This submission comments on the guest column of April 20, 2023, by the Deschutes Republican Party Chair Scott Stuart. That column makes a number of assertions, most of which I find troubling and I will comment on their main points (which are in quotation marks below) in the following:

1. They are “concerned that the Republicans were not as well represented as liberals in their (the Bulletin) articles….” This is certainly in the eye of the beholder. The Bulletin has op-eds from both liberal and conservative perspectives. Some I agree with, some I don’t. That is life! Similarly for the Bulletin’s editorials. For example, I disagreed strongly with their recent conservative take on eliminating the estate tax. But I know that is their right and I could respond in writing if I wished.

2. “We feel our country is in a civil war of values. Our federal and state government elitists divide us into race, gender…etc. etc. The mainstream media then promotes that division.” Well, one person’s “elitists” is another’s public servant. (The use of that term is a common conservative insult, as if they have no “elitists”.) As to the mainstream media promoting division, I do wonder if Mr. Stuart has ever watched Fox News for a few minutes? And now, in the recent court proceedings, we have fully seen Fox’s hypocrisy regarding Trump’s “Big Lie” on the 2020 election.

3. The guest writer complains that “our leader…” (Trump) “is under attack, again.” Now, I would suggest that Mr. Trump has created endless opportunities to merit such attacks, but in truth, has Biden not been attacked constantly by various Fox hosts? Surely, Mr. Stuart knows the answer to that. In this section of his article he also stated that Trump “didn’t do anything wrong. Except love America and people like me.” In fact, Trump has a history of wrong-doing, culminating in demonstrably false claims of election fraud, and incitement that lead his followers to ‘perpetrate the January 6 attack on our democracy. While Trump himself expresses extreme arrogance, the claim by Mr. Stuart that others who may disagree with them “don’t love America the way it was originally founded” is similarly arrogant.

4. His GOP also believes that “our rights come from God, not man, as it so states in the Declaration of Independence.” Well, we have free speech so such a claim can be made. But I suggest you review the writings of Thomas Jefferson, and even his edited versions of the Bible. He certainly did believe in separation of church and state, which the guest columnist clearly does not appear to support. While a number of the leading founders (Franklin, Madison, Washington, for example) were possibly Deists, their writings do not support the idea that this is a Christian Nationalist country under “God’s Laws.” For one, read the Constitution, and especially the First Amendment. Also attacked is “secular humanism,” which allegedly “takes away those unalienable rights placing liberty and freedom at risk.” Really? On what basis? This does not fit any definition of the fundamentals of secular humanism that I have ever heard. Perhaps the case is that literalists just feel threatened by thinking rationalists.

5. Near the end of the article, the claim is made that “The Republican Party is the party of Lincoln.” I submit that Lincoln could not be elected by the MAGA Republicans controlling today’s GOP. And, as a matter of opinion, I would place my bet that Lincoln would be as appalled by Donald Trump’s behavior as I am. Lincoln was a man of good character. Trump is not.

Do you have a point you’d like to make or an issue you feel strongly about? Submit a letter to the editor or a guest column.