It is clear that the Republican Party of today is not the same party it was when it was under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln.

As a party that prides itself on its involvement in the abolitionist movement as well as the women’s suffrage movement, the Republicans have since lost the values upon which they were founded and claim to stand.

The Republicans displayed bigotry disguised as religious principles, racial baiting under the tone of welfare and male superiority by hindering women’s rights during the Republican National Convention last week.

First, there was a call for a smaller government–but somehow the smaller government that the Republicans call for can come into your home and regulate your life on every major social issue. Hypocritical? Indeed.

Second, the party hammered away at the current welfare system, while ignoring the fact that welfare is the main way that we help the poor in this country.

Last, the party was clearly bent on the idea of women not being able to have an abortion under any circumstance.

The party should have taken a cue from former GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain and focused on the message of jobs, jobs, jobs. Instead, we got lies, lies, lies, and a party that further separated itself from minority groups– which leads to a bigger problem than just the convention.

The Republican Party is to blame for its own disconnect with many groups of this country and I’ll explain why.

Conservatives have alienated the votes of minorities by suppressing certain groups’ rights and making others out to be a target while embracing the saying “All of Us Are Equal” –as they headline on rnc.org.

Now we all know that the Republican Party has not been a champion in the movement of presenting the case of us all being equal.

It is also the Republican Party who voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have ensured that women are paid the same amount as their male counterparts. Do you want to know how many Republican senators voted in favor of this act? Zero! You read that right. Zero!

The Republican Party also opposes abortion under all circumstances. That’s right. A group of men sitting around telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies. Ridiculous? I know.

These things may throw you off a little bit if you’re familiar with rnc.org, which displays the party’s platform and states that, “Republicans believe individuals, not government, can make the best decisions; all people are entitled to equal rights, and decisions are best made close to home.”

I guess that values only apply when the Republicans feel like enacting them.

It almost seems as if the Republicans are trying to stick to the stereotype as being the old white man’s party, which is why President Obama led Mitt Romney in African American votes (94 percent to 0 percent), Latino votes (by a 2-to-1 margin), voters under 35-years-old (52 percent to 41 percent) and women (51 percent to 41 percent) according to a NBC/WSJ poll.

The Republican Party is not just a party of social beliefs, but it’s a party with infamous one-line statements found offensive by many– not to mention a party with leaders who refer to the current president as “the food stamp president” as Newt Gingrich often does, or jokes about President Obama’s birth certificate as Mitt Romney recently did.  Ha Ha– I missed the joke.

Furthermore, it’s a party with a leader who doesn’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money as Santorum stated while running for president. Santorum insists that he said “blah people,” but there isn’t a person alive who can locate a single “blah person” on this earth. 

I’ll spare you the pain of reading any more idiotic statements that has plagued this party for some time now and end by saying that I believe the values of the Republican Party are not the values that they claim to possess.

 It’s a shame that the party’s most prominent leaders are the ones who are in direct contradiction to the values upon which the party was founded.