The Great Republican Double-Down

 

Here are the facts, based on Census data and voting trends: the United States is diversifying into a majority of minorities, the evangelical movement is losing believers at a slow but steady rate, younger voters (Y and Z generations, etc.) are motivated by social and environmental issues that run strongly contrary to existing GOP views (they voted two-to-one for Biden over Trump) and are slowly moving into a constituency that is far larger than the outgoing boomers. The Republican Party, now focused on outmoded visions of an American past that is slipping deeper into the recesses of history, seems as if it is just giving up trying to embrace these rising segments (minority and younger voters), choosing instead to instill greater passion in its dwindling base.

There are many reasons for this transition, primary amongst them would be the unleashing of big right-wing money under Citizens United vs FEC, literally legitimizing campaign spending practices that are otherwise illegal in much of the democratic world. Extremist wealthy interests, frustrated with the rise of an increasingly liberal electorate, have staked out some pretty radical “money first” and “hard Christian values” in open political issue campaigns. Campaign money used to wait until front runner emerged during primary battles. Now, hard right-wing issue funders attract wannabe candidates early in the game, long before they would have even surfaced on the radar pre-Citizens United. 

These early-stage candidates can thus attract those wealthy contributors today by parroting the desired hardline issues and promising never to compromise with the liberal side if elected. Suddenly, irrational conspiracy theory driven right-wing populist radicals find themselves the darlings of this mega-wealthy constituency ready to spend any amount of money to see their desired political outcomes realized. And in districts governed by the GOP, they get elected! 

The resulting political gridlock in Congress, where bipartisan legislation and traditional horse-trading compromise were once “the way it is done,” is now the rule. Indeed, the United States is the only democracy in the world where a simple majority of our federal legislature cannot pass most bills brought before it. The Senate is the weakest link. With two US Senators from each state regardless of population, the least populous state, Wyoming (with around 580,000 residents), has an equal say as the most populous state, California (with more than 39 million). Thus, about 30% of the US electorate controls 50% of the Senate. The filibuster rule requires 60% of the Senate just to bring most bills to a floor vote. The result: an evenly divided Senate remains under minority control. This rural skew was baked into our form of government in 1789 where 94% of America was agrarian and exceptionally wary of “city slickers.” We are now over 86% urban.

While the GOP is attempting to pin the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle solely on Joe Biden, unfortunately he simply followed the Trump “announced fixed date withdrawal” plan that was squarely based on his negotiations with the Taliban. American voters, not particularly governed by foreign policy, are anyway unlikely to be influenced against Democrats because of any foreign policy issues, missteps or accomplishments. Instead, the GOP strategy is focused on a more deeply philosophical approach: culture wars where buzzwords and labels are the sales tools and control of the voting process and judicial appointments the implementing tactics.

The misuse of the word “patriot,” which generally has a new connotation of “right-wing” beliefs, the bandying of words like “America first,” “communist,” and “creeping socialism” – which have little significance to younger educated voters and are almost always misused from their actual definition – are the politics of “no.” The older generations, having lived through misshapen concepts like “duck and cover” fears of nuclear war with the Soviet Union and the “domino theory” (if we let one country fall under communist rule, that will be the beginning of sequential global communist domination), have an almost visceral negative reaction to those labels. For most of the educated younger voters – about 60% of younger generations have at least some college education – the buzz words tend to be “climate change,” “student debt,” “housing affordability” and “racial, ethnic and gender tolerance. See a disconnect there?

But having literally mishandled the entire COVID pandemic and fomented a resulting economic “big fail,” Republicans have shifted to this intangible “culture war” and are availing themselves of statutes, constitutional provisions and resort to right-wing judicial appointees to insure that they will, one way or the other, control the national agenda for decades to come. The underlying anti-women narrative and the wink-wink support for white supremacy do not seem to have eroded those who support the GOP. Further, policies like reversing “cancel culture” and banning teaching “critical race theory” (CRT) are the rising GOP issues. The underlying notion behind CRT, that racial injustice ended with the voting and civil rights legislation of the 1960s and must now be taught as the truth, is beyond laughable. But no one should be laughing. 

Truth has left the Republican building, as evidenced by a massive GOP belief, despite no real evidence to support that position, that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential race. Relying on a misinterpretation of the Second Amendment (in the 2008 Heller vs DC Supreme Court decision that completely ignored the words “well regulated militia”), red states are making gun ownership (including concealed carry) vastly easier. The January 6th insurrection at the Capitol, with widespread death and violence recorded in extreme detail, has become a “routine tourist event” of patriotic Americans in recent GOP rhetoric. 

Thus, while the red state rural bias effectively gives rural voters the equivalent of 1.8 urban votes, center and left of center voters are subjected to the minority rule of that GOP-evangelical base that still seems to move lockstep with the new Trumpian Republican Party. Conspiracy theories and COVID deniers are even willing to try a horse de-wormer rather than admit that masks and vaccines are the only currently effective COVID containment alternatives.

Supported by newly empowered right-wing media in a world where the worldwide web allows viewers/reader to filter out any information that contradicts their views and elevates falsehoods that vindicate their position, the evangelical base has escalated their command and control over the nation, all through judicial appointments and red state politics. Despite polls that consistently and overwhelmingly show popular support for expanding and simplifying voting rights, addressing global warming, implementing common-sense gun control and allowing women the right to choose what happens to their bodies, Roe vs Wade is all but repealed, many states allow their citizens to walk into public buildings carrying a gun and statutes in most red states make minority voting much more difficult. Climate change is hardly a priority, even as storms and fires decimate the entire country, as Republicans are pushing back against the necessary legislative fixes as simply too expensive. Tax cuts and contracting government are their priorities.

The GOP is beyond pleased of the schism developing between progressives and moderate in the Democratic Party. The “Squad” is a favorite target, particularly despised by the base. Yet since time and demographic trends are squarely against the currently constituted Republican Party, they have elected to become much, much more radically right-wing and anti-women, using disinformation and rule manipulation to deliver control of the United States to their evangelical minority… replete with a newly configured Supreme Court likely to contain those demographic changes for decades to come. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and if courts are unwilling to restore democracy to our nation, the only effective tool – avoiding the ugliness of armed confrontation – is for the majority of Americans to turn out for every election forming an irresistible tsunami of genuine American values.