Why Americans should be afraid OF today’s Republican Party.

While appearing on a CNN special commemorating the first anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated that she wants the Republican Party to be a vibrant political party and wished that Republicans “would take back their party.”  She believes our two-party political system needs a strong GOP.

Yet, I have not heard one Republican express sentiments regarding the Democratic Party even remotely similar this.  Instead, Republican politicians and numerous GOP voters typically refer to Democrats as the enemy (or worse) instead of fellow Americans with whom they have policy differences.  This consistent animosity suggests to me that many Republicans may prefer a one-party government – theirs.

Worse yet, some on the far-right favor violence against their opponents.  Of the 443 people murdered by extremists over the last 10 years, 75% (333) were killed by radical right-wingers, 73% of which were white supremacists, according to data collected by the Anti-Defamation League.  But that is just the tip of their violence iceberg. 

Threats by radical Trump supporters against public officials, even Republicans, are causing many to quit their jobs and/or go into hiding.  A classic example of this vicious harassment – although there are thousands – is Bill Gates, a Republican member of the Maricopa County, Arizona Board of Supervisors.  Simply because he upheld Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election, he and his family were unmercifully threatened and even friends turned against him.  Bill was labeled a traitor who should be shot or hung and someone on social media suggested that his three teenaged daughters should be raped.  The family had to go into hiding.

The truth is, millions of Trump supporters believe that anyone who disagrees with their hero, or attempts to hold him accountable, is the enemy that should be destroyed.  And Trump has vowed to decimate all those who have challenged him if he gets a second term, starting with the Department of Justice and the FBI.  Next time, no adults will be in the room to stop him and some on his staff, like his former chief advisor, Steve Bannon and his former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, will egg him on.

Trump loyalists have taken over most levels of the GOP, all the way down to the counties in many states.  These grassroots organizations are both formidable and dangerous.  Since they believe the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, they will do anything to ensure he is reelected, legal or not.  And I believe his closest challenger, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, is just as dangerous and autocratic.

Why Americans should be afraid FOR the Republican Party

The GOP has become the party of mainly straight, white, Christians, with a bias toward males. Republican positions on gun controls, abortion, religious freedom, climate change, LBGTQ rights, tax cuts for the wealthy and other issues are not popular with a majority of Americans, particularly younger citizens.  Polls show this over and over. 

Because they so obviously favor a white dominated America, Republicans are trying to prevent immigrants of color from entering the United States and becoming citizens.  But that won’t alter U.S.  demographics, no matter what they do.  The largest percentage of students in K-12 schools are not white, which indicates that it is just a matter of time before white Americans will no longer be the majority of the population.

It’s my observation that Republican politicians put their ideology and their party above all other considerations.  For example, they advocate for radically downsizing the federal government and even eliminating entire government departments.  Yet, what did Governor DeSantis do when hurricane Ian ravaged Florida in 2022, causing an estimated $67 billion of insured loses and over 150 deaths?  Call for federal help, of course, like numerous other GOP governors have.  If Republican policies were to prevail, however, federal agencies would be too weak and underfunded to effectively react when a massive hurricane devastates the Gulf coast or strong tornados savage large swaths of the Midwest. 

Actually, I believe that many Republican politicians and their wealthy donors yearn for a United States with the laws of the 1950s or even the 1920s.  You know, the periods before Medicare, Medicaid, the EPA and the Department of Education existed.  Does that make any sense?  Reality check: the 1950s were not the good old days that people frequently imagine, much less the 1920s.

So, I wonder – can the GOP remain viable when its policies are not popular with the electorate?  Or, when it promotes a twice impeached, twice criminally indicted former president as its leader?  As highly respected, retired conservative Judge J. Michael Luttig put it in his recent op-ed, as he urged Republicans to put country over party, “If the indictment of Mr. Trump on Espionage Act charges – not to mention his now almost certain indictment for conspiring to obstruct Congress from certifying Mr. Biden as the president on Jan. 6 – fails to shake the Republican Party from its moribund political senses, then it is beyond saving itself. Nor ought it be saved.”

I agree.  Far-right members are taking their party down a path that could lead to its irrelevance or demise.  Except, that’s not a fate that I wish for the GOP, nor should any other American.  In a two-party political system like ours, democracy will suffer if either party has overwhelming power.