For the past three decades the Republican Party’s domestic goals can largely be summarized as follows: cut taxes on the rich, deregulate the economy, weaken the New Deal social contract, and impose an intolerant and regressive form of Christianity on all of society. The problem for the GOP has always been that these policies are deeply unpopular with the vast majority of Americans, making it necessary for the party to mask its true intentions. By and large, it’s been expert at doing this.
Republicans for decades have camouflaged their policies under the rhetoric of freedom, liberty, and small government. In addition, they’ve manipulated a strong strain of victimization that runs through American society, especially the victimization of whites: immigrants arrive to take their jobs, their hard-earned money goes to black welfare queens, affirmative action robs them of their chance at college, gays come to seduce their children.
At times, Republican presidents and Congressional leaders have passed centrist legislation and presented a more moderate face of the GOP. George Bush I passed a cap and trade program for sulfur dioxide to combat acid rain, and raised taxes. George Bush II ran on a platform of compassionate conservatism and passed the largest expansion of entitlement programs in a generation with the Part D Medicare prescription drug bill. In addition, he joined hands with Ted Kennedy to pass No Child Left Behind, and he expanded aid to Africa for AIDS drugs. To his credit, he also tried to pass a comprehensive immigration bill that would’ve created a path to citizenship for the 12 million illegal immigrants currently in the U.S.
But something in the Republican Party snapped the moment Obama was sworn in as president. Ever since, we’ve been seeing pure unadulterated rightwing extremism—and it hasn’t been pretty. Every crackpot conspiracy theorist, racist, and extreme libertarian has crawled out from under a rock and found a home in the GOP. The party won more power during the midterms and is now putting its crazy ideas into practice, with horrific results.
The Republican-controlled House has spent its time crafting draconian anti-abortion bills, attempting to defund Planned Parenthood, and repealing the Affordable Healthcare Act. Despite promises to the contrary, they have yet to offer anything to replace it. They no longer even pretend to care about universal coverage.
Their near unanimous vote for Paul Ryan’s long-term budget shows even more how extreme the Party has become. The plan is no less than a redistribution of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the very wealthy. It would obliterate Medicare, forcing millions of future seniors to choose between extreme poverty or no healthcare at all. Radical is too kind a word for Ryan’s plan; it is mean-spirited and cruel. For good measure the plan also repeals financial regulatory reform, cuts the funding for green power by 70%, and cuts food stamps. (Interestingly, Ryan credits none other than the extremist Ayn Rand as his philosophical inspiration. Her views about unfettered capitalism are increasingly popular in the GOP; rarely mentioned is her atheism, and her detestation of religion.)
It doesn’t end at the federal level. In statehouses around the country, unhinged rightwing governors and state legislators have unleashed even more draconian anti-abortion bills (almost all of which are clearly unconstitutional), severe rollbacks of environmental legislation, massive attacks on unions’ collective bargaining rights, and voter suppression efforts not seen since the days of the Jim Crow South.
Never in my adult life did I imagine that the Republican Party would be so brazen in its attempts to remake America in these ways. I always assumed that counter-forces would temper the extreme elements.
The two people most in charge of forming the Republican message, the strategists Karl Rove and Frank Lutz, are once again putting lipstick on a pig, but one that is bigger and uglier than ever. Unsurprisingly, just about every word out of their mouths is the opposite of the truth: black is white, up is down, 2+2=10.
Just as unsurprisingly, we now have the racist, demagogic, fraud Donald Trump capturing the imagination of the rightwing, even leading some polls for the Republican 2012 presidential nomination. Trump once espoused positively liberal views; he’s married (and declared bankruptcy) several times; estimates are that if he had simply taken his inheritance and put it in the S&P 500, his net worth today would be greater than what he’s amassed through his business dealings. It’s beyond ironic that at a time of record long-term unemployment, the GOP’s new hero is a man most famous for yelling “you’re fired”.
Even if Republican primary voters come to their senses and turn on Trump, you can be sure that whoever they nominate will have renounced any moderate views and given the base all the extremist red meat they could swallow. Ironically, while we’re in great danger of falling behind in the 21st century, the modern Republican Party wants to “save the country” by taking us back to the 19th.
Jason Scorse