The Cineaste

Fixing the GOP: Introduction

Full disclosure: I’m no Republican. I do, however, care deeply about America and our country, for better or worse, is one that is firmly locked in a system of two opposing political parties each and them has an enormous role in our democracy and for and for the system to work properly, America needs two great political parties. I’m sad to say that the Republican Party is not up to the job.

A dysfunctional Republican Party is bad for all Americans.  As the GOP  has become a rigidly idealogical right-wing party, we've seen a rise in hyperpartisal politics and gridlock.  Today's Republican Party has shown an inability to set aside the partisan politics in order to govern effectively.  While Democrats are certainly not immune from this sort of behavior, during the Obama administation, Republicans have shown themselves to be amazingly petty, spiteful, and immature.  Many in the party leadership have openly stated that their number one goal was to see that President Obama was not re-elected.  This is disgraceful behavior undernormal circumstances, but it is inexcusable during a time which we expect our elected officials to put the politics aside and deal with the great challenges that we face.

When the Republican Party stakes out the extreme right wing of the political spectrum, the Democratic Party also drifts right, depriving the Left of any serious role in the national discussion.  Today's mainstream Democrats are about as Liberal as yesterday's moderate Republicans.  For all the absurd talk of President Obama's "Socialist" agenda, his policies have been remarkably business-friendly.  His signature legislative achievement, Health Care Reform, is based on a 1990's era Republican plan pitched as an alternative to the European-style Single Payer plan that was advocated by Democrats.  As recently as 2008, this sort of market-based plan was so uncontroversial and so accepted by Republicans that Mitt Romney was able to run on his own version of it that he signed into law in Massachussetts.  The GOP has gotten so extreme and overheated that they can point to someone like President Obama, who-to the dismay of many Liberals-is clearly a pragmatic centrist politician and, with a straight face, call him a Socialist.
I’m part of what has been called Generation X and I came of age politically in the 1990’s. Never a Clinton fan, I sat out the 1996 election only to later witness the toxic spectacle of his impeachment. In 1999, I was denied the opportunity to vote for my preferred candidate, John McCain, only to experience the bitter aftermath of the 2000 election and eight years of grueling and dehumanizing politics under George W. Bush. I voted for Barack Obama in 2008, because, among other things, he ran as a reasonable and pragmatic centrist.

My experiences are not unique. In fact, people my age are often Democrats by Default, only because the Republican Party has presented such an unappealing package to younger voters over the last twenty years. For many of us, Republican politicians have been, at best, out-of-touch and incompetent and, at worst, rabid culture warriors who are committed to using the government to impose their values and "morality" on the rest of us.  Often, they have been all of the above.

However, one doesn’t have to look hard to find greatness in the Grand Old Party. It is, after all, the party of Lincoln, the greatest of Presidents. The first president Roosevelt was practically the embodiment of the American Spirit and a courageous reformer who fought tooth and nail for the American worker. And let’s not forget the wisdom and steady leadership of President Eisenhower. These men would scarcely recognize the Republican Party of today. Even Ronald Reagan, the beloved icon of modern conservatism would be driven out of the party as a tax-raising, amnesty-granting RINO (Republican In Name Only).

It has often been said that the Republican Party has an X problem. Let X equal any of the following: Women, African Americans, Latinos, Young Voters, etc. The truth is, the problem is much bigger than any one minority. The Republican Party has a Future Problem. It is increasingly out-of-synch with the rest of America and despite any short-term electoral victories, the Republican Party risks becoming a relic within the next twenty years.

While I certainly don't identify with today's Republican Party, I believe that it is in America's best interest to have at least two strong, functional, political parties that are clearly able to articulate opposing views for this country.  Our political discourse should be a marketplace for ideas and sadly, today's GOP is not selling anything useful.

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