-Fact for a fee. PURE membership requires
Subscriber’s Agreement. Coverage is subject to insurance policies issued & may not be available in all jurisdictions. Visit pureinsurance.com for details.
Trademarks are property of PRM & used with permission. ©2015 PURE. PURE HNW Insurance Services, CA Lic. 0I78980.
PURE is a member-owned insurer for responsible
families with homes insured for $1 million or more.
A low cost of capital, careful member selection
and proactive risk management allow PURE to
provide best-in-class, customizable coverage at
competitive rates. While some PURE members
report an annual savings of more than 25%*, it is
the exceptional service that is talked about most.
To learn more, please contact:
TOM YOUNG, MURRAY DELINE or DENNIS DRISCOLL
(303) 322-0800 | www.madisoninsurance.net
MADISON INSURANCE AGENCY LLC is proud to have
been awarded the Best Insurance Brokerage Firm
2015. Our goal is to create a long term
relationship with our clients as we strive to offer
the best service of any broker by putting our
customers’ needs first. We pride ourselves on
being a trusted advisor in the protection of
valuable assets of the most responsible,
successful individuals. Our partnership with PURE
is yet another benefit we are proud to offer our
clients.
*Average annual savings on homeowners insurance for members nationwide who reported prior to carrier premiums from Jan ‘11 through Jun‘15. Actual
savings, if any, may vary. | PURE® refers to Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange, a Florida-domiciled reciprocal insurer & member of PURE Group of
Insurance Companies. PURE Risk Management, LLC, a for profit entity, (PRM) serves as PURE’s Attorney-In-Fact for a fee. PURE membership requires
Subscriber’s Agreement. Coverage is subject to insurance policies issued & may not be available in all jurisdictions. Visit pureinsurance.com for details.
Trademarks are property of PRM & used with permission. ©2015 PURE. PURE HNW Insurance Services, CA Lic. 0I78980.
PURE is a member-owned insurer for responsible
families with homes insured for $1 million or more.
A low cost of capital, careful member selection
and proactive risk management allow PURE to
provide best-in-class, customizable coverage at
competitive rates. While some PURE members
report an annual savings of more than 25%*, it is
the exceptional service that is talked about most.
YOUR SUCCESS DESERVES UNMATCHED SERVICE
AND UNCOMPROMISED SATISFACTION.
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Emperor’s clothes a final blow to the Grand Ol’ Party
It’s been coming for a long time,
but this year’s election may actually
be the nail in the coffin of the party
that Lincoln built.
Let’s face it, the decline of the Re-
publican Party has been happening for
several years.Actions by Ronald Rea-
gan led us to the fiasco election cycle
of today. He repealed the equal-time
law, leaving the talking heads able
to go on ad nauseam about how the
current Republican nominee, Donald
Trump, has shot himself in the foot
time and time again. So much rhetoric
that better, more qualified candidates
could not get airtime for their cam-
paigns.
A little history: Sen. John McCain
picked Sarah Palin as his running
mate in 2008. I was set to vote for Mc-
Cain, until he did that. (Of course, that
decision made a star out of Tina Fey,
so it wasn’t all bad).
Next came Mitt Romney as the
Republican nominee and the man
responsible for signing into law the
Massachusetts health-coverage plan.
That plan is what the Affordable Care
Act was based on. The creator of
“Romneycare” wanted to repeal its
national big brother. That, my friends,
was hypocritical.
Remember, the Republican Con-
gress has tried to repeal “Obamacare,”
at a cost to taxpayers of $87 million,
more than 60 times. (And the defini-
tion of insanity is what?)
Then along came the self-appoint-
ed emperor—yes, Donald Trump, the
man who is unable to control his own
mouth.And the GOPhas selected him
to be its national leader.
This guy has disenfranchised so
many people in the GOP that per-
haps it is time for a revolt. No, not
another American Revolution, but
a revolution among political par-
ties. Major long-time Republicans
are now bailing ship because of the
emperor. People like George Will,
David Brooks, William Ruckelshaus,
the first administrator of the EPA un-
der President Nixon, Danny Jones,
the four-term mayor of Charleston,
W.Va., and even former Arapahoe
County Commissioner John Brack-
ney has publicly left the Republican
Party over Trump.
