By Cary Hobbs | The Public Forum

Greg Hughes is incensed that people from other parties are registering as Republicans to vote.

He is learning how many of us felt a number of years ago when Libertarians, white supremacists, Nazis and other far-right extremists started registering as Republicans. They have been successful enough to wrest control of the party from the Lincoln/Eisenhower type Republicans like me to turn it into the far-right corporate/big money machine.

Maybe this will be the year when we retake the Republican Party and return it to the limited but compassionate government where people matter more than corporations and quality of life for all our citizens instead of the constant building of wealth for the already wealthy will be the direction of the party.

Words (labels) matter. People are reluctant to recognize when the meaning of a word has changed. “Republican” may come to mean what it once did when I joined 60 years ago. I’m coming back for a good effort to make that happen. I hope my fellow travelers will join me.

Register Republican and vote. It’s the only way you’ll make a difference because too many Utahns are attached to the word “Republican," in spite of the fact that R’s no longer represent their wishes, ideas and best interests.

Cary Hobbs, Midway

https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/letters/2020/06/09/letter-bring-republican/