“I am considering a run only because I am convinced the major parties have lost their way. The Republicans are captives of their right wing. The Democrats are captives of their left wing. I don’t hear anyone speaking for the working men and women in the center.”
– – Donald Trump (1999, The Wall Street Journal).
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | Turns out, Donald Trump successfully appealed to the uneducated working class. But not as an independent…as a Republican. And he completely ignored fiscal conservatism, zeroing in on wacko cultural issues instead. He is a spoiled New York City billionaire who had been a Democrat.
Many believe that Trump has caused the moral demise of the Republican Party. He clearly has helped, especially regarding evangelicals, who have chosen to support a known philanderer and liar.
The Republican Party has gone from a party that supported civil rights and Social Security to the party that now wants societal equity out of the way so that the party of “white grievance” can rule. There are no longer many fiscally oriented moderates left in the party, as evidenced by the fact that the annual deficit grew from about a half trillion under Obama to $3.1 trillion under Trump.
In 1935, only 15 percent of Republican House members voted against the creation of Social Security; only 20 percent of GOP Senators did. But in recent years, GOP leaders wanted to do away with Social Security as we know it.
Since the Civil War, the GOP was the party of civil rights. In 1964, 80 percent of House Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act, versus only 60 percent of Democrats. The Senate was the same story with 82 percent of GOP Senators in support versus a little over two thirds of Democrats. The GOP showed similar support for the Voting Rights Act
But in 2013, a Supreme Court dominated by anti-government GOP appointees, gutted the Voting Rights Act and was cheered on by GOP leaders. MAGA GOP activists have engaged in voter suppression and attempted election-stealing on the state level in Georgia and elsewhere.
So, how did this change in the GOP come about? The rightward turn of the GOP was a draconian Nixonian tactic known as the “Southern Strategy,” followed by other GOP leaders.
In his 1980 campaign, Ronald Reagan gave a speech near Philadelphia, Miss., where three civil rights workers had been murdered just 16 years before. Per Reagan:“I believe in states’ rights”, letting the reactionary forces know that he was on their side. Trump also let the Charlottesville white supremacists know how he felt: “You also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”
There is no longer a Republican Party. There is a Re-Trumpican Party following Trump down the road to unconstitutional authoritarianism, as shown by the GOP refusal to remove him after the January 6 insurrection.
Trump is the most popular candidate with the GOP base. His loss in 2024 might open the eyes of Republican leaders, but Trump appears headed for nomination….and possible victory. What does that say about our democracy?
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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