The Republican Party as we know it is closing in on death.
What was once the party of Lincoln, Reagan and Eisenhower is long gone and it has instead been replaced with racism, bigotry and white-supremacy. I’m ashamed to consider myself a party of the “Grand Old Party.”
Why are we, college aged Republicans, allowing ourselves to be brought down by this stigma that surrounds the party we come to represent? We complain and complain about being suppressed, and having our voices silenced. However, we never take the responsibility of acknowledging why this suppression exists in the first place. We have, whether or not we personally accept these views, adopted a platform of hatred and violence. We support a President who treats women like objects, and supports the “peaceful” alt-right neo-Nazis that make up his base. We are the problem. But, we can also be the solution.
The Republican Party was the party of abolition. We were the ones who believed all men (and women) were created equal and deserved to be treated as such. We are the ones who believed in the American Dream, and embracing the diversity and greatness that our country is home to. However, with the rise of Trumpian politics, this has changed.
Gone are the days when Republicans focused on building a solid economy and giving Americans the ability to find work and raise up through the career ladders. Gone are the days when Republicans focused on “family values” and giving more power to the people, and shrinking government.
Replaced with this is a political party torn to shreds by a tabloid star who focuses on Russian brothels instead of dissolving tense conflict in the nuclear age. The worst part about this is that I accepted him. Myself, along with 62,984,828 Americans accepted this. We allowed for our party to be destroyed, even welcomed it.
I love the Republican Party and consider myself a Constitutional Conservative. But the Republican Party is on the verge of collapse.
By the time President Trump leaves office, he will not be affiliated with a party, because the Republican Party will cease to exist. Republicans today are more divided than ever before. The party will break down and a new, hopefully more libertarian movement will start.
It is up to us, young conservatives, to save the movement we have based our entire belief system on. We have to reject the notion that President Trump is the Republican Party, and instead focus on our fundamental values. What is conservatism? In the word’s of Jonathan Krohn, “I want the American people to understand that conservatism is an ideology of protecting the people and the people’s rights.” Conservatism is about limited government, a strong defense, supporting core family values within households, and giving people back their God given rights. President Trump exemplifies none of this. The Republican Party today exemplifies none of this. Congress and the President can pass all of the legislation they want, but it doesn’t matter. The true Republican Party that my family for generations accepted and embraced, is dead.
We need to believe in what Reagan re-established during his tenure in the White House. We need to refocus on the core of our movement. We need to shun and disassociate with the fake news that is Donald Trump’s presidency. We need to re-establish the Republican Party for what it truly was meant to be. The party of America, of freedom, of conservatism, of the people. If we don’t stand true to our values and reject the hatred that our party has accepted, then we will no longer be able to call ourselves Republicans. Our movement, our party, our beliefs, will become extinct. The Republican Party will die, but all it needs is for true conservatives to come together and truly represent what our party is meant to be. God bless America.
Jeff G
It’s hard to tell if Bill Kristol or Jennifer Rubin or John Kasich or Jeff Flake or a Bush family relative wrote this.
It’s got all the hallmarks of their thinking (i.e. strategy). Lionizing Reagan (which Reagan deserves) and pretending Reagan and Trump are so different when both were straight talking aggressive DC outsiders that tapped into some populism and faced attack by the establishment.
Trump is pursuing a mostly conventional Republican and conservative policy agenda and doing so aggressively and quickly. And succeeding. Which is what people on the right wanted, what they always want.
Is this what the young RINOs at your college talk about? The “stigma” that’s “bringing you down” is being brought by you and your apparent submission to and agreement with the liberal or “centrist” biased mainstream media narratives about Trump that are overrepresented in our culture. Media narratives that brought down your darling Romney and McCain and that even destroyed the “compassionate conservative” Bush era reputation.
Nathaniel Beach
Jeff G. Ronald Reagan didn’t sleep with a porn star and try to pay her off. Ronald Reagan had a filter. Allies and enemies of the US respected Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan called Russia an “evil-empire,” throughout the campaign President Trump praised Putin. Ronald Reagan was good friends with Democrats like Speaker Tip O’Neal and this allowed for more civility in legislative battles, President Trump makes enemies out of his own party. Ronald Reagan was a prominent political figure at the time of his campaign serving two terms as California’s governor – not much of an outsider to me
Owen Lee
So refreshing to see this view. The Republican Party has become a small tent under Trumpism. I agree with everything that you said. The Republican party have ignored the middle segment of the Party. Lech Wexner left..and others in droves. If it doesn’t change others like me would be leaving too.