May 18, 2022 1 min read

I almost choked from laughter when I read the Rev. Joseph Lewandowski’s May 15 letter, “What happened to the GOP?

Until age 30 I was a registered Democrat, voted straight party and volunteered in Jimmy Carter’s first campaign. But after observing how the Democratic Party had changed, I stopped drinking the Kool-Aid. For a time I continued to vote for principled Democrats until their party became anti-American and anti-life.

What happened to the Democratic Party of my blue-collar father? What happened to the Democratic Party of John F. Kennedy? What happened to the Democratic Party that was for law and order, for the sanctity of life, for sexual morality and other conservative values? Who shrunk the Democratic Party that now excludes politicians who truly vote pro-life?

I don’t care for GOP candidates who leave one state to run for office in another. But let’s not throw stones. Isn’t that how Hillary Clinton became a senator from New York?

I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me.

Richard Kauffman

Canonsburg