I am the product of a mixed marriage. My mother was a feminist Democrat and my father was a loyal Republican. Plus, both of them were passionate about politics and politically active. Plus, neither of them were likely to back down from an argument. To say the least, I had an interesting childhood.
I was seven when Vice-President Richard Nixon engaged Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev in the heated “Kitchen Debate” as to which was superior, capitalism or communism. It was called the Kitchen Debate because the impromptu argument commenced while Nixon was showing Khrushchev a model U.S. kitchen with modern appliances at an international exhibition. Before long, tempers flared:
Nixon: “You must not be afraid of ideas… After all, you don’t know everything!”
Khrushchev: “You don’t know anything about communism–except fear of it!”
Even so, despite this partisan bickering, both men—knowing they were on camera—did not fail to smile at each other, pat each other on the shoulder, and warmly shake hands at the end. Personally, watching a tape of this debate, I prefer Nixon arguing American principles to Khrushchev, rather than Trump fawningly believing whatever Putin says to be true.
It isn’t surprising that the leader of The Soviet Union and the future President of the United States had polarized political perspectives. But to me, a kid growing up in a politically-divided household, I thought the Kitchen Debates were the arguments that took place in our kitchen, between my dad and mom, as to whether the next President should be Nixon or Kennedy.
The politically contentious marriage between my parents didn’t end in divorce. (Maybe they liked to argue.) Au contraire, several years later when I was in college, my mom decided to run for office as a Democrat—with my father’s full emotional and financial support. To his dying day he bragged his wife was the only Democrat he ever voted for.
So how come today I am not an independent, but a left-leaning progressive political activist Democrat? The simple answer is, the Republican Party sucks.
I didn’t always think that way. I strove toward independence, trying to embrace the best aspects of the Republican Party and the best aspects of the Democratic Party. Yet I noticed when my parents argued, I usually agreed with my father when it came to practical matters around the home (“You can’t cool down the house opening windows when it’s 98⁰ out!”); but I agreed with my mother when it came to political matters (“Nixon is a crook and should be impeached!”).
When Lyndon Johnson promoted civil rights legislation, I couldn’t comprehend how anyone could vote for the ultra-conservative Barry Goldwater. However, When Johnson promoted the War in Vietnam, I lost all allegiance to the Democratic Party. When Nixon continued to wage War in Vietnam, waged a War on Drugs, waged war on his political enemies, and waged war on people who were poor and black; I lost any respect for the Republican Party. For years I never considered myself to be either a Democrat or a Republican, in spite of the fact I usually preferred the Democratic candidate over the Republican opponent.
Not anymore.
I learn a lot attending our Tuesday luncheons following our weekly Anti-Trump rallies in downtown Greenville in front of Lindsey Graham’s office. Sometimes I learn things I don’t want to know. Last Tuesday I eavesdropped on a conversation between two of my friends, both of whom I greatly admire for their ideas, their ideals, and their dedication to our progressive movement. To my dismay, I discovered the discussion was a heated argument as one accused the other of intolerance to a conflicting perspective.
When a brain-dead Trump-loving deplorable threw tea in my face; or a redneck in an old pickup truck adorned with a Confederate flag gave me the finger; I could appreciate that polarized political affiliations can cause conflict and consternation. I understood why a close conservative friend of mine objected when I wrote for Daily Kos that Trump supporters are ignorant and stupid. (In fact, I was impressed he was open-minded enough to turn off Fox to read my diary.) But what I cannot understand, even as a Political Psychologist, is why people on the same side end up getting so mad at each other. Is it so easy to point fingers? Is it jealousy? Is it the evils of social media, where gossip and put-downs spread easily like a flu epidemic? Is it that as soon as we shift from ideas and policies to deciding which candidates we like and which ones we don’t, we descend into competitive bickering partisanship?
Whatever it is, I hate it.
Another person I like and admire at the Tuesday luncheons encouraged me to read The Coddling of the American Mind. I told her I first need to finish the four books I am in the middle of. But last night I found an abridged version on-line. This gist of it was, you must not be afraid of ideas; after all, you don’t know everything. Yet there was one line in the article I found disturbing:
Attempts to shield students from words, ideas, and people that might cause them emotional discomfort are bad for students…And they are bad for American democracy, which is already paralyzed by worsening partisanship.
I agree that we shouldn’t avoid listening to ideas we don’t immediately agree with. I disagree that our democracy is being paralyzed by worsening partisanship. Our democracy isn’t being paralyzed by partisanship. Our democracy is being paralyzed by Trump and the Republican Party!
It is an insidious politically-correct myth to advocate the problem is partisanship, as that means both sides are worthy of merit. When Trump proclaimed there were good people on both sides, Neo-Nazi white supremacists on one side, and anti-Nazi protestors on the other; he ignorantly assumed no one could object to the ubiquitous idea that each side of any divide has something useful to offer. Not when one side calls for the extermination of the other.
