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You know, every now and then I am reminded of something Ronald Reagan said many years ago. He told the country, with a smile and a touch of sadness, that he did not leave the Democratic Party — the Democratic Party left him. And he meant it. He meant that the party he grew up with, the party of working families, common sense, and love of country, wandered so far from its roots that a fellow could scarcely recognize it anymore. They traded in the dignity of hard work for the noise of big bureaucracy, and they forgot the people they were supposed to serve.

What he never imagined back then was that someday we would see the Republican Party face its own crossroads. And yet here we are. For too long, the party drifted into the hands of the polite consultants, the speechwriters who never left Washington, and the so-called “respectable” crowd who talked a good game about principles but never seemed to fight for them. That is what folks today call the RINO wing — Republicans in Name Only. Nice people, fine dinner companions, but not the sort you want in the foxhole.

Then along came Donald Trump.

And suddenly the old backbone of the party snapped back into place. The spirit of Lincoln — the courage to preserve the nation — and the spirit of the Reagan years — optimism, strength, conviction — came roaring back. Trump reminded the party that it belongs to the people, not the elite. He pulled it out of the country-club cocktail circuit and planted it firmly back on Main Street.

And so, for anyone feeling discouraged, let me tell you: history has a funny way of circling back to its better moments. The Republican Party is returning to its roots — strong, confident, unapologetically American — and that is something worth standing tall for.

Greg Ratliff, President
The Stone Creek Republican Club