The Republican Party is facing a crisis that's not purely
political. The real problem with the party
is an ethical and moral one, far more serious than the political missteps that
have plagued it in recent years.
The
political problems with the Republican Party are well known. It lost yet another presidential election and
its candidates have secured a majority of the popular vote only once in the
last five contests. The Democrats control
the US Senate and while the Republicans retain shrunken hold in the House of
Representatives, they failed to capture a majority of the popular vote in that
chamber. Were it not for gerrymandering and geography, they would have lost
that chamber too. In Minnesota, Republicans were sharply repudiated last
November, ousted by constitutional overreach and infighting.
Republicans
know they have a problem. This past
weekend in New Orleans they held a conference seeking to understand their
problems. For some it is that they
nominated bad presidential candidates such as John McCain or Mitt Romney. For others it is not the candidates or the
values but the messaging. Some see it as
bad campaign tactics, seeking salvation in borrowing from Obama's campaign. Similarly, Minnesota and other Republicans
this week will meet to discuss the future of their party, no doubt concluding
that the problem are the candidates, the messaging, or the tactics. They are only part of the problem.
Short
term the political crisis of the Republican Party is not an issue. The 2014 elections will come soon and in
general the President’s party does badly in the midterm elections of a second
term. Democrats will need to defend 20
Senate seats compared to 13 for Republicans, and across the country, decreased
voter turnout will favor the Republicans. One should not discount the capacity
of Democrats across the country to make
political mistakes, either by being overconfident, overreaching, or failing to seize
the day. Obama’s first term was a lesson
in looking aside when given the chance to make historical change. Democrats will make political missteps in
2014 and by 2016 perhaps the American public may be sick of them for failing to
deliver, giving the Republicans a political opportunity.
But
were the crisis of the Republican Party merely tactical and just about playing
politics that would be simple. But the
problem is more deep seated–it is the moral or ethical crisis of the party that
is the problem.
The
problem is with the political morality of the Republican Party. It is a party dominated by an aging white
population hostile to diversity, gay rights, women’s rights, and the use of
government resources to promote the public good. It is a political party increasingly out of
step where the future of America is headed.
That future is one less Christian and religious, and more diverse. Public opinion has shifted and it supports
gay marriage and rights. It supports a
woman’s right to choose, and more importantly, birth control. It does not believe women have natural
defenses against real rape, it is less supportive of the death penalty, and it
does support some reasonable limits on guns.
It is
an America that sees a role for the government in promoting the public
good. It is a public that wants good
schools and affordable colleges. It is a
public that worries about the environment and accepts science. It does not think vaccinations cause
retardation. It is public worried about
the corrosive effect of money in politics and the problems that rising
inequality is causing for a next generation whose life prospects may not be as
good as the one we enjoy.
Multiple
surveys document these views of the contemporary American public opinion. This is only part of the ethical crisis of
the Republican Party. It is not only out
of step with where current public opinion is, but the demographics are against
them. The values of a new generation of
Americans coming up are increasingly at odds where the current Republican Party
is.
The
main constituency for the current GOP is old or fringe. It is a constituency increasingly seen as
greedy, intolerant, and lacking compassion.
It is a party in 2011-2 that applauded executions and cheered that some
might die if they needed health care but could not afford it. They are a party that seems indifferent to
the suffering of others and seems to have taken the position that I have mine
and the rest should do it alone like I did.
Except that they did not do it alone. They benefited from the New Deal
state, sucked it dry, and now want to pass the bills on to the next
generation. They are the real
takers. They have benefited from their
parents sacrifice and investments and in turn are failing to invest in future generations. At one time the Republican Party railed
against the 60s generation as selfish and greedy. They are no longer the party of Lincoln,
Teddy Roosevelt, or Ike. Rockefeller
would have no place in their party and it is not even clear that Reagan would
fit in. The GOP is now the party of Howard Roark.
The
moral crisis of the Republican Party is one where increasingly their fantasy of
an Ozzie and Harriet America is not the one that most Americans currently or
are in the future going to live in. If
fact, it is really not even the world they live in. The America they grew up in was not one of
Social Darwinism and untrammeled free market capitalism. It was–to steal a phrase–a kinder and more
gentle nation where the government played a positive role in making life better
for all of us. Yes, it made mistakes,
racism and poverty did excluded many, but it also did great things by helping
Americans draw upon their talents and create the conditions that made it
possible for many of us to succeed.
