Well hello there…
I’ve been lurking here for quite a few years. At least a dozen. I was originally just trying to understand alternative points of view, as well as enjoying some of the entertaining and informative content. Now I feel that I’d like to add a bit myself. The world has changed much in the last few years. What once seemed to be a source of alternative views now seems to better reflect my own perspective.
I am (or was) an old-line Republican, as was my father, my grandfather, and so on, for as long as anyone can remember. I was what used to be called a Rockefeller Republican. Yes, I voted for Reagan, Bush I, and “W”. Why? There were some key tenets of Republican thinking that appealed to me:
- They generally represented, or purported to represent, a smaller and less-intrusive government. An intrusive government never sounded like a good thing to me. (Rockefeller Republicans were actually rather liberal on many social issues, believe it or not)
- They were generally pro-business. That meant being pro-trade, pro-immigration, pro-technology. With my background in IT, this was important. Our economy needed to thrive, and our strong business environment had brought us to a position of leadership in the free world.
- On international issues of importance, Republicans (and Democrats) were leaders. The US commitment to our allies was unquestionable. Our leadership around the world was a strong counter to the authoritarian regimes of the USSR and her allies. Politics, we said, stopped at the water’s edge.
In that bygone era, the wealthy neighborhoods were Republican bastions. Most of my educated friends were Republicans. Republicans focused on wealth creation, Democrats on redistribution, or at least that’s what we thought.
If I had slept through the last couple of decades, I would be waking today to a very shocking world, utterly upside-down from what it once was. We got here by inches, with a final lurch under the regime of The Former Guy. Today’s Republican party is entirely apart from those tenets that I once felt were so important:
- Intrusive government seems to be the point, including deep intrusion into personal decisions of sexuality and reproduction. And we have a “christian nationalist” movement, that doesn’t seem to have much to do with Christianity. So there goes your small-government religious freedom. Republican intrusion into social issues seems to know no boundaries.
- The pro-business nature of the Republican party seems to have entirely evaporated, unless you happen to be a coal mining company. Disney is attacked for defending the rights of their employees. And we want to further restrict immigration at a time when our aging workforce is putting a huge dent in our ability to staff critical positions. Companies that recognize these realities are punished by the current Republican party.
- International leadership is limited to supporting Putin and Orban over NATO. And politics never permit supporting a Democrat, water’s edge be damned. I am alarmed that I seem to be able to decode the Republican position on any issue just by knowing where Putin stands.
Today, the more educated (and therefore generally wealthier) are far more likely to be Democrats than at any time in my life. Hillary won the high-income zip codes. Trump dominated in the exurbs.
So where does that leave me? It leaves me as a moderate in the Democratic party. I voted for my last Republican several cycles ago. Anyone I could support has been purged. Only the cult remains.
So what’s next? I would like to be a bigger part of the larger Democratic community, which I believe can be a truly big tent and include many more of us old Rockefeller Republicans. I enjoyed supporting Trudy Busch Valentine in her run, and I’m hopeful she’ll take on Josh Hawley in our next cycle in Missouri. A win over Hawley would be a watershed moment.
There are many things to work on to make that big tent a reality. Here are a few initial thoughts:
- We need to be able to have conversations about gun safety without turning off a huge portion of the population. Guns are a defining issue in Missouri. People will vote against all their other interests to oppose someone labeled as a “democrat gun grabber.” We have to find the right language and position that supports responsible ownership. This will be difficult-someone can agree with the Democratic party on every other issue, but will vote based on this one.
- We need to support a better balance between a unionized workforce and a profitable business community. Union members used to vote overwhelmingly Democratic and that has changed in recent years. Right-to-work legislation has failed several times in Missouri, yet we vote consistently Republican. Some of that is the gun issue, but it is also true that Democratic support of trade unions hasn’t gotten the attention it needs.
- We need to talk more about education. Support for education is the key to a better future for everyone. Book banners have never been on the right side of history. The Republican tactics on this issue are pure distraction. We’ve been reducing support for education for 40 years...that is the fundamental problem.
- We need to talk more about the healthcare success story of the last decade. We are actually winning on this issue. Costs have leveled and many more people are covered. This is a huge win for the Democrats.
I am happy to be here and look forward to engaging dialog within this community!