Is it just me, or has the GOP gone full-on bonkers? I’m a life-long Democrat, a snowflake liberal, but I seem to remember when Republicans still possessed some semblance of respect for the Constitution and our country as a whole. Who can forget such notable Republican presidents as Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt? How about Susan B. Anthony, noted suffragette, advocate for women’s voting rights and noted Republican? I remember when Republicans and Democrats actually worked together to get things done. Examples of how Republicans and Democrats worked together include the Food Stamp program of 1977, the Social Security Reform bill of 1983, Welfare Reform in 1996, the ADA in 1990, the McCain-Feingold Act (campaign finance reform) in 2002, the Clean Air Act, and Clean Water Act of 2009, the Jobs Act of 2012, and the Veterans Choice Act of 2014, championed by former Senator John McCain and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. But I have yet to see any bipartisan legislation to come out of the Trump administration, other than the CARES Act which sent us working stiffs a one-time check for $1200, but billions to the wealthy in the form of tax breaks and loans.

I remember when Republicans were known to moderate, proud conservatives, who genuinely believed in fiscal discipline and valued government and the Constitution. I wonder what Teddy Roosevelt would say about QAnon, the Proud Boys, the idea that all government is evil, an out-of-control deficit, tax cuts for the rich, and executive orders that enable the strip-mining of our national parks. What would FDR (a Democrat, but Teddy’s nephew by marriage) say about Trump’s plan to dump Social Security by eliminating the payroll tax? What would Abraham Lincoln say about the surge of white supremacy, and the murder of George Floyd? What would he say about a man elected to the highest office in the land who continually fans the flames of hate and racism, and is incapable of telling the truth? And I wonder what Susan B. Anthony’s reaction would be to the guest speaker at the RNC, Abby Johnson, who has advocated for a head-of-household voting system that historically bans women and people of color from voting. I would guess that even Ronald Reagan, who made deals with Democrats to bolster Medicare and Medicaid, would feel about the GOP’s plans to gut these programs. The GOP wasn’t always anti-tax, they supported tax increases in 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1986 to offset earlier cuts in spending and to reduce the deficit. Also under Reagan, the GOP worked with Democrats to create the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute, the United States Institute of Peace, and the International Republican Institute.

The GOP, always touting its fiscal conservatism, could care less about the deficit these days, which has ballooned to $3 trillion. Granted that the deficit is partly a product of the government’s massive spending to cushion the blow from a coronavirus-fueled recession that has left millions jobless, but let’s not forget that the $2.2 trillion CARES Act allocated $676 billion for defense. Now I’m no math whiz, but us working people got one measly check for $1200. The US has a population of 328.2 million, so that’s $394 billion (rounding up) for stimulus checks, leaving $1.6 trillion for other stuff, like defense, PPP loans, and tax breaks for the wealthy. Let’s not forget that the CARES Act was a colossal mess, the PPP ran out of money, and many working people never received a $1200 check because “they didn’t qualify (1).” And on top of that, the GOP has tried to eliminate the ACA ever since Trump got to the White House, and the present administration is trying it’s best to rollback 100 EPA protections (2), civil rights protections (3), and has succeeded in de-regulating everything from banks to the department of transportation. The GOP has always supported limited government, but this is ridiculous. The GOP has strayed quite a bit from fiscal responsibility and Constitutional oversight.

Then there’s QAnon and pistol-packing GOP candidates. A five-term Republican congressman from Colorado, elected in the Tea Party wave in 2010 and a Trump loyalist, was recently defeated in the primary by a candidate who runs “Shooters Grill” in Rifle Colorado, a restaurant where servers are encouraged to carry firearms. The winner, Lauren Boebert, has embraced Qanon conspiracy theories and is endorsed by the National Republican Congressional Committee. Also, Marjorie Taylor Greene, another Qanon supporter, defeated fellow Republican John Cowan last month in the runoff for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. Then there’s Laura Loomer, self-described Islamaphobe, who cheered the deaths of migrants, and called Muslims “savages.” She won the Republican primary in Florida’s 21st Congressional District. The main Qanon myth states that dozens of politicians and Hollywood celebrities work secretly with governments around the world to engage in child sex rings, cannibalism, and satanic worship. Followers also believe there is a “deep state” effort to bring down President Trump. Another Qanon myth is that Trump will arrest all his wrongdoers like Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama and send them to Guantanamo Bay. The FBI has called Qanon a “domestic-terrorism threat,” yet the GOP has endorsed these candidates! What is going on?

