I received an email from Indiana GOP chair Kyle Hupfer who asserts: “Joe Biden, in an attempt to place blame for his floundering far-Left agenda, has been asking the rhetorical question: ‘What are Republicans for?’ Of course, [Pres Biden] doesn't really want to know” 1/7

In 2020, GOP stuck w/2016 platform & its lead candidate added “core priorities.” Hupfer lists 7 items. Item One: “American exceptionalism”: our nation’s ideas & principles give us unique moral leadership & requires U.S.“retake its natural position as leader of the free world.” 2/7

Stephen Walt, prof of internat’l relations, Harvard, in Foreign Policy, 1011/11: though U.S. has unique qualities (high religiosity, pol culture that privileges indiv freedom), our foreign policy has been determined by pwr & competitive nature of intern’l politics. 3/7

By focusing on supposedly exceptional qualities, Americans blind ourselves to how we’re like everyone else/harder for us to see why others are less enthusiastic/often alarmed by U.S. policies & frequently irritated by perceived U.S. hypocrisy. 4/7

Prof Walt states: “Ironically, U.S. foreign policy would probably be more effective if Americans were less convinced of their own unique virtues and less eager to proclaim them.” A future GOP luminary stated in April, 2015: “I don’t like the term”... 5/7

“I’ll be honest with you. People say, 'Oh he’s not patriotic.' Look, if I’m a Russian, or I’m a German, or I’m a person we do business with, why, you know, I don’t think it’s a very nice term. ‘We’re exceptional; you’re not.’” Stated by occupant of Oval Office 1/20/17-1/20/21. 6/7

We cannot abandon half of our country’s two-party system to the forces of bigotry & ignorance that have taken the Republican Party. I’m Mark Small. I’m pro-choice, pro environment & GOP candidate for Indiana House District 86. I approve of this blog. Hell, I wrote it. 7/7