The list of Republicans that have
announced they won’t vote for the
emperor would take up half the news-
paper, but they include all but one
Bush family member; Colin Powell;
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine; Mark
Salter, former aide and speechwriter
for Sen. John McCain; former George
W. Bush administration staffers David
Ross Meyers (White House staffer
and communications adviser for the
Senate Republican leadership), Eliot
Cohen counselor of the Department
of State), Richard Armitage (deputy
secretary of state); Meg Whitman,
Republican fundraiser; Harry Sloan,
Republican financier for McCain,
Romney, and Kasich; the aforemen-
tioned Romney; Sen. Lindsey Gra-
ham; former Gov. Christine Todd
Whitman (R-N.J.); Bill Kristol, edi-
tor of The Weekly Standard, talk host
Glenn Beck and the Koch brothers, to
name a few.
Now to be fair, there are three or-
ganizations that have endorsed the
emperor—the American Nazi Party,
the Ku Klux Klan and the National
RifleAssociation.
The numbers for Arapahoe Coun-
ty bear out the Republican abandon-
ment. When Jan Wondra did a story
for The Villager in July on the contin-
ued purpling of the county, Democrats
had 33.8 percent of the county’s regis-
trants, Republicans 29.5 percent, and
unaffiliated 36.7 percent of 397,647
voters.Amonth later, after the emper-
orreceivedthenomination,therewere
401,696 registered voters inArapahoe
County. The Democrats had the same
percentage, while the Republicans
dropped to 29.3 percent. Unaffiliated
voters had increased to 36.8 percent.
It’s more drastic when one looks
at the national numbers. According to
a recent Denver Post article, after the
political conventions four years ago,
of the registered voters, 36.5 percent
were Republicans, and Democrats
only had 31.6 percent. This month
that ratio is sitting at 32.3 for the GOP
and 31.9 for the Democrats. That’s
little more than a 5 percent drop in the
GOP in those four years.
On a national level—between
1986 and 2010, the increase in inde-
pendent voters has exploded from 18
percent to 31 percent. According to
Pew Research Center, while Repub-
licans have dropped 30 to 24 percent
(6 percent change) and Democrats
dropped 35 to 32 percent (3 percent
change).
I have believed for a very long
time the two-party system is out
of date. Now is the perfect time for
moderate leaders in the Republican
Party and some in the Democratic
Party to come together and form
a third common-sense party. Let’s
even call it the Fuselage Party (since
it is better to be inside the plane than
on the wings).
This would leave all those hanging
on by their fingertips on both wings
floundering for a parachute because
of the mass exodus of so many peo-
ple that hold their nose and vote for
whoever has a particular letter be-
hind their name, simply because that
is what they have always done—not
because they believe in what the can-
didate says or the policies they have
put forth.
The platform for the Fuselage
Party would be very simple—tough
on crime, strong military, fiscally con-
servative, but liberal on social issues.
This party would actually care about
reducing the national debt, instead of
economic proposals and tax cuts that
only increase the debt. According to
the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan
think tank, the emperor’s current plan
would add $11 trillion to the national
debt in the next decade.
After all, the millennial genera-
tion’s attitude toward social issues is
more enlightened then most of the
standard bearers in the GOP. They see
nothing wrong with changes in the
family structure, whether it be gay,
straight, black, white or purple. They
also wonder why there hasn’t been a
woman in the Oval Office already.
Then there is the hijacking of the
party by the religious right and the
gun lobbyists. There isn’t a politi-
cian in the GOP that doesn’t pander
to these special interests—just to get
campaign funding.
Society has passed right-wing
conservatives at breakneck speed
and there is no catching up. The 21st
century is no longer the 1950s where
the Cleaver family sat down each
night at the dinner table for meat and
potatoes.
The GOP is left with a person
running for the highest office in the
United States—yes, I will say it, be-
cause no one else will—the emperor
has no clothes. He is a fake. He is a
fraud. And he is a flimflam. There
is no denying that he would get this
county into more trouble than we are
already in if he were elected.
What an epitaph for the GOP—
and Reagan fired the first shot.
Let common sense rule in the Fu-
selage Party!
editorial@villagerpublishing.com
PERSPECTIVA
OBSCURA
BYBECKYOSTERWALD