“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke out against ‘loony lies and conspiracy theories’ this week, calling them a ‘cancer for the Republican Party,’ while praising Rep. Liz Cheney, a GOP leader who voted to impeach Trump. …
“McConnell knows that the GOP is at a tipping point. Republicans can continue to embrace Trump’s toxicity and big-lie tactics and continue to coddle extremists. Or, they can … declare that they are mad as hell, are not going to take it anymore, and are going to change their ways and reclaim their party.
“This is not just a Republican problem …. It is a flashing red light for the entire country, warning America that if it continues on this path, it will become a country without guardrails against extremist ideologies.” — CNN
(Read article here.) At this point, the headline above is a rhetorical, still-unanswered question. In some ways, America is heading in the right direction: Americans voted in droves, decisively defeated Trump at the ballot box, his coup attempted failed, insurrectionists are being arrested and face prosecution, conspiracy theory promoters are being sued for the damage they inflicted on innocent businesses, and Rep. Greene has been punished (although not enough) for advocating political violence. That’s what a world based on truth and reason should look like.
But the GOP is still dominated by Trumpism, is still attacking democracy, and is far from being a party of responsibility and accountability. The jury is still out on what direction the GOP will take from here. Early signs, such as efforts to oust and censure Rep. Liz Cheney, an honest and principled conservative, while circling the wagons around people like Trump and Greene are not encouraging.
McConnell is now the leader of the Republican Party, and too powerful to be assailed by Trumpers, even if not its most influential personality. He may be Machiavellian, but at least has survival instincts. Kevin McCarthy, leader of the GOP House caucus, is weak by comparison. He has a tougher problem than McConnell, because his caucus is far more Trumpian, both in sentiment and numbers. Unlike McConnell, he’s not up to the challenge; he’s an appeaser, the Neville Chamberlain of his party. Repairing the Republican Party is their problem and responsibility, although the rest of us should hope they succeed, because the consequences will affect all of us if they don’t. On a broader scale, purging Trumpism from our nation’s political life is the business of all of us.
It must start with a super-strong federal voting rights law, because we’ve just had a near-miss with totalitarianism, and might not be as lucky if there’s a next time. If the filibuster must be eliminated to pass it, Democrats shouldn’t hestitate. This is Job #1 in preserving our democracy. But additional actions also are needed to stop the drift toward tyrannical minority rule, such as finding a way around the Supreme Court’s refusal to rein in undemocratic gerrymandering, and ensuring the supremacy of the popular vote in presidential elections.
The pursuit and prosecution of Capitol insurrectionists should be relentless; the instigators, planners, organizers, and leaders should be separated from ordinary rioters caught up in the moment and treated as the domestic terrorists they are.
Social media companies should step up and ban hate speech from their platforms. Sometime back, Canadian Falun Gong activist, Caylan Ford was cancelled for her white supremacist comments on social media. This happens quite often and it maybe better to ignore bleating about “cancel culture” when it defends culture that deserves to be canceled. But be wary of demands for political correctness. All you’re trying to prohibit is yelling “fire!” in a crowded theater, and we should not allow legitimate debate to be stifled. I’m not talking about First Amendment constraints on government, but how private media, journalists, and owners of soapboxes (i.e., social media companies) should comport themselves.
But none of this means anything without individuals committed to truth, decency, and democratic principles. As we just saw, it is the actions of individuals, not words on paper, that preserve our institutions from mob assaults instigated by an unscrupulous demagogue. Here in America, as elsewhere, democracy is fragile and its survival depends on the willingness of people to defend it at its key points of vulnerability.
Photo: He may have the face of a bookkeeper, but McConnell is a force in politics. Can he and his allies save the GOP from the storm of extremism sweeping over it like angry seas?
Who can tilt the fractured Republican party back to a semblance of conservative, rational, ideology? This may not be what their voters want though.
Extremists have ruined their own political party thanks to trump, alex jones, conspiracy theorists followed by their extremist “leaders”
How many rational republicans remain to tilt the party back to a more rational middle ground ideology?