Every so many generations in this country, there seems to be a national realignment of the two major parties on some very fundamental issue that divides us philosophically. The largest historical shift is the monumental flip between the parties that began prior to the civil war when the Democrats were the conservative, status quo party that supported human enslavement while the Republican party rose up as the reform party attempting to bring an end to this practice. Even after defeat in the war, the Democratic reactionaries, primarily in the South, continued to fight against the rights of black folks all the way through the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. But starting somewhere around the early twentieth century, when large minority and Eastern and Southern European populations began emerging in the northern industrial cities and were recruited into the local Democratic machines, the parties began to shift in their outlooks. By the 1940’s, it became clear that the Democratic party was evolving into the party of civil rights and inclusion while the Republican party was evolving into the party of big business and the status quo. By the 1980’s and 90’s, the transposition of the two parties was essentially complete. (I’m of course leaving off a great amount of detail just for brevity.)
From my experience of growing up in the 1970’s, it was frequently (and erroneously) noted by many conservatives that the Democrats were the party of conciliation and of being “soft” on defense and crime and especially on the Soviet Union. There was of course, no justification for this view, but it was a common narrative throughout the media of the time. Liberals were just a bunch of ex-hippies that were weak and unprincipled. The Republican party was the party of “real patriots.” Tough on defense and crime, they were also supposedly the party of personal responsibility and personal liberty.
I find it somewhat ironic and surprising that the Democratic party is now evolving into the primary (and perhaps only) voice that defends international freedom and activism, (most notably with Ukraine and our role in NATO), personal responsibility and individual liberty (in particular, for women’s control of their own bodies). These concepts used to be claimed by Republicans as essential to their fundamental world view.
The Republican party today is shamefully no longer a political party. It is a cult of one man that has no particular political platform, only what its dear leader says. It now stands for fascism, book burning, insurrection, tyranny and one-party rule. “Back in the day,” meaning as recently as the 70’s and 80’s, the Republican party was represented by people such as Howard Baker, Bob Dole and John Heinz, people whom I had major political disagreements with, but who I still felt were respectable individuals who loved their country and with which you could bargain to accomplish things. The supposed leaders of today’s Republican party are not even shadows of these people. They are conniving, spineless charlatans with little belief in anything other than attaining power at any cost.
We need a healthy two-party system in this country that can check the excesses of the opposition in a respectful and democratic manner. We now have one political party (even with all its faults) that has been forced to occupy entirely this vacant breach left by the former republicans, that believes in a democratic republic and all that it stands for, versus a group of people that want to burn the whole place down. Well, like that regrettable expression used during the Vietnam War, what’s left of the Republican party must be burned down in order to save it.