Radically Healthy

Nowadays, when one hears the word ‘radical’ thrown about, one is less likely to imagine Ronald Reagan and the Moral Majority than a stalwart Marxist professor in the sociology department. When ‘Republican’ is mentioned, one is more likely to imagine either a fat white Christian male flanked by his equally horizontally-challenged chums in a country club or an, again, marginally plump, poor fellow who says ‘y’all,’ talks about Jesus and gays, and is named ‘Bubba.’ Thus, one can deduce that the words ‘radical’ and ‘Republican’ are not necessarily harmonious in the minds of many. Given how the Republican Party is perceived through the eye of the media and history books, this is not surprising. It would come as a shock to the curious student of American politics, then, that the GOP was founded on the radical principle of freedom and that the party still retains that radicalism today.