Taking the GOP Back From the Radical Right (Guest Voice)
Taking the GOP Back From the Radical Right
by Michael Stafford
With the debt ceiling crisis resolved, it is appropriate to pause and reflect on how America was brought to the precipice of a potential catastrophe. The answer can be found in two lines from William Butler Yeats’ famous poem “The Second Coming.” In the poem, Yeats’ wrote: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” Today, Yeats’ words are an apt description of the state of America’s poisonous public discourse.
Although radicalization and incivility are prevalent across the political spectrum, at this moment their most dangerous manifestations are on the right. In the debt ceiling crisis, the ideological rigidity, and aversion to compromise, of the radical right risked bringing ruin upon us all. This can never be permitted to happen again. As such, confronting them, and wresting the Republican Party from their grip, is a matter of the highest priority for the nation.
Republicans are traditionally loath to criticize one another. After all, we have the famous example of Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment- “thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” And yet, Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment is deployed in peculiar ways these days. It is forgotten or ignored when Tea Party zealots are on the warpath purging so-called moderates or centrists from the GOP. It is nowhere to be found when cries of “RINO” fill the talk radio airwaves at the first sign of independent, rational thinking by a Republican pundit or elected official. Today, the Eleventh Commandment is used to silence us, but never them.
As the Republican Party has moved to the right, many of us have either kept quiet, disengaged, or drifted away. Responsible voices within it are either intimidated into silence or driven out by the confrontational, school-yard bully tactics of madmen with microphones and their angry audiences. If our right-wing demagogues convey one thing to their listeners, it is a passionate sense of certainty in a simplistic vision of the world stripped clean of all complexity and devoid of subtlety and nuance. As a result, what passes for conservative thought has degenerated into a series of mere bumper sticker slogans designed to generate an emotional response. They do not form an adequate basis for governing or solving the problems facing America today.
However, those who have left the Republican Party as it has moved to the right have committed a grave error- one that has merely accelerated the process of political radicalization in this country. By fleeing or staying silent rather then fighting, they’ve allowed the GOP to be co-opted by radicals. And that’s ironic, because it’s the radical right that’s propounding a vision at odds with traditional conservatism. As David Jenkins of Republicans for Environmental Protection observed in an interview with Andrew Revkin of The New York Times, the GOP has fallen into the hands of “pretend conservatives.” These individuals “are the radical libertarians that dominate the right-wing talk radio and outlets like Fox News… The policies being peddled by these folks reflect a live for today-let me do what I want mentality” that is alien to authentic conservative thought.
In remarks earlier this year to the United Nations, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Razak spoke of an urgent need to form a “global movement of moderates” aimed at countering rising religious extremism across the world. In particular, Razak pointedly observed that “we have inadvertently allowed the ugly voices of the periphery to drown out the many voices of reason and common sense…” This insight aptly describes what has taken place within the Republican Party in America.
It’s time for Republicans of good will to speak openly and critically about the dangers posed by the radical right. We have reached a point where our continued silence is tantamount to complicity; our continued restraint, the political equivalent of a license to further radicalization. Today, we have an opportunity to show the nation that the best within the GOP still have the courage of our convictions by confronting the “pretend conservatives” and the “ugly voices of the periphery” in our midst.
Together, we can walk the GOP back from the cliff’s edge and reclaim the rich legacy and heritage both of the Republican Party and of traditional conservatism.
© Copyright 2011 Michael Stafford, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Michael Stafford is a former Republican Party officer and the author of “An Upward Calling.” Michael can be reached at anupwardcalling@yahoo.com
13 Responses to “Taking the GOP Back From the Radical Right (Guest Voice)”
Gee, and I thought the problem was that they weren’t just toeing the line from their leadership. Who knew?
Preserving Big Government is more like what some “moderates” [sic] are after.
[...] Taking the GOP Back From the Radical Right (Guest Voice) (themoderatevoice.com) [...]
Republicans simply fall into lockstep with anyone or anything successful. They have no real convictions individually. They want big government when they are in power and small government when they are not in power. The rhetoric they use is there to cover up the difference. They have never lived up to their communal goals and never will because they don’t intend too.
@Allen
The problem that the Republicans (and you) have with the TP freshmen is the exact same one. Old guard Republicans are, indeed, for big government, which is why they’re so upset with the freshmen (and you are too).
You and Micheal are saying the exact same thing (for the exact same reasons).
Well Prof-
Great Minds think alike.
