Again, please notice that my story, "When Republicans were Smart and Sexy", is set in 1972 and draws substantially from personal experience. I was an active Republican at the time. I was married in the House Republican Caucus Room, was DC state party & Nixon campaign research director, was on the 1972 Young Republican Platform Recommendations Committee, in policy organizations such as Ripon and YAF, and went through RNC Campaign Management School. For me, it was tragic that the party moved away from my Eisenhower Moderate identification.
No, I'm not a Trump supporter, nor would I feel welcome in either of the two major parties. I find it laughable when people call me a "leftist". In the story, however, there won't be one word of direct criticism of the current President or Party. Yet I've been getting vitriolic messages about "hating Trump". Go after me for things I say and do, not that you infer.
Teddy Roosevelt, a great Republican president, said "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
Carl Schurz, an immigrant from what is now Germany, became a Senator, Secretary of the Interior, a Civil War general, Ambassador to Sweden, and one of the founders of the Republican Party, said, "I confidently trust that the American people will prove themselves … too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of mock patriotism: "Our country, right or wrong!" They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: "Our country - when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right."
Sadly, it doesn't seem reasonable to enable voting for this story, given the amount of apparent trolling. I do encourage comments and courteous messaging.