This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I only wish that the Republican Party were still the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, as Aimee Winder Newton proclaims ("I May Not Love Trump ... " July 17). Unfortunately, it is not!
Lincoln's legacy is one of recognizing that all men (and women) are created equally. He recognized that sometimes the good of the nation supersedes the rights of the states. Our present Republican Party is a party of divisiveness. Latin Americans are derided and people ostracized for their sexual orientation.
Theodore Roosevelt's legacy is his love of the land. Roosevelt created five national parks, 18 national monuments and placed under federal protection 100 million acres of forest lands. This is a far cry from the disastrous lands policy of our current Republican Party, particularly here in Utah.
Ronald Reagan is remembered as a tax cutter. However, it must be emphasized that, to combat the rising debt, taxes of one form or another were raised 11 times during his presidency. Furthermore, the 1986 Tax Reform bill was a bipartisan effort. (Yes, Republicans once did negotiate in good faith.) Once again, our present Republican Party does not measure up to this Republican icon.
R. Paul Steiner
Salt Lake City