Vote for Destruction of the GOP in November

The Republican Party of today bears no resemblance to the party from the years of Ronald Reagan and decades before that.  Today's GOP has become a sectarian party ruled by a cult leader in the form of Donald Trump.   Today's GOP has no real interest in actually governing and cares nothing about the good and welfare of the country and the majority of its citizens.  Retaining power at any cost - as was demonstrated by the January 6, 2021, insurrection - and pleasing the ever more extreme element of the MAGA base are all that matters.  Hence the sabotage of a Senate deal on border security because it might help Joe Biden.  Hence the betrayal of Ukraine and many other allies by congressional Republicans.   What has become clear is that the Republican Party is beyond reforming itself from within.  Sane and responsible Republicans have either been forced out or have retired given the unworkable nature of their party.  As a column in the Washington Post lays out, only huge election losses may force the GOP to do what it otherwise will refuse to do.  If one cares about democracy and wants a sane and functioning GOP, one must vote against EVER GOP candidate come November, 2024, and sufficiently cripple the GOP to force reform.  Here are column excerpts:

Anyone who genuinely cares about the future of the Republican Party — and you should if you care about strengthening democracy — has only one option in November: Vote to destroy the party to save it.

I care about the GOP. No one has ever mistaken me for a conservative, but I believe our democracy functions best when there is healthy, fact-based competition between liberal and conservative viewpoints. Progressive ideas and policy positions are improved by being challenged, and the best decisions are forged from vigorous debate.

Now, however, we have the Democratic Party on one side and the Republican dumpster fire on the other. The GOP is a cult, held in thrall by an unstable bully and would-be authoritarian. Held captive by a man who sent armed insurrectionists to the Capitol in a violent attempt to overturn his defeat in a free and fair election. Held hostage by a man who punishes any perceived disloyalty with political execution.

At the 2020 Republican National Convention, the GOP didn’t even offer a party platform. Instead, it simply affirmed its “strong support for President Donald Trump” and his “America-first agenda,” whatever that might be at any given moment.

The nation would be foolish, at this point, to expect Republicans to rise up and free themselves. Look at how the congressional negotiations over border security and Ukraine aid have changed since Trump’s New Hampshire victory on Tuesday. Just last week, GOP senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), were optimistic that the package would swiftly be approved by the Senate. But on Wednesday, McConnell told a closed-door meeting of his caucus that there might no longer be a path forward for the bill — because Trump opposes any remedy for the border crisis that might make President Biden look good.

This is insanity. Democrats are offering something Republicans have wanted for years, and might never be offered again: tougher border security without a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country, including “dreamers.” But Dear Leader Trump says no and, suddenly, GOP senators are afraid to say yes.

Republicans in Congress, clearly, will not free their party. And it looks doubtful that the GOP base has any intention of breaking the chains that bind it.

Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley finished a strong second in New Hampshire, becoming the anti-Trump by default. But the next contested primary is a month away, and it is in her home state, which might not feel very welcoming. For four long weeks, she will have to survive withering personal attacks from Trump and calls from powerful Republicans to drop out of the race in the name of party unity. And then, if she makes it to Feb. 24, she will need a miracle.

The RealClearPolitics average of polls in South Carolina shows Trump with a 30-point lead. Those surveys were taken before the other GOP candidates dropped out, so Haley can be expected to close the gap. But virtually all of the state’s Republican elected officials have fallen in line behind Trump — including Sen. Tim Scott, whom Haley first appointed to the Senate in 2013 when she was governor, and who obsequiously told Trump “I just love you” during Trump’s New Hampshire victory speech.

Our political parties reform and reconstitute themselves after being soundly rebuked by the voters. After the disaster of President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation and the aimlessness of the Gerald Ford administration, Republicans regrouped and became the party of Ronald Reagan; his policies were not those I agreed with, but they were coherent and could be negotiated with. After Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis lost successive presidential elections, their party turned to Bill Clinton and the “new Democrats,” whose ideas were a break with the past — and, again, held together as an ideology.

If you want the GOP to be a serious conservative political party and not a MAGA cult, send Republicans into the wilderness. Vote for Biden. Take away Republicans’ control of the House. Give Democrats a bigger majority in the Senate. Vote Republican officials out of statehouses, city halls and school boards.

Make the metaphorical ashes from which a new GOP can rise.