Conservatism’s peak of power and influence

We live in a time that is definitely unlike any other. It was not all that long ago that ideas that have or are becoming policy in so many places were dismissed by most as being fringe at best and outright whackjob crazy at worst. In the late 1970’s, certain advisors serving as the brain trust of the Republican Party articulated a strategy by which to mainstream their ideas and sell them to the voting public. They exhorted their rank and file members to step up and run for every available public office from their local school board to President of the United States. They also figured it out that when fewer people cast ballots the better their candidates perform at the polls. With the rolling back of the Fairness Doctrine and rise of partisan media in the late 1980s, their ideas steadily gained traction and their audience reach rapidly grew. Concurrent with the messaging was their growing control over Congressional and legislative redistricting which lent heavily to taking over Congress in 1994 and seemingly permanent majorities in many state legislatures with supermajorities in some since 2010. Wielding the power of the pen and the gavel, they often appear to rule more than govern and do so with a decided air of impunity. The steady stream of daily news and media stories featuring any one of a number of state legislatures controlled by ridiculously large Republican majorities are showcasing their efforts at forcefully waging a crusade against the so-called WOKE mob, passing restrictive laws on small minority groups, dictating what constitutes criminality regarding the reproductive health of women, attempting via legislation to control public school curriculums including tolerating the banning of books deemed inappropriate or subversive, and doing all they can to ensure that voting will be extremely difficult for segments of the population known to vote heavily Democratic. What we are all witness to in 2023 is a cringeworthy spectacle that history may very well record as the high water mark of the American Conservative Movement. It is a terrible sight for sober freedom-loving Americans and not much better for tipsy ones. I’m sure from the outside looking in, the grand American Experiment is looking more like a failure with each passing day.

We can say what we will about the failures of the Republican Party in the past three decades, but the one thing they have done better than any other similar organization is successfully play a long game strategy. They have sucked it up and borne all manner of criticism and public ire for ignoring traditional norms and ramrodding through judicial appointments and implementing policies that have been or are currently being proven to be overall unpopular with a majority of the citizenry without having to risk placing such ideas on an Election Day ballot. Packing the Supreme Court with partisan ideologs was their most classic example of how to end run around the voters. In doing so, they were able to accomplish their goal of the past half-century of overturning Roe v Wade. Forget anything any of them may have said in public regarding that particular piece of long since settled case law. Instead, look at their results and it is plain to see their fundamental belief in action that the end justifies the means. Getting rid of Roe was but the first item on their agenda. Now they are working on the reversal of a litany of other court decisions and past legislation in their effort to roll back the social and economic gains of the twentieth century. From child labor laws to voting rights to all forms of public assistance programs even to Social Security itself, nothing that was heretofore regarded as sacrosanct is off their legislative chopping block.

What Conservative spokespersons may say is really meaningless in light of the draconian policies they promote and laws they draft with a smug sense of in-your-face arrogance. We are seeing American Conservatism at the pinnacle of its power and the harm it is inflicting on an ever increasing number of citizens is becoming more apparent with each punitive law that is passed.

We can only wonder what those in charge at the summit of Conservative utopia think they are viewing, looking down upon all the results of their long-fought efforts to make America a Republican paradise. One go-to sentiment in politics that has been mentioned often on this blog is be careful what you wish for, you might get it! Aside from the places where the GOP holds legislative majorities and even some where they do, the overturning of Roe has not translated into the outcomes they were seeking. For nearly half a century GOP candidates and operatives were able to raise exorbitant amounts of money and mobilize the Conservative voter base and get them to the polls on Election Day by advocating for a constituency to whom they knew they would never have to answer: the Unborn. Now, in 2023, with Roe gone and women of childbearing age of all political stripe suffering demonstrable harm from codified policies mandating forced pregnancy regardless of physical ability to tolerate such a condition, they are going to have to figure out a way to adequately answer to a real and pissed off segment of the electorate. This dynamic has significantly altered the political landscape as the 2022 mid-terms bore out. A year ago right now the Conservative media insisted that the GOP was taking back the Senate by at least six seats and taking back the House with a 40-seat majority. By many accounts including that of a former POTUS, it was the overturning of Roe that kept the Senate in Democratic hands and heavily contributed to the GOP underperformance in taking back the House, netting them control of the chamber by a paltry 4 to 5 seats. That weak majority was decided by a sum total of around 6675 popular votes. It has taken a while for the GOP to figure out why they are not getting the love at the ballot box they thought they deserved, and this is but one issue. Admittedly, it is a big one, but the trouble ahead for Republican incumbents could lie in their callous disregard of how many dead and injured women will be paying with their health and life for their ideological extremism. If anyone thought the mismanagement of Covid-19 three years ago that led to over 600K dead by Election Day 2020 was the #1 deciding factor in that one, this one could possibly top it.

