The GOP party standard “Vote Democrat and the Communists will be at the Gates!” is getting screamed wildly by friends on social media and it’s a bill of goods. I may not change anyone’s firmly entrenched minds, but here are a few observations from a “Republican-in-exile.” 1/

Surprise! There isn’t a Democrat plan to destroy our Republic and replace it with Socialism/Communism any more now than when the GOP said it back in 1938 when they formed the “House Un-American Activities Cmte”. It was never true, just rhetoric to stoke fear & win votes. 2/

The spread of Soviet Communism, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War, the Arms Race; the rise of Communist China; rising tensions with Russian military and their interference in our nation’s elections - these external threats have always deserved our attention and concern. 3/

But the notion that Democrat politicians have the intent (or power) to pose any serious threat to the founding economic engines of America from within is histrionic nonsense that’s been repeated for longer than my mother’s been alive and she was born before Hitler fed worms. 4/

Every 4 years we get a more dire version of this “Red Scare.” It wins votes and disappears post-election. As a Republican, I once imagined living on an atheist collective farm under Carter or Clinton, yet here I sit typing on my very capitalist iPhone. 5/

Reagan asked Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” That external threat was dealt a deadly blow because, right or wrong, his leadership stood for something. Now, his party has sold itself to a con man who built many walls - division, fear, hate - just not the one he ran on. 6/

I’m still a conservative who believes in free markets, limited government, individual liberty and opportunity for all, but I have no fear that by voting for Joe Biden I will suddenly awaken on Nov. 4 to a socialist overthrow of everything I know to be true. 7/

What I fear isn’t the tired, fear-mongering talking points of a dying party, but rather the real risk to the foundations of liberty from blindly following a President proven to be untethered to principle and immune to responsibility or regret. 8/8