Welcome to "American Conservative."
For my first post I have decided to address a question that I encounter often:
Whatever happened to the Republican Party?
Let me start by stating that the current Republican Party holds very little in common with the party we know from our formative years. Yes, there is still a focus on fiscal conservatism and I suppose we still waive the flag for states rights. Despite these two similarities, many things have changed in recent decades.
It seems that the modern day Republican Party pales in comparison to our memories of the Reagan years. I'm sure that nostalgia plays a role in that feeling. The concept of "recency bias" also plays a role. We tend to remember more details about what happened last week than what took place thirty years ago, thus our memories of the past are often painted by a longing for the "good old days."
For the purposes of this post, I will focus upon two specific changes that I have noticed within the party.
First let us examine the influence of a group known as the "Religious Right."
Many commentators have observed that today's Republican Party seems to have been highjacked by the modern day "Tea Party." From my perspective, however, this is not the first highjacking that the party has suffered. Over the course of the previous decades the Religious Right had emerged as by far the most outspoken political group within the party. This group represents the true conservatives within the conservative party. The basis of their goals revolve around attempts to codify their religious beliefs into modern day law.
This outspoken minority within the party pushed their own agenda harder and louder than the more moderate members of the party. As a result, the Religious Right pushed many conservative candidates aside, vilianizing any candidate who did not get on board with their far right leaning extremist views. Thus at the turn of the century the party's candidate for the Presidency became George W. Bush rather than the senior statesman John McCain. Bush's social agenda conformed to the demands of the Religious Right, while McCain had a number of more moderate views on social policy. Thus became President George W. Bush. McCain was given the nomination after Bush's second term, but many within the party felt this was the equivalent of handing him a gold watch for years of service. Similar to the candidacy of Bob Dole a decade before. Both men had served the party and both were nominated in elections that the Republican Party did not expect to win.
President Bush termed the phrase "Compassionate Conservatism" hoping to soften the often hardline policies associated with the Republican Party. A decade later, that term and most of his presidency has been overshadowed by the crash of the housing market and the subsequent stock market crash of 2008. Those events ushered in the current administration, who rode a tide of discontent and defeated the aforementioned McCain in 2008.
That leads us the the second highjacking of the modern day Republican Party, this time by a group that chose a moniker meant to connect them with the original Boston Tea Party. While some of those disillusioned with the current state of the Republican Party chose to chase the dream of Libertarianism, others instead decided to wage a coup within the party ranks. The Tea Party began questioning the loyalty of long time party leaders such as then Speaker of the House John Boehner. Tea Party candidates emerged as an alternative to the traditional Republican candidates and in some cases unseated senior members of both Houses. In the state of Indiana, for example, long time Senator Dick Lugar lost a heated primary to a Tea Party challenger. That challenger later lost the seat altogether to the Democratic candidate, a feat that most agree would not have happened if Lugar had been the Republican nominee. Lugar had come under heavy criticism from the Tea Party for his willingness to compromise with the Democratic leadership on a number of policies. He paid for that compromise with the loss of his Senate seat.
Years later this same group, the so called Tea Party, would force the resignation of Speaker of the House John Boehner. Boehner struggled for years trying to hold the party together. Bending to pressure from the ultra conservatives in the Tea Party movement, Boehner refused to reach compromises with the Democratic leadership. This led to years of hard feelings and resentment between Boehner and the more conservative members of his own party. Boehner eventually resigned leaving House leadership to replace him with the even more conservative Paul Ryan.
So to answer the initial question: Whatever happened to the Republican Party?
Infighting with the ranks happened.
A fracturing of the once sound leadership base happened.
The Religious Right happened.
The Tea Party happened.
And now we find ourselves looking down the barrel of yet another presidential election wondering if the infighting within the party will once again cost the Republican Party another presidency.
As always I welcome any and all feedback. Feel free to leave comments or questions on this page or email me at jebuckley@yahoo.com
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