The Republican Party has an illustrious history. The party was formed in 1854 for a single purpose: to abolish slavery.
In 1860 Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln, arguably our greatest President, whose single-minded determination kept the North in the war long enough to defeat the Confederacy and thereby abolish slavery. In 1901 Teddy Roosevelt launched the environmental preservation movement by establishing 150 national forests, 55 national bird and game preserves, 5 national parks, and 18 national monuments. In the 1950s Dwight Eisenhower initiated the construction of the national interstate freeway system, which dramatically increased American prosperity. Ronald Reagan used the strength of the American economy to initiate the collapse of the Soviet Empire in the late 1980s and the Soviet Union itself in the early 1990s.
What did these four presidents have in common? They were proactive. They assertively addressed major issues of their times. And now? And now the Republican Party is strictly reactive; its sole purpose seems to be to oppose anything the Democrats propose. The party no longer offers solutions to national problems. It is anti-science and anti-fact, it denies climate change, and it promotes conspiracy theories. The party is afraid of the demographic changes occurring in the country, because it fails to see any Republican opportunity in those changes.
This is unfortunate, and it doesn’t have to be this way. On climate change Republicans could stop denying that the change is happening, and instead promote how unleashing the creative forces of capitalism could counter the negative effects of climate change. Capitalism is dynamic; it is responsive to changes in consumer demand and to government edicts. If consumers want green products, businesses will provide those products, and if governmental regulation insists on renewable energy sources, businesses are perfectly capable of making the energy switch.
Here is another example of potential Republican creativity. Currently Republicans engage in an electoral negative self-fulfilling prophecy for themselves. They assume that only older white people will vote Republican, therefore they make no effort to entice anyone else to vote for them, so the core Republican constituency is indeed older white voters. Out of fear they engage in voter suppression efforts to limit minority votes which Republicans assume will all go to the Democrats. This is classic reactivity, rather than proactivity.
If Republicans wanted to be proactive on this issue they might tailor messages to specific minority groups based on traditional Republican values. For example, many Hispanics have strong religious values, and they might vote Republican based on messages of faith and family.
Perhaps the issue that most demonstrates the current dysfunctionality of the Republican Party lies in the realm of foreign affairs. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine makes the love-affair that some Republicans have with Vladimir Putin treasonous. Admiring Putin, the combination Hitler/Stalin of our times. Admiring Putin before his invasion of Ukraine was exceptionally naïve; Republican admiration of him now shows a complete contempt for the democracy of which they are a part.
There is one living Republican who has consistently called out Putin for what he is, a dictatorial thug. That Republican is Mitt Romney, Senator from Utah. He is a patriot who understands the value of democracy and America’s role in promoting global democracy, and he has become the voice of conscience of the Republican Party. Now that John McCain is dead Romney, along with Liz Chaney, are the Republican figures who can serve as role models to help the party once again become a viable part of our democratic process.
A final point for those Democrats who are gleefully enjoying the Republican party implosion: Democracies cannot exist without viable moderate non-extremist political parties on both the right and left. Either the Republican Party will re-birth itself or eventually another moderate right party will rise to replace it, but in the meantime our democracy is threatened by lack of moderate representation on the right.
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