The Republican party that is.
This is a serious post-to try to explain why I feel as strongly as I do on several issues and why I feel abandoned by the political party I once considered my home. A post over at the League of Ordinary Gentleman by E.D. Kain and another one by him over at John Cole’s place got me to thinking.
Until the election of 2004, I had voted Republican all my life. I first voted in 1976 for Gerald Ford and voted Republican all the way through 2000 when I held my nose and voted for George Bush -even though I remained appalled at the sleazy way he treated McCain. In hindsight-I wish I had voted for Gore, perhaps the country might have been spared eight years of misery. In 2004 my vote was a one issue vote-I truly believed ( and I still believe) that the War in Iraq was a huge mistake. I did not want to lend my support to those who would see us continue to pour lives and effort into that sinkhole. I feel I have been vindicated by the last six -years of the Iraqi experience-which for whatever benefits came, the costs of the effort-in terms of the overall loss to the United States and the contribution of the war to our economic instability far outweighed them. The United States is weaker over all because of this endeavor and the fiasco in Iraq has hastened the rise of nations that are truly not our friends and made the multi-polar world we dislike more of a reality than most Americans realize. ( There is a reason we now rank 11th in all objective measures of national prominence). In 2008, my vote was again motivated primarily by the war(s) and the prospect of more “just let real people suffer and lose ground” economics. So I voted for Obama with a clear conscience-although I did not and still do not consider him to be the best qualified candidate. It was simply that John McCain had foreited any right to that support after choosing someone to appease those who do not deserve such attention. Clearly Obama has made some mistakes ( the gravest being not vetoing the Ominbus Budget bill early on and putting Pelosi in her place-and show the country and the Democrats who is boss). But on a lot of issues I care about-he’s advocated better positions than his opposition. It is clear to me that by 2010-Republicans in general had given up any desire to be concerned with you know, data and facts.
As Kain points out though-during that period, really starting in 1996, the Republican party morphed into something unrecognizable. With the advent of Newt Gingrich and the rise in talk radio and later on Fox News to stoke the propaganda flames, the party slowly, but inexorably abandoned all of the things that made it the reasonable man’s alternative. As Kain points out at Cole’s:
I’m not signing on, carte blanche, to the Democratic party here or to its platform though I am choosing to align myself with that party and with liberalism more broadly. I’m sure I will still find plenty of things the Democrats do that deserve a pox or two. But I did feel as though I was boxing myself in by calling myself a conservative and then finding every way under the sun to undermine that description. My “switch” is not about adopting a brand new pre-packaged ideology. No, I’m much more interested in creating new ways, third ways maybe, alternatives to the accepted left/right divide. But I found myself more and more interested and compelled by the liberal-tarian project. But I’m not a libertarian either, and so perhaps the term ‘liberal’ fits me better. In fact, I’m quite sure it does.
But what Kain pointed out is that it is becoming increasingly difficult-from the perspective of facts to remain allied in support of positions that no compassionate human being can be aligned with. Kain again:
Furthermore, while I think there’s a great deal of merit to competition (one reason I really liked Ron Wyden’s healthcare plan!), free markets, economic liberalism and so forth I find the fetishization of low taxes among the right and among many American libertarians more than a bit silly. I favor investment in public health, public transit and infrastructure, and in the welfare system generally rather than some vague bare-boned state. Sure, there’s problems with all sorts of government programs, with some public sector unions, etc. but at least liberals seem open to tackling these problems. At least within the big tent of liberalism there is room to disagree.
I’ve noted before that I don’t think free markets are sustainable without a broad and sturdy welfare state to support them. Theoretically, sure – anything is possible – but the fact is markets fail and must fail to be effective as a system, and very real people pay the price – not because they are lazy, or because they are lacking enough rugged individualism, but because life can be hard, and it is much harder for those people who lack strong family or community support. Ultimately, the highest price is paid by those who can afford it least. We need to craft a society where that price is not so high – and I think we can use markets and the welfare state to achieve this, much as they have done in northern Europe (though undoubtedly our version will be unique and we can, on the way, learn from their mistakes). I don’t see many conservatives taking these questions seriously, and even the most progressive-minded conservatives out there, I fear, are placing their hopes in the wrong coalition.
The demonization of “moderate” Republicans-leaders who actually put “Country First” ahead of partisan ideology is troublesome to me. And in folks like Palin and Beck I see that trend being carried out to its own serious, destructive, and out right pathological ends. Furthermore-especially in Palin, there are clear indicators of a crass, selfish, narcissism that will be destructive to both her and the country in the long run if she were to run and win the highest office in the land.
It is not that some of the ideas that conservatives have put forward are not without merit-it is their refusal to accept that the opposite may aslo be true that really troubles me. I agree with Kain when he states:
At the end of the day, I guess I just find very little in common with the right save for a sort of loose commitment to limited government, and even then it becomes more and more apparent that this is only true in a fictional world that bears no resemblance to our own.
Torture, war, mindless obstructionism, a rigid more-conservative-than-thou orthodoxy, the constant parroting of right-wing pundits, and a blatant disregard for civil liberties all lead me to the conclusion that I have no place in the modern American right. Perhaps that makes me a neoliberal or a liberal-tarian or an independent or a lost boy – I have no idea.
As move on into my graying years-I remain distinctly troubled by the fact that collectively-humanity has failed to advance to realize its real potential. We can-and should be- a lot further along in defeating diseases like AIDS and Cancer, and worldwide there should be a greater commitment to at least a baseline quality of life for all of a country’s citizens. The only place I actually see any of this occuring is in Asia-and even then the progress is very uneven. Troubling too, is the countries that have made the most progress are also the most non-Democratic. (e.g. LKY’s Singapore-nice place to live, could never ever vote there). The colossal waste of what we-the supposedly civilized Western world, spend our resources on is troubling me more than you know. The income divide between the “haves and have nots” is growing and not shrinking-and we are failing to notice that. If you want a real reason for world wide terrorism we should be looking there first.
And at the end of the decade-I am still no safer than I was on Sept 10, 2001.
And so it has come down to this-I cannot, I will not, ally myself with people who for whatever reason deliberately choose to be stupid and ignore facts and/ or historical precedents. The world is not black and white-it is only grey. But it should be progressing forward. And its not.
And I will not ally myself with those who will not support that.
So yes, I will continue to write passionately against those who advocate positions that are ultimately destructive to the USA as a whole-and who would rather take a selfish short term view -than seek to move ahead for the long term. I’m sure my one lone, little, under-reported or read voice will not accomplish much. But at least I will be on record in opposition to collective stupidity.
And that is a better place to be than on the Washington Mall last weekend.
