In 750 words or less, what does “Republican” mean today?
It means that Donald Trump’s history is all good, and nothing controversial about it is to be considered. Why not? Because this is a presidential election season, and he’s our guy. Unimportant other concerns are only “election interference.” Criminality and accountability are unimportant. Unless we are talking about Joe Biden. Biden “is a criminal” who requires immediate and thorough investigation, followed by immediate impeachment, because he is so, so very guilty.
It means that credentials in general are no longer a serious concern for candidate selection and electability, at least for our political party. The ability to attract fringe voters is far more important.
It means that a pregnant woman’s health, and indeed her life, are completely secondary concerns, and we have to protect that embryo or fetus at all costs, because we are “pro-life.”
It means we promote the notion that “pro-choice” is an anti-American, unethical, evil talking point, chosen by radicals and subversives, to support the sanctioned murder of innocent children.
It means we can and should make it more difficult to vote for those most likely to vote for another political party. It is only fair.
It means we can re-draw voting districts any way we desire, to make it more likely that we will win elections, regardless of -- uh, no, we mean “in direct contradiction to” -- the actual preferences of the voting public.
It means we are still very proud to be “the party of fiscal conservatism,” but now only when Democrats are in control.
It means we can pass into law some enormous tax cuts for our wealthy political donors, to repay them for their generous contributions to our political campaigns, keeping us in office to “represent” them most favorably.
It means we are against any proposed legislation that would limit large donations from interested parties wanting to influence laws and governmental control of campaign finance reform.
It means the “party of law and order” is now against the Department of Justice, and the FBI, because “Democrats.”
It means that children at the southern border housed in cages and denied soap, toothbrushes, and clean water, is only a problem when a Democrat is President of the United States.
It means if we can fool our voting base into believing anything we say, we have no problem with saying anything we can make them believe. It means we can now target anyone as the new “bad guy,” including the likes of Mickey Mouse. This has become quite useful.
It means we can adopt any phrasing we choose, and make it a flash point and critically anti-American talking point. So words like Woke are selected and targeted, especially because they are so quick and easy to use, and because we can so easily create new meanings for them, ignoring what they originally meant. Our base loves that about us.
It means we can willingly violate any international agreement with bordering countries if it in any way forms a political advantage in firing up violent rhetoric and sentiment in our voting base.
It means we can create extremely violent videos lauding racism, public lynching, and the public taking law and order (and punishment) into their own hands. Because, you know, the second amendment and Stand your Ground laws.
It means we can deny the validity of scientific conclusions and of science, itself, when it is to our political advantage -- and the preferential advantage of our most significant financial donors -- to keep helpful scientific information “debatable.”
It means “We support the military,” only to a limited extent. Those in post-military life are not that important anymore.
It means that, although we have become unrecognizable to past generations of conservative voters, we can count on a new generation of conservative voters who recognize us as the solution to societal problems, because we say so.