It’s too late to save the Republican Party
Today’s Republican Party is what you get when you decide to allow the most extreme fringe elements into the tent, and then give them unencumbered access to the microphone. To all those who think the Republican Party has lost its collective mind only after Trump ascended to the throne, think again. This subversion of a once decent (relatively and for the time), patriotic party has been decades in the making. Whether you agree with past Republican policies or not (I’m mostly in the “Not” category) I would say that prior to 2000 the Party was made up of mainly patriotic people who believed in America, what the country stands for, and at the end of the day when push came to shove would put country over party. Somewhere along the way, in the midst of George W. Bush’s presidency, the most vile, backward, bigoted people consummated their relationship with the Religious Right (who I firmly blame for bringing these kooks into the fold) and ate the party from the inside out like some totalitarian chestburster.
This was a long time coming, and anyone who failed to see that where the Republican Party stands today was foreseeable at least as far back as the Reagan era is completely, utterly blind. That, or they live in willful ignorance of the bigotry and hate of the Religious Right, as well as the White Supremacist views the Religious Right not only supports, but promotes. Oh, how the Republican Party seems to so sorely miss the antebellum South.
For as terrible a human being Donald J. Trump is, and for as horrendous as the people are that he surrounds himself with, we have to remember that if it weren’t for Republican policies at the State level he’d never have been possible at the Federal level. (And, whether or not it was the National that originally influenced the State is beyond the scope of this post, though it certainly seems to be a positive feedback loop at this point.) The “Why” of how Trump and his autocratic, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, fascist sycophants came to be so dominant in American culture and politics is easy. The national Republican Party and its faithful members, elected and not, have been amplifying the disastrous State level policies and rhetoric to the nation as a whole for decades. Maybe if the Republicans in Washington had more backbone, or truly believed in a multicultural America, Trump never would have risen as high as he did. The voter fraud allegations, the fear of immigrants (except for those from white and wealthy nations), the sexism and racism, the pining for an era lost that never truly was, the calls and machinations to turn American secular society into an Evangelical Christian theocracy. All this, and so much more, has been hammered home and shouted from the rooftops for decades, clearing the path for Trump, and others like him, to come along with his braggadocio and veneer of wealth and respectability to wow and woo the unwashed masses (well, this is America, so overly washed would be more accurate) and lift him up as a modern savior.
What we are witnessing today is a social order in decline. A paradigm that has been slowly eroding since the Civil Rights Movement. A worldview and order that can not survive a multicultural world as long as it holds its base principles dear. The current Republican Party exists not because of Trump, but because for decades the politicians and talking heads on the right have felt the winds shift, the earth move, and the conscience of the majority awaken to the stifling, backward policies of America past that has blunted our progress and kept the nation from fulfilling the promises and ideals embedded in our very founding. And, they are scared. They are scared to lose their positions of power and influence, ones not attained because of their achievements, but merely through their inherent whiteness, maleness, and declared Christianity. And, so, the Republicans of the last few decades have fallen victim to the same malady that has plagued so many other dying and rejected ideologies: authoritarian bullying wrapped in cheating, lying, demagoguery, fascism, and for us in the West, White Supremacy.
Fortunately for the rest of us living in the real world, each and every one of these far right pushes has failed. Unfortunately for the rest of us, it’s been bloody, vicious, and traumatizing. But, you can tell how cornered and beaten an animal is by how viciously they lash out, and from what I’ve seen recently the actions of the Republican Party are ones of an animal that knows it’s not long for this world. We must ensure that they are defeated, and remain defeated.
The Republican Party that flies the Stars and Stripes at the same level as the Trump and Confederate flags is not the Republican Party of Lincoln or Eisenhower. It is the Republican Party of Pierce and Buchanan. Make no mistake, the Republican Party of today is a White Supremacist political party that can not survive long under the modern American demographic and liberal moving culture. It is a political force and ideology in decline and its adherents are all too aware of their impending obsolescence (one of their own making, mind you). It has entwined itself with unacceptable paradigms from which it has become impossible to unwind. No, there is no saving the Republican Party. Time for the conservative Never Trumpers to move on and leave the ghoul behind.
