Writing wistfully about Reagan’s “big tent” party, Chris Cillizza, a CNN political commentator, said (here), “Republicans would do well to take a breath and remember Reagan’s assertion of who was welcomed into the GOP.”
Well no, he’s missing the point.
First, let’s back up a little. What exactly was Reagan’s “big tent” party? This:
“The Republican Party, both in this state and nationally, is a broad party,” Reagan said. “There is room in our tent for many views; indeed, the divergence of views is one of our strengths.”
Ahhh, the good old days.
Now fast-forward to the present, when “the Republican Party has wholly abandoned Reagan’s call for a big-tent party,” replaced by demand for “total and utter fealty” to Trump, a fascist. Cillizza then provides a specific example of the “shrinkage” of the GOP base, in the persons of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, big-tent Republicans, and threatened with being kicked out of the House GOP caucus for resisting the party’s drift toward fascism.
I’m not disputing Cillizza’s description of how the GOP has changed from Reagan’s time. It’s accurate. What I’m saying is he’s missing the point entirely when he suggests that Republicans try to broaden their appeal. He can’t see the forest for the trees. They’re way beyond that.
The GOP hasn’t only abandoned Reagan’s vision of a party with popular appeal. These are people who’ve ditched democracy and are trying to dismantle its framework. They speak openly of “revolution” and “civil war,” join militia groups, and stockpile guns and ammunition. A few months ago, they tried to violently overthrow our government and kill its leaders.
These Republicans don’t care that they’re unpopular, any more than the Taliban do. They are the Taliban. The American Taliban. The similarity is more than allegorical. (In case you missed it, “White supremacist and anti-government extremists have expressed admiration for what the Taliban accomplished.” See story here.)
Dictators don’t have to be popular. They only have to be ruthless. Republicans are figuring that out.
The media, represented by people like Cillizza, can’t possibly be blind to where the GOP has gone, and where it’s going. That’s too obvious to miss. With popularity eluding them, Republicans have decided to go the authoritarian route.
Journalists like Cillizza pussyfoot around it because they’re still stuck on the false notion that journalistic legitimacy requires neutrality.
They’re supposed to be objective, but twisting themselves into pretzels to be neutral is absurd. If these guys (photo, left) are Taliban, then call them “Taliban.” (Now compare with the photo below.)
The media need to stop being so squeamish and call things what they are.
