I just consider myself a Republican, none of this hyphenated stuff. I was a mainstream conservative Republican, and most people are in that category. ---Robert Dole
Robert Dole, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader and a vice-presidential and presidential candidate, died this past Sunday at the age of 98 from lung cancer, having survived prostate cancer from thirty years earlier after undergoing surgery to remove it from his body. Earlier on I was a skeptic about the Kansas senator, thinking he was a bit snide and derisive as President Gerald Ford's running mate during his 1976 campaign against Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. But over the ensuing years I came to greatly respect this man, who was gravely injured during World War II for his bravery in combat in Italy. By 1996, while Dole was leading the Senate during Bill Clinton's first term as president, his stature had risen to the point where he decided to run against the incumbent...and I supported him, very happy to vote for this decent and principled man. Dole, sadly, lost...I wonder how American history would have unfolded had he won: no Bush vs. Gore, and the series of dynamics leading to 9/11 would most probably have drastically changed as well...but I acknowledge my hindsight reasoning here. Bob Dole was an advocate for reaching across the aisle and making deals with the Democrats when he believed the country's better interests...and he was a patriot in the highest sense of the word...could be served this way. And while at times he would take a stand and risk political gridlock, he didn't base his decisions primarily on how his party would gain or lose as the current Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly and cynically demonstrated. It's a shame that Dole's legacy hasn't survived the Trump onslaught of recent years...to be a Republican as he described himself is no longer mainstream today, as his cherished party has devolved into one lamentably supporting fascism and a personality cult...
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