It began with the seating of politicians during the French Revolution. During the drafting of a constitution the deputies deeply divided over how much authority King Louis XVI should have. There were two main factions–the anti-royalists siting on the left of the presiding officer, while the more conservative, aristocratic supporters of the monarchy on the right. Today, Republicans often refer to liberals with the inflammatory term–radical leftists. So, if you believe in our Declaration of Independence, Constitution and all the amendments you would historically have sat on the left. So in actuality being labeled a liberal is a good thing.

Now lets consider radical and reactionary. Get a sheet of paler and draw a horizontal line from left to right (remember left is liberal and right is conservative). Now a vertical line in the center of your line top to bottom. On the extreme left of your line write radical. And on the extreme right side write reactionary. Under radical write quick changes by any means necessary including violence, And under reactionary write the same thing. The difference is that radicals want “forward” changes and reactionaries want changes to go back to the way they were. Getting rid of Roe vs Wade and Jim Crow Laws and making it more difficult for minorities to vote are examples of this. To the right of radicals write communism , and to the right of communism write socialism. On the right side of your paper write Fascism (Hitler and Mussolini). Also on this line write authoritarian leaders who have overthrown a democracy by coup or by gradually taking over the government from within. Venezuela and Hungary are modern-day examples of this. More to the center on the left are liberals who want to see changes to occur quickly but legally and to the right of center are those who until recently were conservatives who want to see progress to occur more slowly. Dwight Eisenhower Mitt Romney, John McCain, and my favorite Senator Alan Simpson are examples of this. Most of us see ourselves toward the center; more left on some issues and then more to the right on other issues. The problem of today is that the Republican party is overthrown by reactionaries who hold allegiance to Donald Trump and not the Constitution. Adam Kinzinger, a moderate former Republican member in the House and a combat veteran says the Republican Party does not believe in democracy. Donald Trump has said what he intends to do if he is elected. He is not joking and if he becomes president our democracy is in jeopardy and may not recover. Soon we will take a look at similarities’ of Trump and Hitler.

FYI: Google Alan Simpson’s quotes and especially Top 23 Quotes. He was a “real” Republican.