The
current Republican Party is espousing a constellation of values that deny
reality and the dreams of what Americans want.
The soul searching that the Republican Party is presently doing will
fail. It will fail but at core its
values are that of either angry greedy old men or adolescent-thinking
ideologues who think they owe no one nothing because no one gave them a hand
and that they did it all on their own.
It is a party without compassion, a party without a sense of what
American’s believe, and what the country looks like now and into the
future. This is the real crisis of the
Republican Party.
You are correct that the Republicans have a serious moral problem. But if by implication you are saying that the Democrats do not, you are wrong. Theirs is at least as serious, and even more insidious.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans are at least up front about where they stand on the issues that you correctly enumerate as one's on which they are out of step with the majority of the American public, but they are the issues of central interest to their aging white base. By contrast, the Democrats at the federal level have abandoned their core constituencies on their critical issues. These are first and foremost the economic well-being of working class and middle class Americans, and the equal treatment of all people before the law. Today's Democrats eagerly adopt right wing memes to justify their cooperation in gutting New Deal and Great Society programs, and the Obama Justice Department can't find it appropriate to prosecute people responsible for billion dollar frauds but has no hesitation in going after whistle-blowers and activists who seek to push our society toward living by its alleged principles, such as John Kiriakou and Aaron Swartz. The Democrats in Washington are no more the party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, or John Kennedy, than are the Republicans the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt or Ike. There are just more devious and successful at hiding that fact from the American public.
I think that's a bit harsh. Unfortunately, the people who make the most noise and make the most outrageous statements tend to get the air time. The majority of us do not believe things like "vaccinations cause retardation" nor the kind of insane statements that someone like Todd Aiken has made. The Republicans I know are not at all the greedy, corrupt, uncaring, non-inclusive and amoral villians that you suggest. We aren't monolithic. We don't suffer a lack of compassion as much as a lack of good PR and a willing media that will frame us in the way the Democrats are framed--while ignoring major "bumps in the road". (i.e. one scandal after another that would have had A Republican President impeached by now.) It's always useful to tar the party you disagree with using the most extreme examples available. The myth is that somehow Democrats have some corner on moral righteousness. Yes, they use all the false outrage they can muster and parade a different set of victims-as-props at every political theatre event masquerading as a press conference to show the voting public how "compassionate" they are. Fine to blame Greedy Old White Guys when you use minorities, children, the poor, the elderly and ill to cynically further your political agenda year after year as our Ruling Class is still immune to its own laws. Dems today are less JFK and much more Karl Marx. If they actually solved the problems they grieve so publicly about they wouldn't have a reason to exist--so forgive me for thinking they're not actually interested in that. It's not so much about people as it is about power, but as long as uneducated voters have a young, telegenic leader who gives them Bread and Circuses while he "fundamentally transforms" America into his particular idea of what is "fair"( talk about an adolescent ideology...)no one will notice the county going utterly and totally bankrupt. It's all a grab-bag of feel-good ideas designed by an administration that doesn't know the first thing about implementing them. Yes, our President is an expert on what Americans believe. He panders to it daily, class-warfare style, while living his own ironically privileged life--devoid of the scrutiny that the media owes the public and yet refuses to deliver. Someday he is going to have to deliver real substance over style. There are going to be a surprising number of people discovering the hard way that they really can't believe in Santa anymore when the handouts stop and the bill for Obamacare comes due. Let's see how "compassionate" the DFL looks then.
ReplyDeleteNice rambling rant, Professor. The Republicans' ethical problem, however, is simple and easily described. Whether motivated by greed or fanaticism (they have plentty of both), the essential Republican belief is that they're incontrovertibly correct, on every subject, and need not recognize value in any other point of view.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, Republicans uniformly believe, GOP ends entirely justify GOP means. This simple equation (E>M) explains entirely the self-righteous immorality of Michael Brodkorb, Mitt Romney, David Hann, Andrew Breitbart, and the whole panoply of dissemblers, deceivers, and self-deceivers who make up today's Republican Party. Richard Nixon would be proud.
After a post like this, it's hard to take seriously anything he might ever offer as a political analyst talking head.
ReplyDelete