At one time I thought that the Republicans were sometimes the better choice in an election. I came of age when, for the most part, Republicans were the party of free markets, fiscal responsibility, assertive foreign policy, a strong military, were friendly to big business, tried to minimize intrusive regulation, supported individual responsibility and were the party of limited government. While sometimes those policies had harmful consequences, both to individuals and to the country as a whole, in theory they were sound, rational policies. Republican politicians were willing to work with and compromise with Democrats on a host of issues; some of them were single-minded in their pursuit of their party's goals, but you always knew where you stood and you knew that if they screwed things up too badly another election was just a few years away.
I've written before about the extremist journey that Republicans have taken starting with Newt Gingrich through the Tea Party movement to Donald Trump and beyond - today I'm going to focus on where they are now.
Republicans have abandoned any pretext that they're governing. I'm defining "governing" as making laws, and executing those laws, in a way that has the best outcome for the country as a whole as a central feature. Passing budgets, setting priorities, maintaining infrastructure, nurturing good relations with our allies and standing up to our foes are all part of that. Republicans have moved on from governing to ruling.
In many places Republicans do receive a majority of votes in most elections. Through the magic of gerrymandering Republican candidates for a state legislature can receive less than 50% of the overall votes yet still have a commanding majority in the state Senate or Assembly. In states where they have only a slim majority they manage to have veto & filibuster proof majorities (often 2/3 of total membership). In several states the statewide officers are Democrats while the legislatures have large Republican majorities. Once a party is able to maintain even a slim majority that party then has the power to set district boundaries after each decennial census, further entrenching their power. Republicans have been waging a two-front war over several decades: securing uncontested control of state legislatures on one hand, and thanks to Mitch McConnell, remaking the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court, turning it into a Republican rubber stamp. If today's Republicans when they achieved power were cast in the mold of the last generation of Republicans it would be bad enough, but we're dealing with a new breed.
It doesn't matter to today's Republican lawmaker or executive whether or not the majority of their constituents agree with their actions. The gerrymandered majority sees the very fact of their election as a mandate to as they please. An example in Nebraska is the recently passed ban on abortion past 12 weeks. Reputable polls have consistently shown that Nebraskans are evenly divided about whether abortion should be legal, a recent poll had 55% of respondents opposed to the ban. Yet Nebraska Republicans without exception refer to the state as "pro-life", the common euphemism for "anti-abortion". A Nebraska State Senator justified passing this ban and the on-the-fly rules changes that enabled it by stating that Nebraskans elected a conservative majority and they could do as they pleased.
So, if they're not governing, what are they doing?
Today's Republican office holder seems to be animated by a combination of theocratic and autocratic tendencies, as well as a significant amount of anti-everyone-but-us bigotry. Theocratic in that the rationale for many of the laws that are being passed is what the Republicans believe that Christian Bible says. This isn't guesswork, by the way, more and more legislators are declaring in floor debate that the reason certain bills should become law is "God wants it". Abortion is a prime example. Opposition to abortion always has been and still is, a religious opinion, an interpretation of the scientific facts to fit a preconceived religious doctrine. Of course a fetus is "alive". Off course a fetus, if it has developed healthily and is born, will be a person, a human being. There is "life" there. But the point at which he fetus becomes a person, a human being is an opinion, usually energized by religious dogma. But it's only dogma of some religions, mainly just the conservative outposts of Christianity, including Catholicism. Republicans would have you believe that it's 100% settled, when the point when personhood is achieved is not something science can weigh in on.
Okay, so maybe you're a believer that is abortion is murder too, and fully support the actions to ban abortion nationwide. I understand that if you believe abortion is the killing of a human being you'd want to stop at nothing to stop murder. But I'm not here to debate abortion rights. That's just one piece.
Religious opinion also informs the way the law is affecting LBGTQ+ people. Many conservative religious people, not limited to Christians by the way, believe that homosexuality is a sin, even an abomination. A good number of the laws that are being passed in conservative bastions seem to equate being gay with that opinion. Gay people, simply by being visible, simply by existing, if they are around young people, are accused of "sexualizing children" and even, by default of being pedophile "groomers". This is not lawmakers making a good faith effort to protect children from real sexual predators, but using a religious assumption to define LBGTQ+ people as inherently dangerous. Their struggle to be protected by the same rights as every other American is called "an agenda". Republicans find the most outside the mainstream examples of gay culture to attempt to shock Americans into supporting their agenda of eliminating LBGTQ+ from society. I said this was religious opinion, but in reality it's more akin to simple hatred and bigotry with a thin veneer of religiosity and a thinner coating of concern for the well-being of children.
Some of these politicians have sincere religious beliefs which they are imposing on the rest of us, but some couldn't care less about religious convictions, but know that their constituents have them. They are also aware that bigots vote too.
All of this holy war mentality naturally breeds an authoritarian mindset. They believe that they have the support of "the people", they believe (or pretend to) have the imprimatur of the Almighty, why wouldn't they attempt to force these views upon the rest of by any means possible? The anti-democratic tendencies of the Republican Party have been on display for years. Medicaid expansion voted on by a majority of a state's voters, "slow-walked" or repudiated by Republican administrations or starred of funds. Books banned, mainly in Florida, but coming to a "red" state near you. Businesses punished for speaking out against a Republican governor, also in Florida - but it will spread if he gets away with it. Not to mention how election deniers are slowly gaining a foothold on election commissions, enabling elections to nullified if the Republicans don't like the results.
Republicans have become the party of theocracy, authoritarianism and bigotry. Maybe you agree with some of what they have pulled off so far. But it won't end with that - it never does. It took a long time for us to let them get to this point. And I don't know if it can be reversed - a significant percentage of voters see the Democrats as Marxist pedophiles and think anything the mainstream media says to expose the Republicans is "fake news" and would vote for any Republican who ran, makes the problem more difficult. But if it's going to be reversed, we can't be discouraged by the current state of affairs. It may take a long time to take our government back. Baby steps...and a lot of them. Don't accept the burgeoning despotism.
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