In a recent diary by Egberto Willes, a clip from an interview by Mika Brzezinski of Christine Todd Whitman and Miles Taylor was shown. It was described in the diary as follows:
- Republicans Christine Todd Whitman and Miles Taylor have an important message they wrote in their New York Times piece, “We Are Republicans. There’s Only One Way to Save Our Party From Pro-Trump Extremists,” stating “Rational Republicans are losing the party civil war. And the only near-term way to battle pro-Trump extremists is for all of us to team up on key races and overarching political goals with our longtime political opponents: the Democrats. This year we joined more than 150 conservatives including former governors, senators, congressmen, cabinet secretaries, and party leaders — in calling for the Republican Party to divorce itself from Trumpism or else lose our support, perhaps with us forming a new political party. Rather than return to founding ideals, Republican leaders in the House and in many states have now turned belief in conspiracy theories and lies about stolen elections into a litmus test for membership and running for office.”
Unfortunately, neither Mika nor Egberto called out the former Republican governor of New Jersey on one glaringly dangerous part of her argument. Namely, the self serving aspect of both siderism.
She indicated her group’s efforts were to BOTH get more moderate Republicans to vote for moderate Democrats AND get more moderate Democrats to vote for moderate Republicans.
She said it twice and it was clear that those moderate Republicans she is trying to persuade were still more interested in their own power than in the good of the country. And it is also clear that her group’s real goal is to stop progressives from addressing the very serious problems we face.
In other words, this is about saving the increasingly feckless moderate Republicans and any moderate Democratic politicians who enable their bad behavior.
Here are the facts:
- The Republican party has been undermining (or trying to undermine) all things public for over 50 years. Some would argue much longer.
- The Republican agenda and the actions to achieve it have become ever more radical and increasingly dangerous.
- Republican moderates have been there every step of the way, voting with the Tea Partiers during Obama’s terms and now with the Trumpists in Biden’s, those openly assaulting our democracy (!!).
- Other than a few words and even fewer actions, moderate Republicans have not only failed to prevent their party’s assault on all things public, they have in many cases actively promoted it.
- In addition, too many moderate Democrats have been part of the stalling and excuse making rather than the problem solving, i.e., good governing.
I do not trust the No Labels, ironically self-defined problem solving group. They rarely, if ever, support the objectively best solutions to problems. That’s because the best solutions to enormous problems are big and bold and challenge their precious status quo and their donor base.
They are very different from the Never Trumpers who are arguing conscientious Republicans must simply vote for Democrats. Any Democrat. Every Democrat. They argue that only by sending their party into the wilderness is there hope that it will find a solution to the radicalization of their base and the resulting radical voting behavior of elected Republicans.
Even though it would be my party, I do not want a single party nation. That is a recipe for laziness and entrenchment. But unfortunately, it may be an absolutely essential intermediate step in creating a country with more than one responsive and responsible political party.
And I do not envy conscientious Republicans who are honestly trying to deal with the radicalization of their party. They are our allies. They do not include Christine Todd Whitman.