One Hundred Days, starting over
May 10, 2021•500 words
For more than five decades, the Republican party has pursued a political and economic agenda that only benefits the top 0.1% of the U.S. population. Obviously, the votes from those people are not enough to win any election. To remedy that, the GOP has waged an ideological and cultural against "liberals" to rile their base and to motivate voters. Don't believe it? What was the Republican platform in the last election? Right, there was no platform.
However, the cultural and ideological gravity center of this country has been changing (just like it has happened it every civilization in human history). Abortion and bigotry against minorities don't have the same appeal as they did forty years ago. While the beliefs of some segment of the population have radicalized—meaning that they believe more than ever that gays, lesbians, racial equality and abortions run counter American ideals—the number of people who don't have a negative view of the GOP's pet monsters is growing. This is not a surprise. This is a trend as old as the GOP's Southern strategy.
So why has the GOP insisted in waging a war that it was going to lose in the long term? Because the farthest into the future your typical politician can afford to think about is the next election.
But the day of reckoning is closer than ever. This became obvious after Obama won his first election, and it set off the alarms in the GOP's national committee when Obama won reelection.
Now the GOP is in an untenable position in a democracy. If they switch their current agenda to an agenda that actually benefits their voters, they'll lose the support of the super rich and powerful. If they keep relying on the votes of bigots and white supremacists, they'll win elections less and less frequently.
The only viable way for the GOP to survive is to rig elections by suppressing votes, by gerrymandering districts, and by empowering members of the electoral college to vote Republican, regardless of the outcome of democratic elections. The January 6th insurrection was the signal that unequivocally stated that the GOP no longer believes in democracy. This signal was obvious to the people that needed to hear it. It was a signal that triggered more than a hundred bills in state assemblies around the country that restrict voting rights of minorities (the others). This signal said: if you are for a totalitarian regime headed by a Republican, you're are not alone.
Sure, people are going to jail. But the instigators are not only free. They kept their jobs as representatives of the people. The United State's democracy is in grave danger and will be for the foreseeable future.
Men, like Trump, come and go. There is a long line of white men waiting to emerge as the next Trump when the time is right. The danger is the GOP itself. It's a threat that will last for decades. It has to be fought, tooth and nail, just like climate change.