Three uncertain futures for the GOP

November 6, 9:00 PMIndependent ExaminerBrian Trent

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An uncertain tomorrow for the GOP

Still reeling from monumental Election Day losses, the Republican Party must now pick through the rubble and see what can be salvaged. A national surge of dissatisfaction -- even resentment -- was against them, and the clock is now ticking on George W. Bush’s ejection from the White House.

For Republicans, the future must be about evolution. There’s a word that causes instant, knee-jerk spitting from a large constituency in their party, but it is a word more precise and appropriate than they yet realize.

Political parties are, like organic life, subject to their own version of natural selection and mutation. Parties can change, splinter, implode, or merge. Entirely new parties can be hatched and shuffle onto the scene. Others go extinct.

The problem is that the slogans of yesteryear are often used despite fundamental mutations in a party. For the past eight years, Republicans have continued dusting off their posters of “Small Government” and “Fiscal Conservation” despite the bitter fact that these monikers are no longer apt. Government swelled under the Bush banner to frightening proportions (some estimates put it at 40%), and any effort to point out the bloating monster was met by brutal resistance. GOP dominance of government was given a series of tests, and their performance resulted in expulsion.
 

Their response to terrorism was unchecked governmental expansion tolerating no checks and balances, accountability, and is some cases, a rule of law. A Republican-controlled federal government attempted to step onto state rights with incredible audacity – the Terri Schiavo case stands out the most for me; only a courageous and indepedent judiciary jabbed this Orwellian eye. The GOP response was to attack the separation of powers: former Majority Leader Tom Delay roared,

"We will look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president. They chose not to participate, contrary to what Congress and the president asked them to do. We will look into that."

Those aren't the words of a small government advocate. In fact, they sound more like they should be coming from Grand Moff Tarkin:

The GOP's track on civil liberties was just as bad. Constitutional Amendments are often created to expand liberties; under the Bush regime, two Constitutional Amendments were discussed with increasing ferocity, and both to subtract freedom while again trouncing state rights. One was the attempt to ban same-sex marriage nationwide, and the other was to ban any “desecration” of the American flag (which included language so obscure that even the act of writing about a burning flag might have triggered the Thought Police.)

Is that something that a Goldwater-era Republican would have endorsed?

So how did all this happen?

Part of it was simply greed and the inevitable by-product of power. A win-at-any-cost philosophy, first suggestion by Ronald Reagan’s commandment that “conservatives shall not speak ill of other conservatives” resulted in unwavering party unity. This kind of unity helps win elections, but the unfortunate side-effect is that – since no one is ever speaking ill of each other – radical ideologies can ascend up party ladders without anyone to stop them. Abiding by their commandment, few conservatives were willing to speak out against fringe elements seizing power.

But there was something else, too. More than twenty-five years ago, GOP strategists realized they could increase their constituencies by embracing evangelicals voters with open arms. The party began talking about “values” and “faith” and, cleverly, was able to inject new blood into a creaky political frame. The problem with this demographic  was that they are historically

1. steadfastly opposed to science and scientific teachings
2. devout believers in Apocalypse as opposed to human progress
3. accustomed to a twisted version of christianity which somehow pairs up the philosophy of Jesus with endless war and point-of-sword (or missile) conversions.

Classic conservatives like Goldwater condemned this group, and even John McCain (circa 2000) identified them as “agents of intolerance.” The latter’s courageous statement is largely credited with his loss to George W. Bush, and explains the astonishing choice of selecting Sarah Palin, a politician steeped in radical religious upbringing, as his running mate.

It also is the root cause for the GOP’s stances on stem cell research, same-sex marriage, religion in public schools, Creationism in science classrooms, right-to-die cases, abortion debates, and even the development of vaccines against sexually-transmitted diseases. Whatever else the GOP may have as their platform, these are issues where their stance has become horribly, unquestionably wrong.

And so we come to the future of the GOP. Three roads, diverging in the woods.

One choice is to cannibalize themselves in petty in-fighting. Sort of like the reports of behind-the-scenes conflict between McCain and Palin.

The second choice is the path preferable. Expunge the radical elements, the Apocalyptophiles, the theocrats-in-training, and get back to center on a platform of fiscal conservatism and small government. Rally behind people like Ron Paul and Bob Barr rather than Pat Robertson and, yes, Palin.

The third choice is the most dangerous of all: The GOP can elect to remain as it is, dominated by fundamentalists who care more for their dreams of Armageddon than for Constitutional law and humanistic advancement.

If this is the choice of the GOP, then consider them an evolutionary dead-end.

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