This nation used to have 2 major parties that believed strongly in representative government and supported the US constitution. Now they only have one. The Republican party has recently moved so far from its former principles that it now more closely resembles the Nazi party. Consider the following six areas where the Republican Party is at odd with the US Constitution and the principles on which the nation was founded.
(1) Representative government is based on the idea that the people vote for their leaders and that those whose candidates do not prevail will accept the results and accede to the will of the majority. This nation fought a War of Independence based on the right of the people to govern themselves and choose their own leaders. It fought a second bloody Civil War over whether all people were obliged to accept the results of elections. The principle of governance by majority rule has long been established both by Supreme Court rulings and the force of arms. A democratic form of government cannot survive unless the people exercise their right to vote and both the winners and losers accept the results of elections. The Republican Party, however, continues to oppose allowing the citizen of the District of Columbia (with a population greater than many Sates), to have any voting representation in congress or even to assert full control over their local government. It similarly opposes congressional representation for the people of American Samoa, whose residents boast the highest rates of military service of any part of the US, but which has no VA hospital. At the state level, Republicans have passes numerous laws (many of which the Supreme Court has recently overturned) which were aimed at making it more difficult for poor and minority voters to exercise their right to vote. Republicans have sought to require IDs for voting that many poor people do not have and which they could only obtain at places that are not readily accessible without a car and during hours when working people would not be able to get away. Many in the Republican Party have attempted to delegitimize the lawfully elected President of the United States and have even gone so far as to continue to question his place of birth. More recently, the Republican Presidential nominee has preemptively accused the voting system of being rigged if he loses (which every credible poll suggest he will). He has even gone so far as to imply that if his opponent wins the election, killing her might be an option. The Republican party therefore does not support representative democracy.
(2) The Constitution of the United States created three coequal branches of government with specific rights and duties assigned to each. Elected officials are required to take an oath of office affirming their commitment to preserving that basic governmental structure. After raising their hands and swearing to preserve protect and defend the Constitution of the United State and faithfully discharge their duties as congressional representatives or senators, Republican congressmen and women have refused to fulfill their constitutionally mandated duties. Republican members of the house of representative have failed to pass necessary taxation and spending bills, forcing parts of the government to shut down. Republican members of the Senate have refused to confirm judicial vacancies, including a key vacancy on the Supreme Court. Not only have many legal groups declared judicial emergencies in several districts due to the lack of sufficient appellate judges to hear cases in anything like a timely fashion, but the Supreme court has been deadlocked on many cases, a circumstance which the founders specifically tried to avoid by specifying an uneven number of justices. By this deliberate inaction, Republican legislators have crippled the ability one of the three branches of government to fulfill its constitutional mandate. The Republican Party therefore does not support the very foundational structure of the constitution.
(3) The Constitution of the United States sets limits as to what the government may do and specifically assigns certain rights to the citizens of the US. The 14th amendment clearly established that citizenship was a birthright for all those born within the United States, further clarifying earlier clauses specifying that no law should work corruption of the blood. In other words, the US Constitution established that the legal status of the children could not be affected by the actions of their parents, and there could be no collective punishment for certain groups of people. The Republican Party, however, currently endorses the position that citizenship should not be granted to those who cannot prove that their parents were in the United States legally. Under this logic, each individual would have to prove their right to citizenship by demonstrating an acceptable ancestry. Republicans have also attempted to prevent the President from implementing a directive deferring deportation of individuals who were brought to the United States as children, on the legal rationale that the parents, not the children, where the ones who broke the law, and the children should not suffer for it by being removed from the place that they consider home. The Republican Party therefore does not accept the idea of citizenship as defined in the constitution, nor does it accept the fundamental legal principle that individuals should be punished only for their own actions.
(4) The US Constitution firmly established a separation to church and state and permits no religious test for holding office or exercising any rights. The nation’s first President affirmed this principle of religious neutrality in letters to foreign heads of state and religious leaders and promised that any immigrants would enjoy equal legal status regardless of their faiths. The leader of the Republican Party, however, proposes a religious test for entry into the country. Furthermore, many other Republican elected officials have repeatedly argued for allowing government employees to discriminate against citizens whose religious beliefs differ from their own. Specifically, Republican they have endorsed the notion that officials should be permitted to deny marriage licenses to couples whose marriages do not meet the standards of their personal faiths. The Republican Party therefore does not accept the Constitutional principle of freedom of religion.
(5) The Constitution of the United States guarantees the right of freedom of speech, press, and assembly. The Republican party, however, denigrates the right to freedom of speech by attacking those who would exercise that right by expressing disapproval of the country’s past or current commitment to its founding principles. They have attacked groups like the Black Lives Matter movement as anti-American for exercising their rights as Americans to assemble peacefully and speak out against governmental actions or inaction. Their standard bearer openly states his hatred of the press and praises a dictator who has unfriendly members of the press killed. The Republican Party, therefore, does not support freedom of speech, press, or assembly.
(6) The Constitution of the United Sates clearly states that any treaty ratified by the Senate shall have the force of law. The Republican presidential nominee, however, vows to abrogate those treaties. Thus, the Republican Party does not accept rule of law.
Rather than supporting the principles on which this nation was founded, the current Republican Party and its standard bearer have promoted a kind of blind nationalism, calling for veneration of national symbols such as the flag and the national anthem and promoting a cult of personality towards their leader. It has endorsed authoritarian autocratic ideas and has rejected the very idea of compromise, which is so essential to democratic governance. The rhetoric of the Republican Party has become increasingly overtly racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and filled with hate. The Republican Party of today has more in common with the Nazi Party of pre-World War II Germany than it does with the Party of Lincoln. It has abandoned Republican principles and rule of law in favor of party loyalty and the raw pursuit of power. The Republican Party is a threat to this country’s democracy and must be reformed or crushed if this republic is to remain a republic.