A recent article in the AJC got me started on this little summary. The first eight items on the list below were summarized from an AJC article by Delores (Dee) Nickel who seems to have defined a Republican fairly well¹. Based on my own conversations with Republicans, I found her description to be amusing, but pretty darn accurate. According to Dee the following 8 items describe what Republicans believe. I added the other items based on my own conversations and observations. 

1. President Clinton did not leave a balanced budget. He hid a big budgetary mess for President Bush to clean up. Our current budget problems are Clinton's fault. 
    
2. Ronald Reagan is second only to God. He grew a robust economy and destroyed Communism single-handedly.
    
3. The only solution to the oil problem is to drill every-where in this country where oil might exist. Americans have the right to rape and plunder the earth to support our way of life.
    
4. Supporting the poor or disabled with tax payer money is socialism. Their problems are caused by their failure to accept personal responsibility. If you are homeless because of a tornado or hurricane, it is your fault for being in the wrong place. Buy insurance and don't expect the government to intervene.
    
5. The fault lies with the individual for illness, disability and poverty. Again, it is the individual's responsibility to buy insurance, rather than expecting the government to bail them out.
    
6. Most, if not all, Republicans are Christians who do help the needy from time to time, but the government should not get involved.
    
7. Most Republicans support the Iraq war and believe that weapons of mass destruction were found, but hidden, and that Iraq was involved in 9/11.
    
8. Unions are the reason that jobs have been sent overseas. Corporations are not at fault.
    
9. God wanted George W. Bush to be President and he wants us all to be Republicans. The liberal Democrats are mostly undisciplined heathens with no underlying moral fiber. Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton are good examples.
    
10. Everyone should be allowed to buy as many guns as they like. People have to shoot things and it is their first amendment right to do so. The only problem with guns is that the current laws are not enforced by the liberals.
     
11. Women do not have a right to an abortion. It you were raped it is probably your own fault. God wants you to have the baby anyway and raise the child as a Christian Republican.
     
12. Gay people choose to be gay and engage in sinful sexual behavior because they have no morals or character. They could choose to act like heterosexuals if they wanted to be normal. It is simply a matter of choice. Good rather than evil.
     
13. Healthcare for everyone will mean that no one will be able to get decent healthcare. Universal healthcare is just pure socialism. If you are too poor to buy insurance it is your own fault for not working hard and accepting responsibility.
     
14. Infrastructure such as schools and highways are important, but should be privatized, e.g., private schools and toll roads. Privatization and competition will solve all of our problems. 
     
15. Illegal immigrants should be sent back to where they came from, unless they happen to work for my business, clean my house, or work own my new roof.
     
16. There is sufficient equity in this country. Anyone can be anything they want to be. The fact that many people never amount to much is their own fault for not taking advantage of what America has to offer. 

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¹ Nickel, D. 2008. A lonely Democrat in Cherokee County. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Tuesday, June 17): A11.