There is a time to put partisanship aside and find common ground. But now is the time to take a stand and recognize the other side is a dangerous threat to our democracy. That other side is The Republican Party—NOT factions within the Democratic Party that prefer one good competent candidate over another good competent candidate.
I believe in a healthy two-party system. The alternative is either a totalitarian one party system, or an unmanageable multi-party system. Moreover, unless we enact voting reforms—such as eliminating plurality voting, and substituting it with an improved system, such as Three Option Voting,—three or more partisan candidates in the race can create unfair and undemocratic outcomes, often electing the worst candidate running, such as George W. Bush or Donald Trump.
What all of us need to recognize, including Republicans, is that today’s Republican Party is rotten to the core, and like a cancerous tumor, needs to be eliminated from the body politic. This wasn’t always true, much as some like to believe it. When I suggested to a life-long loyal Democrat that Republican Teddy Roosevelt was a great President and the Democrat Woodrow Wilson wasn’t, he reacted like I was uttering blasphemy. Remember, even Nixon helped start the EPA, and Eisenhower helped build the interstate highway system while the ultra-rich were taxed 90%.
Here is why the Republican Party—and not partisanship—is currently the problem:
Rich
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The Republican Party has been bought by the Koch Brothers and other billionaires to do their bidding, not to address the needs of everyday Americans. Thus, the Republicans provide government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich—and ordinary people be damned.
Ruinous
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The Republican Party is the party of Trump. Trump has destroyed or contaminated anything that was good about the Republican Party. Although Trumpism is neither conservatism nor Republicanism; both conservatives and Republicans refuse to stand up to him, and instead, like Lindsey Graham, have made a Faustian bargain to use him to their advantage while turning a blind eye to his dangerous unstable demeanor and policies.
Racist
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The Republican Party is the party of racism and bigotry. From the time of Lincoln to Kennedy, the South was solidly Democratic because the Democrats in the South were the party of anti-black Jim Crow segregation, white-supremacy, and inequality. Once Kennedy endorsed civil rights, the South, almost overnight, switched from solidly Democrat to solidly Republican. Until Trump, across the country racist leanings were implied by the Republicans, but not openly stated. Today, Trump and other Republicans are boldly stating out-loud their bigoted, racist tendencies against blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, immigrants and other non-white groups.
Repressive
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The Republican Party is the party of voter suppression. As more and more Americans are non-whites, the Republican Party has done everything possible to make it more difficult for non-whites and demographic groups that usually vote Democratic, to be able to vote.
Reprehensible
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The Republicans unabashedly cheat on elections. Although Democrats cheated in the past (Mayor Daley), today Republicans don’t even seem to be trying to conceal their overt efforts to win political office by any means, regardless of how unfair or undemocratic. Purging Democratic voters from being eligible to vote, gerrymandering districts so Democrats can’t win, deliberately rigging elections and their results to ensure Republican victory—the litany of sins seems endless. The Republicans stole the 2000 Presidential election. The Republicans most likely also stole the 2004 and 2016 election.
Rigid
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The Republicans have refused to work with Democrats; their goal has not been to provide Americans what they need and want; their goal has been pure and simple to defeat Democrats and obtain power. Obama idealistically and naively believed he could work with Republicans, but they were so bent on obstruction they voted against policies they previously advocated, as soon as Obama accepted them to get things done, because they didn’t want Obama to accomplish anything. One egregious example was Mitch McConnell’s refusal to allow Obama to rightly select Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court as stipulated by the Constitution. The Republicans have no intention of fighting fair.
Rotten
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The Republican Party has become hopelessly corrupted. Republican candidates only aspire for two things: power and money. This wasn’t always true. Republican Everett Dirksen, a man of integrity, worked across the aisle supporting (fortunately) Johnson’s Civil Rights bill, and (unfortunately) Johnson’s War in Vietnam. Senator John McCain seems to have been the last Republican who put service to his country over personal gain.
Russian
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The Republican Party used to stand up to the oppression of the Soviet Union; now they are enabling Trump to do Putin’s bidding, even as it weakens the United States and our Democratic allies. Mitch McConnell refused to admit or warn the American people the Russians were trying to erode our elections, nonetheless admit the Russians were trying to elect Trump.
Rapacious
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The Republican Party threatens all life on Earth by ignoring the impending doom of climate change, and thus refusing to do anything about it. Denying science is deadly. At least twenty-one people died during the recent polar vortex caused by climate change—several of whom froze to death. Meanwhile Trump quips we could sure use global warming, too stupid to understand that global warming caused the intense cold to veer so far to the South. When Republican Bob Inglis of South Carolina admitted he believed in global warming after visiting Antarctica, he was voted out of office.
Thank you for reading this far into this rambling rant, but there is one idea each of us who are doing all we can to remove Trump and improve America needs to consider regardless of the discomfort. As Americans who detest Trump and all he is doing to destroy America, we cannot allow partisanship within our own party to divide us into partisan factions. If we don’t stand united as Democrats, what chance do we have of stopping the Republicans?