The Republican Party’s abandonment of those values held dear by such Senators as John McCain, Jeff Flake, John Kasich, and Colin Powell is mind-boggling. But this reckless abandonment preceded Donald Trump, and the seeds of the “take no prisoners” mentality was perhaps first sowed by the likes of New Gingrich and his view that the new generation of Republicans would have to learn to “raise hell,” and stop being so “nice.” He is quoted as saying that Republicans need to realize that politics is a cutthroat “war for power.” During his two decades in Congress, Gingrich pioneered partisan politics, complete with conspiracy theories, name-calling, and obstructionist tactics that have poisoned American politics and have put Washington into a permanent state of dysfunction (4). In just 3 1/2 short years, the GOP has thrown away its guiding values and turned to the “dark side.” It has blown up long-standing norms in the Senate and the House, has created divisions, and yet stands idly by while the White House and Trump’s Cabinet are embroiled in daily reports of corruption, lawsuits, and indictments. The GOP has accepted the politicization of the Justice Department, the FBI, and the USPS, and swallows lies from the attorney general William Barr, Trump’s personal lawyer. The GOP has avoided any meaningful oversight of misconduct and corruption and has failed to fight back on attacks against the independence of inspectors general. And then there’s Mitch McConnell, who boasts about the fact that he has more than 250 unpassed bills from the House sitting on his desk, and whose wife Elaine Chao, Transportation Secretary, had set up a direct line from her department to channel grants to Kentucky, boosting her husband’s political prospects. Talk about corruption, nepotism, and self-advancement.

The GOP has transformed itself into a mob of hucksters, con-men, racists, theocrats, and cultists. Each time I watch a reporter question a Senator or a House member about Trump’s latest lies, lawsuits, rape accusations, or his racist tweets, each and everyone gives him a free pass and refuses to condemn such abhorrent behavior. During the impeachment trial, where Trump clearly violated the Constitution, the very document he swore to uphold, only one GOP lawmaker had the backbone to call him on it, only one! The GOP has gladly accepted support from white supremacists and the Russian secret service as well and now welcomes QAnon conspiracy quacks into its fold. The GOP has gone full-on bonkers, and if the party is to survive, they really need to clean house and get their act together.

Trump has brought the United States to the very brink of catastrophe, and the GOP has protected him from the consequences of all his immoral and illegal actions (and many of his defenders were once his harshest critics!). Trump has governed according to a set of principles straight out of the “Sopranos,” and although his speeches continue to use populist language to maintain the support of his base, he’s built a Cabinet and an administration that does not serve the public or his voters, but serves his own twisted, psychological needs and the interests of his own friends on Wall Street, and his own family. His tax cuts only benefit the wealthy, not us working stiffs. The economic boom and a stock market propped up by the Treasury were engineered to ensure his reelection, but in fact, have fueled a vast budget deficit on a scale that Republicans once claimed to decry. Trump and the GOP have worked to dismantle the existing health-care system without offering a substitute so that now the number of uninsured people is higher. And now we see an increase in his fanning the flames of xenophobia and racism because these ploys are politically useful and part of his personal worldview. And it appears that the GOP is OK with that.

The GOP has morphed into an extremist, oligarchical organization, and no way resembles the Republican party I grew up with, or the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, or Susan B. Anthony. Time for a change America.

Sources:

1. https://www.fastcompany.com/90491891/why-the-rollout-of-the-2-trillion-cares-act-was-a-colossal-mess

2. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html

3. https://civilrights.org/trump-rollbacks/

4. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/history-of-bipartisanship/