Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
In their convention last week, the Democratic Party strongly signaled a return to American politics as usual.
At least one party has gone back to the “big tent” concept, which tries to unite occasionally fractious divisions behind a single candidate, who then works to appease all factions in some way.
If Joe Biden wins the election in November, which to me is not assured despite the chorus of mainstream media polling that shows Biden way ahead, I hope the Republicans will rethink their strategy.
I would hope they would abandon their current strategy based on strict enforcement of a very rigid set of intolerant views, or whatever President Donald Trump is tweeting at any given minute, to one of systematically accepting a range of right-of-center opinions.
Such a change would allow the GOP to reclaim reasonable variations in views. The party could again embrace the moderate views of Sen. Mitt Romney and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, along with the hard-right views of Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Reasonable Republicans would not have to find themselves supporting a Democrat for president because their own party has been abducted by the magical thinking of enforcers who insist the beliefs they espouse supersede science and visible evidence.
This is an exercise not in strength of belief but of the thrall that Trump holds over today’s GOP. It’s power in its purest and most corrupted form.
For example, no matter how hard Trump tries to focus attention on Chinese bungling as the cause of the COVID-19 epidemic (and he’s probably right), that does not overshadow his complete mishandling of U.S. response to the pandemic from the get-go.
The U.S. now tops the world in COVID-19 cases and deaths. That should be the overriding concern of Americans, not labeling the coronavirus as “the China virus.” It’s a dodge, folks.
A second example is the dismantling of the U.S. Postal Service in order to make failure of mail-in voting a self-fulfilling prophecy, even if it disrupts daily life for millions.
Why isn’t every Republican in Congress up in arms over this outrage?
And a third. After the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report on Russian interference with the 2016 campaign clearly showed the Trump campaign fully approved of Russian meddling on their behalf, even without “collusion,” Americans should be concerned that Russia will again face no consequences for interference.
The murderous gangster Vladimir Putin will continue to enjoy a special place in Trump’s heart, and why that seems to be OK with today’s Republicans is beyond me.
On top of that, the GOP under Trump’s rule (not leadership), now must even embrace the deluded horror fiction conspiracy theory of QAnon.
The Republican Party is in bad need of an overhaul, and the Democrats in 2020 are providing a good model for how that can be done.
A Biden victory in 2020, and I know a growing number of Republicans agree, may be the best thing to happen to the Republican party.
Steve Hansen writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: