A former Republican voter is slamming the GOP, claiming “the party left me” and asserting they have “left behind the values” which once defined the party.
Paolina Milana wrote in a new column in The Guardian that she was a "proud Republican" for most of her life.
“I voted for Ronald Reagan and admired his belief that ‘character counts,’” she said, adding: “I believed in personal responsibility, faith, and country – and the Republican party seemed to reflect those values.”
She also found “deep comfort” when the parties showed respect to each other because it showed a “shared belief in democracy. In service. In ‘we the people.’”
But Milana believes “That spirit is gone now” — as is her “allegiance to the Republican party.”
She claims it ended “when a conman made it into office – and worse, when the party I once revered stood by and let it happen.”
“Where is the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln?” the author rhetorically asked. “The one that once held the union together and stood for truth, duty, and honor?”
Milana said she is the daughter of immigrants who fled Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime, noting the dictator once "rose to power by promising to ‘make Italy great again,’ silencing dissent, spreading propaganda, and weaponizing fear.”
“My family knew firsthand how democracies fall – not in an instant, but in small, complicit steps," she wrote. "What I’m witnessing in the US today is hauntingly familiar.”
Milana called out one more “betrayal” from the GOP — its "blasphemous misuse of faith." She said the party is using Jesus' name to justify "greed, vengeance, and lies."
"That’s not Christianity. That’s not moral. And that’s not the America I believe in," she said.
“I’ve waited for more Republicans to speak out,” the first-generation American said, “To break ranks. To remember who they once were. But the silence has been deafening.”
Despite the actions (or lack thereof) of Republicans, Milana still believes “America can be saved. But not if we keep pretending this is normal.”
