Jamie, everything you say is spot on. Now go back to every time you have written about politics in the last few years and reframe it in the context of a queer man a generation older than you. I was raised an Eisenhower Republican. For all of the reasons you have been stating, that was murdered in the summer of 1980 when the Republican party stopped being the Republican party. They nominated a traitor and thief to be president for the next two terms. During the last 44 years the Democratic party evolved into what the GOP had been as it became ever more conservative. The GOP ceased to exist in favor of a bunch of thieves and charlatans. Trump is Reagan splashed on the walls. My favorite president in my lifetime prior to 2020 was Dick Nixon who was so hungry to be elected that he kicked open the doors to China and Russia while expanding Medicare, Medicaid and other programs which greatly benefitted the average American. Then came Joe Biden, all-American hero. Tricky Dick must be rolling in his grave knowing Biden did far more than he could have done. True conservatism is conserving and preserving the best in American government, law and democracy. Welcome to the days when voting opposite from my youth is the only way to hold on to it.

I tip my cowboy hat to you, young man.