@Allen
You will never find a thoughtful conservative audience here, loudest voices are scoundrels and their acolytes. The voice is Moderate, but the response is strident and caustic.
Well said. The sad thing about all this is that the end result will mean no progress. I feel sad and distraught that this radical wave is happening. I have some radical ideals, sure, but I actually really like a moderate form of governing. It just makes sense. When I see my Republican friends they say something sensible and when I ask why can’t they stand up for these things within their party, I get this bewildered look from them as if they just don’t know where they fit in anymore. It really is time for moderates to take action. The trouble with being moderate left or right is that we’re usually the type NOT ranting and raving, reading, listening and being thoughtful about the problems and wondering how to solve it. How do you inspire people to advocate for nuance, moderation, and thoughtful planning for the future? It doesn’t move people to march and vote. It does make me have even more respect for the Constitution which was set up to counter radical rage and the bad decision making that can follow. I hope this blister pops and sane, thoughtful lawmakers will rise above all this nonsense. I am not sure I’ll see that happen in my lifetime, though.
However, those who have left the Republican Party as it has moved to the right have committed a grave error- one that has merely accelerated the process of political radicalization in this country. By fleeing or staying silent rather then fighting, they’ve allowed the GOP to be co-opted by radicals.
The “blame moderates” chant continues. Both parties hate their moderates and do their best to drive them away. This is now the fault of the moderates?
I left the GOP several years ago because it had already been co-opted by partisans, mainly social conservatives. There were plenty of moderate voices in the party and they made as much difference as pissing in the ocean.
What is sad is that the Tea Party could have been a solution, initially adhering to principles of fiscal and individual responsibility, and not allegiance to a political party. Now it’s just a more radical arm of the GOP.
mizlandry, that is astute “When I see my Republican friends they say something sensible and when I ask why can’t they stand up for these things within their party, I get this bewildered look from them as if they just don’t know where they fit in anymore.”
Here many thoughtful GOP are huddling, and looking for the bract to launch from but finding few they think will be successful. There seems much discussion and much confusion in many groups, GOP or not. There is sometimes such effect when in the midst of a new consciousness…that is not yet rooted.
If you don’t see people standing up for moderation on this site, you’re not reading.
DaGoat: Yes, you’re right about the Tea Party, whose center-right populism really didn’t differ much in substance, but rather in style, from the rest of the mainstream, as the 2010 election results show.
Note that I now write “tea party” in lower case letters specifically to dissociate the phrase from the old name, for the plain populism and fiscal conservatism (and federalist restraint) sought by the Tea Party and so many of the rest of the public was shoved aside in later 2010 by the encouraged social and religious conservatives. As I wrote at the time, note, for example, the Values Voters conference, in which many a social conservative, I believe at least one or two religious conservatives, and at least one truly far-right “birther” took the stage.
Now we see social and religious conservatives (mainly social, i.e., secular, but compatible with the Religious Right about abortion) in a number of states (not limited to union-busting Wisconsin and Ohio), where we see strong immigration-control measures in addition to 20-week abortion laws.
There really isn’t any good fiscal conservatism there. Public union and government employee retirement reform is long overdue, of course, but it may be that these Republicans are just cheap and crass sellouts to the (big) business community, trying to not merely be “competitive” with other states but openly court that community. Budget reform there doesn’t seem to be sensible. (As in the federal government, I believe politicians in the states are just deferring reform until waiting longer is impossible, at which point they’ll typically retire.)
Now look at the U.S. House of Representatives and you see about the same thing, though there’s more emphasis (at least nominally) on fiscal conservatism, though Ryan’s attempt to transform Medicare goes beyond fiscal conservatism (which would insist as so many of us do on Medicare reform, as with Social Security, not trying to end the program[s], but make them solvent and affordable in the future when the Baby Boomers retire). The social conservatives seem to be the strongest element in the House; fiscal conservatism of the type most of us want is wanting.
An added note is in order that I wonder who the artist is trying to depict at the left in the picture. If it was meant to be Reagan, I’m sorry to say it resembles Michael Bloomberg (no conservative or real Republican), instead. It could be Bloomberg who was intended, for he is liberal on a number of issues and so is the kind of “moderate” Republican* that liberals want to see. Don’t question Big Government, support and enlarge it if “needed,” and so on.
* An alternative term that really should be preferred is “acceptable Republican,” one who is acceptable (or at least tolerable) to liberals.