For those of us who are appalled and horrified at the havoc Donald Trump has wreaked on our country, I believe that it’s time to stop talking about him and his pathologies and time to start talking about the Republican Party that elected, supports and enables him.
Whether you agree with conservatism or not, it is a political philosophy with a long tradition and principles can be honestly debated. After all, to “conserve” means to protect, to save, to care for to use wisely, to prevent waste.
But since the ’80s and Reagan’s presidency, the Republican Party has come to bear no resemblance to true conservatism. It is, in fact, radical in its disregard for the common good, its destruction of principles of honor and integrity, its dishonesty and obstructionism.
The party, including many members who rightly criticized Trump’s presidential ambitions in the beginning, has allowed him to do and say things that were unimaginable coming from a leader of this country just a few years ago. The party’s representatives in Congress have abandoned whatever integrity and principles they once had in order to further their own personal ambitions and the financial well-being of the one percent. They have permitted the debasing of our political institutions, and allowed Trump’s appalling vulgarity, misogyny and racism to become the way we talk to each other.
What happened to dignity, and honor, and integrity, and truth? What happened to holding oneself to a high ethical and moral standard? What happened to principled leadership that can guide us through crises like COVID and the systemic racism that persists in our country?
It’s the modern Republican Party that has engineered and allowed the destruction of so much that is good about the United States, and it’s time for it to be held accountable. How does this happen? By We the People voting Republicans out of power in a resounding and decisive way. Only then will the party perhaps re-build itself as a lone with an honorable and legitimate part to play in our democracy. Of course there are honest and decent Republicans. It would be nonsense to say otherwise. But I can’t believe that in their hearts they approve of the direction the party has been tending for decades, which culminated in the election of Trump, and I can’t believe that anyone who believes in decency and honesty and truth really supports him.
Let’s be guided by Lincoln’s phrase, “the better angels of our nature,” and let’s expect our political leaders to be as well. Then maybe we really will be great again.
Marion Griswold is a resident of Greenfield.