In the aftermath of the presidential election, there is one question that I have to ask: What the Christ has gone so horribly wrong with the Republican Party? It seems difficult to contest that the deterioration of the GOP (Grand Old Party for you youngsters) has been nothing short of astounding.
Consider the intellectual decay of the GOP, as witnessed by the choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate. Palin is clearly not intellectually equipped to carry out the duties for which she was nominated. But along with her ignorance, Palin also combines arrogance; a dangerous and undignified combination indeed.
Do you seriously mean to say that there was nobody in the GOP who could rally conservatives, who also had some command of policy issues? I’m always concerned when I have a better grasp of the issues than a nominee for high office.
One of the more tragic ways that the GOP has strayed from its roots is its embrace of neoconservative foreign policy, which emphasizes the projection of American military power abroad.
By contrast, previous generations of conservatives were also conservative (hence the name) about becoming entangled in foreign wars and alliances. The military adventurism of the neocons is not even a caricature of traditional conservatism, but rather its polar opposite.
The GOP has championed a childlike attitude toward taxes. That present levels of taxation are insufficient to support America as the world’s primary superpower can readily be seen from the fact that the national debt is now up to $11 trillion.
Pres. George W. Bush was the first ever to lower taxes during wartime. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been paid for by printing additional cash, which lowers the value of the dollar globally, and by borrowing from foreign countries like China and Saudi Arabia.
It is not our grandchildrens’ role to pay for our wars. If the American people are in favor of war, they should be in favor of paying for it, which logically entails higher taxes. Why do contemporary Americans not feel a duty to chip in for our wars as previous generations did?
By borrowing from foreign countries to finance wars, we are acting as absurdly as one who buys an expensive car, charges it to a credit card and then makes minimum payments. That wouldn’t be a very smart financial decision, would it?
Sen. Joe Biden was criticized a few weeks back for saying that paying taxes was patriotic. In response to his critics, what is so patriotic about going into debt to foreign creditors?
I’m extremely dismayed by the GOP’s ethnic and socioeconomic exclusiveness. The GOP has become the party of business interests and blue-collar white people. It also is the party of those who profit from the ideological influence they wield over those blue-collar white people.
Consider this: most or all of the GOP’s leadership is white and the GOP has not elected a black person to Congress in six years or more. That’s not a reflection of the American populace.
The Reagan ideological revolution has run its course and is no longer responsive to today’s needs. The GOP must now reinvent itself or wither away.
Christopher Herrin is a graduate Religious Studies major and a columnist for the Daily Forty-Niner.
