January 7th, 2021 is the first day of the New Republican Party. There will still be the diehard white supremacists, Christian evangelicals and tea partiers that believe in Trump, but the better half of the party will have to finally admit that the emperor has no clothes.
When Trump and his followers say that the election was stolen and that there were irregularities, what they really mean is that too many black and brown people voted. The senate election in Georgia (and the incredibly impressive point by point rebuttal of Trump’s idiotic call with Raffensperger by Republican elections head Gabriel Sterling) proved beyond any doubt that the blue wave was all about grass roots voter encouragement and turnout.
The Republican fear of the changing demographics in our country has a long history. After the election of Barack Obama in 2008 there was a sense that the party could become marginalized if it did not change its approach. But instead of embracing a style of conservative politics that might attract the new demographic, the party was coopted by the populist Trump movement that started with a clearly racist denial of Obama’s birth credentials.
That movement was a dangerous tilt toward authoritarianism, and it brought out the very worst in Americans. But thankfully, it has been checked by its own virulence and extremism. It appears that the time of Trump may be over.
America needs a healthy conservative counterbalance. The traditional conservative values of minimal government, strong families, economic prosperity and social mobility are important and necessary influences in our society. But they need to be represented in good faith and with a plan to help solve some of the obvious afflictions that our legacies of slavery and mass incarceration have created, as well as the growing inequalities in income, wealth, healthcare, education and employment.
Trump tapped a vein of frustration in our society that has a long history and will not disappear with him. It is up to the new Republican party to forcefully reject the dystopian vision of America that Trump espoused and replace it with a positive, forward-looking set of programs that they can advocate. They need to reach out to the Trump devotees who are open to a fresh start and nurture a new civility and respect for the process of political negotiation, compromise and inclusivity.
Let us all pray that such a new Republican party will indeed emerge out of the violence and outrage from yesterday’s attempted coup. It is four years long overdue.
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