The world is changing. The GOP isn't

The following is one of my many opinions: it explains why the Republican Party is unfit to lead America.

Traditionally, the Republican Party has been the party of those with a conservative worldview. Theirs is a dark view of human nature: They believe people are inherently immoral and lacking self-control; accordingly, society must rely on experience, institutional authority, traditions and rules to maintain social order.

The Democratic Party’s platform is consistent with a liberal worldview, which is based on a positive view of humanity, the belief that if people are given freedom to develop themselves, they will thrive and so will society. A good life is one chosen freely by the individual.

The Republican Party’s Leaders claim they have the higher moral ground. But claiming it and actually having it are two separate things. You know what people whose actions don’t support their claims are called: hypocrites. One of the strategies the leaders developed was to falsely accuse others of failings to divert attention away from themselves. Briefly, that’s bearing false witness: No. 9 in the Ten Commandments.

Also deriving from a belief that there is a higher authority, for example, the Old Testament, that prescribes moral behavior, people who fail to act accordingly should be harshly punished. I see thinly disguised Puritanism there. It didn’t work back then, and it doesn’t today. The liberal worldview’s positive reinforcement works better every time.

The Republican Party Leaders claim they support business, but their denial of science renders that claim patently false. Additionally, their anti-science stance has already hampered America’s efforts to combat and mitigate the effects of global warming. Their total ineptitude is unacceptable as we go forward. America’s embrace of science and the technology that supports it is largely responsible for making America the economic power house that it is in the world economy. No other country comes close. I want to see America continue to go forward, not backward.

John H. Terrell

Fallbrook resident