Republicans Drift Further Away From their Principles

by Bill Formby

Here we are…still. Nothing much has changed, but there are some fairly perverse things that are taking place in America these days. At one time or another one or more of us have in some way mention some of these things but they haven’t yet been put all together in a single package. What is so strange is that certain groups are actually turning against themselves probably without realizing it. They are actually arguing against all of their former beliefs.

Let’s start with being conservatives which involves the bedrock principles of the Republican party. Their basic philosophy has always been fiscal restraint, small government, and states rights. That would generally define the traditional Republican Party in the modern era. So where are we now? Well, since the beginning of the Trump Administration we have dropped the idea of fiscal restraint while pretending that we haven’t. They have held on to the idea of small government but not in a good way and states rights are only as good as the President decides they are on any given day.

There is also the issue of law and order which has always been a big deal with the conservatives and the Republicans. Yeah, well, that too is certainly in question. One can hardly claim to be a law and order person when the institutions of law are being trashed by the President on a daily basis because it dares to investigate his behavior.

It is further delegitimized the basic tenets on which this country has been built. While many religious people try to contend that America’s foundation is built on whatever religious principles they believe in they are way, way off the mark. America, like all great nations throughout history, was built on the foundations of its institutions of laws.

So, where are we on these points of contention? If we drop back to the late 1960’s and early 1970’s Richard Nixon and the Republicans made a shrewd political move with their Southern Strategy. One must understand that, at that time, most of the Southern states were Democratic, at least in a name. This was primarily due to the reconstruction after the Civil War no Southern state wanted to be aligned with the “Party of Lincoln”. The overriding problem, however, was that they actually had a philosophy much closer to the Republican party. They were often referred to as the “Dixiecrats” so as not to confuse them with the Democrats. They were all about states’ rights, law and order, and religion, and I mean really high on religion.

Nixon’s strategy was to make a pitch to the Southern states to join the Republicans by adding religion to the platform of the Republican party. Over a short period of time elected officials had switched their affiliation from Democrats to Republican. This was right down the alley for the Evangelical Christians who basically had not had a voice on the national stage. Suddenly, they had a seat at the table and a voice that would be heard and, next thing you know, one could not tell a true Republican from the New Republicans. The Republicans now were mixing morality with politics which is never a good thing.

Now comes a clash of cultures in 2008. It became more than Democrats versus Republicans It became more about several cultures clashing when Barack Obama ran for president. He brought out a groundswell of people looking for a change in direction. It blew up the South that still held on to racial biases and the implications of welfare fraud by the blacks. It brought out the worst in the Republicans who were against government social programs and especially the ACA, better known as Obama Care. It was a flash point, a sharp division in a cultural difference between those that believe in the small government as well as believing in America is the home of Christianity and those who believed that the federal government had a role to play in the everyday life of all Americans. Much of what was being proposed would have been a Republican idea in the early 1960’s, but this was a different time and a different place.

Now we are in 2016 and the anger by the hardliners of the Republican party has not diminished. Throughout President Obama’s tenure, the Republican party fought them with a passion every single step of the way. What the people did not realize was that they were like crocodiles eating their own babies. They had lost or given up their basic principles during this fight against what they called the far left because it really was not the far left. Obama’s policies were closer to centrist policies than that of the far left. His compromise on the healthcare bill that placed it in the private market instead of keeping it in the single payer category was an homage to the Republicans. The problem was though, that the Republicans had lost their sense of direction and had begun to break into various splinter groups some pushing them to the far, far right. Even progressives were not happy with Obama.

As we entered the 2016 election Donald Trump entered politics again and latched onto the anger that was going around. People were still struggling since the crash in 2007. While the economy and employment had grown every year that Obama had been in office it had not been fast enough for a lot of people. That plus Hillary Clinton not really doing a good job with her campaign led to Trump being elected. Who knows what would have happened without the interference of FBI Director Comey and/or the Russians. In any event, it is now water over the dam. Trump was the President.

From the very beginning, Trump began to create problems. Why is anyone’s guess but my take on it was to cover up the fact that he had no idea what he was doing? In business, Trump was known to play fast and loose and cash in on opportunities that arose out of chaos. We still do not know if he or his campaign were involved in a conspiracy with the Russians or anyone else. What we can surmise is that he is not in a hurry to find out exactly what went on during that campaign. So, this is where the perversion seems to come out. The current president and Republican members of Congress are literally lying every day about what is being done in regard to the investigation of the 2016 election.

At this point, we must look at the supporters of the Trump administration. The Evangelicals, the far right conservatives, and a lot of the people in law enforcement. The perverse part of this is that the president is essentially behaving like many people do when they are about to be caught doing something wrong. He lies when there is no reason to lie. He disrespects the FBI and the Justice Department and trashes his Attorney General for doing their jobs. Anyone that holds a different opinion than the president gets publicly demeaned and denounced much the same as people do who have been caught doing something wrong.

Ordinary people who would have completely condemned any other president, even Reagan, for similar acts they seem to say, that’s OK. Some people let him slide because they think his policies will benefit them. Some are not bright enough to actually see that what he is doing is going to hurt them. They buy into his ideas about the tax cut and the tariffs against other nations. The tax cut will primarily benefit corporations and the wealthy. The import taxes on other countries goods will simply drive up costs across the boards for everything and while some companies gave some early bonuses to workers they did not give out great long-term wage increases. On top of that health insurance is either gone or gone way up.

Finally, at least for this time, is the damage being done to our institutions that we count on every day. There are some Republicans in Congress who are violating a sacred principle of our democracy; the division of powers in the government. They are trying to corrupt an investigation which is a violation of the separation of powers. They are trying to collect intelligence from the justice department to give to the White House. The corruption in Washington is so bad I can smell it every time I go outside. I really don’t blame Trump that much. He is what everyone knew he was. It is those people who pretend they are patriotic Americans but are really just gas addicts sniffing up Donald Trump’s ass farts. The old Native American story that Trump told about the snake and the woman. Like the snake, Trump is what he is.

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