It is open for speculation as to how effective a party with so much raw power could be had it not sold out to the politics of personality and had real orthodox conservative leadership at its helm. Since 2017, Republican candidates have more often than not come up short in previously competitive races and some even in GOP bastions. Caving to the demands of their extreme fringe has not granted them favorable results. Perhaps we should be grateful that someone with the intellectual wherewithal isn’t in charge of them. Someone with the restraint to moderate could put a kinder face on all their cruelty and maybe give them a chance at redemption with enough voters to matter. Regardless, showing their true colors and writing into law their honest intentions surrounding forced pregnancy-forced birth-no exceptions policies will make a decided majority of voters wary when they seek to “reform” Social Security. Since it became the law of the land nearly a century ago, the Social Security program for all of its pitfalls and imperfections has since become overwhelmingly popular and any attempt to in any way dismantle it after so many have invested 7.5% or 15% of their paychecks into it over the course of their working lifetime will not be well received. Suffice to say the third rail of American politics will not be pissed on with impunity. Same goes for Medicare, Medicaid and S-CHIP and everything else the extreme Rightwing agenda has slated for abolition. Speaking of things unpopular, their intentional inaction on reigning in access to assault weapons is steadily eroding their increasingly marginal moral credibility with a growing number of Americans given that an increasing number of people are viewing automatic weapons as a greater threat to life and limb than drag queens reading books to school children. This is probably the most upside down, out of proportion disarrayed set of priorities sinking them. There have been few occurrences in history where so few held sway over so many as the National Rifle Association has with a membership 4.3 million. When it comes to legislation and firearms, Republican leaders seem to conduct themselves as political captives of the most powerful minority in the nation, the firearms industry. As the bodies pile up from all the mass shootings, we cannot help but wonder what it is going to take to break this ridiculous hold on an unacceptable status quo. Several in the GOP still have the gall to wonder why so many high profile Conservatives have quit them. Hopefully it will eventually dawn on them that it has to do with the dearth of integrity along with the loss of willingness to do the right thing.

It is true that the GOP in its current incarnation is an organization which bears no resemblance to the one Yours Truly once admired and over the years endorsed with numerous votes for its candidates. Several former Conservatives I’m sure are still scratching their head and wondering what happened to the party of their youth that stood for clear and just American values. Having been a Democrat for only the past two decades, I still believe that the nation truly benefits from a strong and principled Republican Party. I even find myself feeling disappointed in what is being passed off as “Republican” and “Conservative” because the GOP led by its current cast of characters is neither strong nor principled.

The true colors of Conservative America are flying full unfurled from a bent and twisted tree of very distorted values which sprouted from the seeds planted over a half a century ago. Its fruits are very self-serving for a shrinking number of party members and very bitter for a growing majority including several who have or will soon abandon them. It is definitely the highwater mark for Conservatism and they are pulling no punches in showing America and the World who they are and what they are about. One thing about high water, if it does not drown everything around it and even if it does, it will eventually recede. As has been seen since last year, sentinels of reason have been emerging from the deluge of Conservative policies. The hopes and dreams of a free and equal America are riding on the crest of the flood and are seeking to once again land on a more firm foundation in search of a more perfect union. As with all crises, this too shall pass.

Thank you for reading.