America needs a functional conservative party to balance the liberals | Guest Opinion

Civility in social organizations can decline, as within a bad marriage, with the participants hardly noticing due to the slow erosion of standards. In a similar fashion, the untruths, crimes, and the undoing of democratic institutions became so commonplace in the Trump administration that many followers hardly noticed the change or dismissed their revealment as “fake news.”

But it actually was all very ominous, particularly the shocking conclusion: A brainwashed mob storms the Capitol, tries to overthrow an election, shoot the Speaker of the House, and hang the Vice President… all on the encouragement of a sitting President! That’s about as bad as it gets.

Ladies and gentlemen, the crazed Jan 6th assault on our Capitol was not an aberration. It was, instead, a natural, albeit unfortunately, consequence of the overall direction of the Republican party.

The GOP has some major issues: One, their positions (“invade Iraq, global warming is a hoax”) so often turn out to be disastrously wrong. Two, each year Democrats gain at least half a million voters more than Republicans as elderly conservatives pass on and are replaced by Generation Z youngsters who have different ideas.

This helps explain the massive Republican effort to suppress votes. Only about 25% of adult Americans (according to Gallup) identify as being Republican, so the GOP wants to create a situation in which a decreasing minority of people literally dictate the affairs of the nation.

In addition to rigging elections to accomplish their ends, the GOP conglomerate is manufacturing and perpetuating increasingly ridiculous and contradictory falsehoods: (1) The FBI was behind the Jan 6th storming of the Capitol, (2) There is no systemic racism in America, while at the same time ardently suppressing the votes of non-white Americans, which is systemic racism par excellence!

While Republican politicians pose before cameras informing viewers that their measures to overturn the Constitution are just attempts to “make elections more secure,” the brutish work can be done by the millions of Americans whom GOP leaders have confused with their fearmongering media and constant deceptions.

Several of the techniques used by the Republican organization are normal politics, but other strategies go beyond the pale: (1) Calling themselves the true Americans, (2) Relentlessly portraying their opponents as socialistic villains who will destroy all that is dear, and (3) Scaring their constituents with endless false menaces: Obamacare, Liberals, Critical Race Theory… Through these strategies, politicians eliminate from their base the possibility of conceiving political alternatives.

According to Gallup, Democrats outnumber Republicans today by a significant percentage, yet the GOP refuses to adjust their tune to accommodate new social and environmental realities. Forty percent of contemporary Americans are not European white, and the number of people who are non-Christian is now about 35%. Both figures are increasing.

To make their positions even more untenable, the GOP has doubled down on their 1950s ideology. Instead of adapting their platform when they can’t win enough votes, they too often just yell louder falsehoods, stymie democracy more, and start pushing, shoving and now they are even getting out their guns!

It’s clear that the GOP will have to destroy democracy in order to remain in power. There are respectable Republican politicians, to be sure, and most Republican voters are good people. But that doesn’t matter if they fall in line behind the backward-thinking autocrats leading the parade.

What do you do when your political party has lost its respectability and is no longer viable for America? You seek new forms of political representation, and you adapt to the changing times. This is important to accomplish, for America needs a functional conservative party to balance the liberals.

America will be substantially different in 25 years, and there is no way to stop that. The Earth will be warmer and a more diverse American population will have updated ideologies concerning race, economics, religion, environment. Most of these new beliefs will be better in tune with our changing social and ecological conditions. I ask my Republican friends, do you want to support oppressive relics of the past or be part of modern, problem-solving America?

This story was originally published July 20, 2021 at 11:00 AM.