The Republican Party is no longer the party of Abraham Lincoln, and it’s no longer the party of Dwight Eisenhower or even, God help us, Richard Nixon. Nixon at least had enough of a sense of shame to quit. They are a coalition, but one with no dissenters worth mentioning. People who want untrammeled, unlicensed, uncontrolled, unfettered business and financial practices happily vote for Wild West gun laws and criminalization of period trackers. People who think a zygote is a person or who want to wear their six-shooter to mass will vote against their own economic interests time and time again.
The Democratic Party is a coalition of interests that may come into conflict, and it may always, under Adlai’s principle, be a de facto minority party. A possibly apocryphal supporter called out to Adlai Stevenson that he had the vote of every thinking person and he replied, “But I need a majority.” (He also supposedly said, “Saskatchewan is much like Texas — except it's more friendly to the United States.”)
The Democratic Party is also the one most easily abandoned. Gas prices too high? Vote for the Pub. Don’t like or can’t stand [insert sneered name of prominent Democrat, probably female]? Vote for the manly Pub who promises to protect your AR-15.
The Republicans are the party of principles, mostly vague ones. Once in office they regard those principles the way European royalty regard their marriage vows, but they sound good. Democrats are the party of policies. Detailed policies. Strict policies. Democratic primary candidates will argue over a percentage point in a health care plan. I truly wish that were an exaggeration.
When the Republican fringe draws the party further into extremism, the party follows like a lap dog. When the Democratic fringe demands a radical shift, the pragmatic Dems answer that our first priority should be to get elected and make government work. Our fringe stands firm, and throws adjectives around, dare I say it, liberally.
Don’t want to give your time and money to Democrats? Give it to a cause. The cause will lobby Democrats, who may listen, and Republicans, who’ll denounce the cause in fundraising emails.
This is not to suggest blind loyalty to any Democrat. The local party is in the headline writer’s favorite condition, disarray, and the state party can’t do anything about that disarray until someone says, “Mother, May I?” That doesn’t mean Glenn Youngkin is a good governor, and it doesn’t mean AOC is more political philosopher than junior representative. It means you have to stay involved regardless. Through rain, sleet, snow, disarray, and policy disagreements, just like the Post Office used to do until the Pubs screwed it up.
Paul Weyrich founded the Heritage Foundation in 1973 and the Moral Majority in 1979. Both groups are having major victories more than a decade after his death. Dems aren’t good at that long game. Enough Dems splinter or give up too easily. I stuck around long enough to give a candidate for delegate money in October when I knew in September he’d lose. That’s the long game. In another recent delegate campaign, the fringe used a typo as an issue in a primary. One is short-sighted tactics and one is long-term strategy.
One gives you a self-satisfied feeling of righteousness. The other gets Roe v. Wade overturned, even if it takes 40 or 50 years
well said