Politics, News & Issues >
Party Politics & Ideology
Get a Widget for this title
RSS FeedAre we witnessing the death of the GOP?
Results so far:
| Yes | 43% | 66 votes | Total: 154 votes | |
| No | 57% | 88 votes |
Yes
Write now
Print
Invite a writer™
Add to FavoritesThe question of whether or not the Republican party will continue is mostly irrelevant. When a party dies, no one will know it for decades. The party might win elections and nominate candidates for years to come, but that doesn't mean it isn't dead. It just means enough people aren't aware of the smell yet.
The Republican party died decades ago, it is currently only running on life support. The real question is, why do we pretend that the GOP of years past is still around today? What are the primary planks of the 'Grand Old Party' platform? Well they are vast. I believe though, that the goal of the party can be summed up easily enough.
Smaller federal government. The notion that government was never intended to stray outside it's initial shape or framework. When a fruit tree is allowed to grow to a point where it cannot support it's branches, those branches begin to break. Because of that, they splinter the trunk, damaging the tree and impede it's production of fruit. When a fruit tree stops producing fruit it becomes null.
When a government grows beyond what it is capable of, it damages those that it was intended to serve. If you believe that 'We The People' are the nation, then you must understand that when we let the government overstep it's bounds it own serves to damage us in turn. A tree that is kept pruned and trimmed, yields fruit thus it serves it's purpose. A government that is continually reminded and confined to its duties, will also better serve its purpose.
The Republican party has lost sight of that goal. It now serves only itself. The party today is not the party of Regan. It's trite to say that, because it has been repeated so often. Additionally Regan wasn't the pinnacle of Republican ideals. What people don't realize is that before Regan was elected, the Republican party had been in a downward spiral for years. Eisenhower did more to advance the welfare state, through the growth of social security and cement the US on the path to socialism, than any Republican had ever done prior. A path that we have not often veered from since.
Now, over fifty years later the federal government, that was originally there to enforce laws and uphold the rights of its citizens and the rights of each State in the Union is responsible for our well being. This is a job that it was never intended to perform. And all the while this derailed federal government is spewing the mantra of 'we have your best interest in mind'.
When you consider that the framers of our Constitution, rebelled and raised up arms against a government that was smaller and in many ways, less oppressive than ours is now, you might just have to laugh. What would they think of us now?
It limits our second amendment rights, and we ask it to take more.
It taxes us so it can handle our retirement and we ask it to take more.
It regulates the way we rear our children and we ask it to take more.
It regulates free trade, and we ask it to take more.
It holds hearing on professional sports and we ask it to take more.
It strips our freedoms with the Patriot act, and we ask it to take more.
And now the federal government wants to take over our health care and we praise them for it.
I expect such behavior from the Democrat party. They are the party of big government and better living through taxation, removal of freedoms and the nanny state. They have openly been that party for decades. The Republican party is worse. They're lying to us. We send them to Washington on the pretense, of 'lower taxes' 'States rights' and expansion of 'personal freedoms'. And what becomes of the federal government under their charge? New taxes, new government departments, bowing to lobbyist, environmentalists and all the while the government grows and grows and we continue to vote.
Why do we keep pretending the Republicans are the party they claim to be. They aren't. They haven't been for years. With the exception of a small regrouping during the first Regan administration, and two years following the contract with America. The Republicans spent too much time trying to impeach a President and too little time trying to reign in a government out of control.
I for one have smelled the stench upon the party and I don't know were that leaves me. If I vote for an Independent candidate for President, I help to strengthen the Democrats and their blatant bent towards socialism. If I vote for McCain, I confirm that I will vote party lines even when I believe it damages my rights and the rights of all citizens. In order to sleep at night, I must vote what I believe, even if that means four years of Obama.
The GOP has left its values. So in turn I must turn from it.
Learn more about this author, Peter Brown.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
No
Some ideologues have suggested that the electoral landslide victory of Barack Obama is just another nail in the coffin of the Republican Party. However, popular vote tallies from the 2008 election indicate otherwise. Forty-six percent of American voters cast ballots for John McCain - hardly indicative of a dying GOP. However, what Americans will begin to witness is a realignment of party values and approaches on both sides of the aisle, due to the type of president Barack Obama says he's going to be and the type of president George W. Bush has been over the last eight years.
Barack Obama drew voters from some previously unlikely areas. According to one Economist article, a large swath of conservatives, particularly libertarians, moved away from the traditional Republican coalition to vote for Obama. Barack Obama's willingness to acknowledge the importance and usefulness of free markets to acheive policy objectives was a major reason for this. More than any other candidate in the last forty years, Obama seems to be the one who can return the Democratic Party to its modern, JFK-like roots: socially liberal, fiscally conservative, and strong on defense. The conservative-talk-sh ow mantra that liberals revere Jack Kennedy, but that Jack Kennedy would be a Republican today, may no longer have substance or effect. Over the last decade, the Democratic Party has been accused of losing its vision and brand identity - existing as nothing more than a hodgepodge of liberal, issue-oriented groups who tend to vote in unison. Obama now has the opportunity as the default Democratic leader to change the brand and cast the Democrats off in a new, principle-oriented direction and drawing many former Republicans in with him.
Even more than Obama's ability to re-brand the Democrats, George W. Bush's abandonment of Republican branding over the last eight years drove some traditional allies away. Again, the libertarian sector of the Republican coalition was largely affected. The Bush administration pushed and approved the largest increase in the size of national government since the New Deal and Great Society initiatives of FDR and LBJ, hardly a conservative move. He also began and continues to support a seemingly never ending War on Terror with fuzzy objectives and even fuzzier strategy. In the 1980s, the Republican Party gained strength when neo-conservatives (social liberals in favor of interventionist foreign policy) and libertarian-leaning liberals were drawn in by Ronald Reagan and his common-sense approach to government. After eight years of Bush, neo-cons have had ample reason to rethink their positions, and libertarians have plenty of evidence to suggest that they and Republicans aren't always on the same page. The new challenge for the GOP is also to re-brand their identity and stand on consistent principles that voters can recognize and identify with. Most importantly, it must be a brand that Americans will vote for.
The interplay of issues in both of the major political parties puts them in a position to begin working on their own identities over the next decade. Democrats are now challenged to retain the power they've won across the board by creating a principled stance that reaches out to the average voter as well as the intellectual base. In like manner, Republicans are challenged to recreate themselves to appeal, perhaps once again, to the voters they've lost. In either case, the Democrats, if they don't get on the same page, have the potential to mess this up. As for Republicans, they're far from dead, but definitely feeling a little under the weather.
Learn more about this author, Roger Prather.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Difference of opinion? Debate now.
