Collateral damage? Seriously?

I was a proud Republican for many years; dating myself, I voted for Goldwater, decades ago. But that was the old GOP, well before the realignment when the radicals took control of the party and left me and millions of others, far behind.

Fiscal responsibility, strong defense with our world allies, conservative values of doing better with less, a viable budget formulated on lowering the national debt? No longer relevant to the spendthrifts. National debt? So what; print more money, borrow from China and spend, spend, spend.

Collateral damage? Where were your “victims” when governments stopped listening to the voices, the needs of the people? When did they stand up to the powers who bankrupted our suffering nation. The answer is never. Not a sliver of opposition to the excesses, or the misgoverning.

With all the corruption, the broken campaign promises, the obscene taxation breaks for the ultrarich, the needless war; where were your victims of “collateral damage,” the absent voices for we, the people? Nonexistent. Sadly so. Jim Slusher, do you wish you could somehow retrieve your opinion piece? Try a new slant on the reason for the titanic wave which struck the spineless GOP!?

I am a widower, on Social Security with a meager pension, barely making ends meet. Everything is more expensive with no relief on the horizon — your “collateral victims” have not shown the slightest interest or even concern of our plight.

But the Democrats have; they voiced a possibility of a brighter future; the people listened and voted accordingly. The stilted GOP got what they deserved, and it should have been no surprise to any of the officeholders who forgot the reason they were voted in while they neglected to stand up and oppose the insanity of where our suffering nation finds itself.

Robert J Jennings

Lake Barrington