Rather than continuing to go down the dystopian path of the death of democracy as we know it due to an out of touch and admittedly warped Senate rule we lovingly call the filibuster, aka something that is never going to happen, why don’t we take a moment to catch our breath and imagine, what would happen if given our current state of political turmoil, but let’s call it transition (remember, we’re trying to be realistic and positive) was the for all relevant purposes set to play out in the 2024 election cycle?
Now, and without trying to give any unrealistic edge to the Democrats, I would argue it is highly likely that if all of the present trends stay relatively the same, it could and I am very serious, the year after losing the presidency, senate and house, again, the end of the Republican Party and its odious offshoots as we know it? Well, believe it or not, history tilts to the side of yes.
First and of prime importance, to understand the significance of the events I would say of the last 35 years or so with the failed social and economic policies of the Reagan years coming back to bite the Elephant in its big oversized butt, with a bit more exposure and attention of critical race theory and the final death knell sounded for Voodoo Economics (or so said George H.W. Bush) and as we here at TDR like to call it, “Trickle Down Poverty”, plus even the most modest of Voter Reform legislation, preventing the GQP from stealing the election by disenfranchising somewhere around 8 million votes or so, (I can see it now, the next Trump trying to cajole a whole herd of Secretaries of State to find him 8 million or so votes) and assuming the Blue States would consent to such a steal if you could pull it off, (we won’t) well, it should be well within reason to consider if not accept the historical perspective that major political parties can and do go belly up.
How might that happen Phil? Well, I’m glad you asked and let’s take a look at a fairly modern example of how well established and popular political parties disappear into the dust bin of history. I speak of the Whig Party. Remember them? The last time you saw a politician wearing a white Whig as a sign of political prominence and savvy? Yeah, me neither. So, what happened?
The Whigs and the Democrats were the two major political parts that dominated America in the mid-19th Century. Originally started in 1843, in response to what they considered the dictatorial presidency of Andrew Jackson, the America Whigs (there was at one time a British Whig Party) were a bi-sectional party made up of northern and southern Whigs, two groups that could agree on their mutual hatred of Jackson.
The Whigs also defended the rights of Native Americans and were horrified by the inhumane act of relocations leading to the infamous Trail of Tears. They were also skeptical of Old Hickory’s treatment of the economy particularly when Jackson refused to re-charter the 2nd Federal Bank of America.
Throw in the Whigs identified mainly as protestants with the Democrats adopting a Catholic persuasion and there were certainly enough differences in ideology between the two for the creation of a vibrant 2-Party system. And there was. The Whigs did have some early troubles finding their footing in the big leagues but by 1840 the Whig William Henry Harrison won the presidency.
Unfortunately, Harrison died in office after only 32 days in office before his vice-president John Tyler a sort of former Democrat who was sort of a “soft’ follower but far from true believer in the Whig cause took his place. When in office, Tyler inexplicably vetoed most of the legislation the Whigs fought so hard to advocate for, the party literally threw him out of the party while Tyler was still in office.
Next the heart of the Whig batting order, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore becoming our 13th, 14th and 15th presidents. The trio hardly proved to be a “murderer’s row” of presidential power or ambition, with none of the three capable of handling or diffusing the issues of what was fast becoming Southern Succession and when the Compromise of 1850, a bill signed by Millard that threatened to extend the slave states most notably in Kansas, the Northern and Southern Whig could not long unite in a party not fully dedicated to the abolition of slavery in America and so, they broke apart into a few smaller parties and then into the fledgling Republican Party.
Then it turned out the Republican Party had a secret weapon. It was a one-term Senator from Kentucky, abolitionist Abraham Lincoln, a former Northern Whig who fled the Whig Party in 1860 to run for president as the candidate for the newly minted and not yet so great or old party eventually known the GOP.
This is the part I find so interesting. Without Lincoln, would the Republicans survive or succeed as a party? Perhaps, but the bestest guess I can muster for you is magic 8 ball says, “not likely”.
My point being if you don’t see a candidate on the conservative ticket that has the strength, breadth, determination and vision to save a party from its worst instincts and in the making, transform the nation saving us from becoming a broken nation, well let’s not say all would be lost, but it wouldn’t be looking too good for a comeback much less a stick around and stay relevant tour.
Do you see a conservative rising star or comeback kid (NOT Trump) in the wings? I don’t but who according to the latest straw polls, is the current GQP QAnon Fascist Party next in line and inheritor of the Trump mantle of leadership is, wait for it, Florida Governor and all around pathetic loon Rick “I’m going to make college students and professors state their political views as a function of good governance” “Death” DeSantis, a man who apparently doesn’t know or care what college campuses in the 1960’s did to the political landscape of America, and certainly not in favor, of war, greed, racism, and all around general stupidity.
So, safely as milk assuming DeSantis is no Lincoln, what exactly did Lincoln do that could and did create the Republican Party while at the same time virtually cementing the fate of the soon to be extinct Whig Party? In short, he got the Republicans to adopt his policies and belief in critical race theory, in its time known as the abolition of slavery. Something the old school Whig Party members at the top simply could not do.
Now, it is well known that Lincoln did not run his 1860 campaign on the platform he would end slavery. If you believe that to be true, sorry but it was not. He ran on the “preserve the Union at all costs” platform and stated if he could free none of the slaves as the best way preserve the Union, he would. If he could free some of the slaves as the best way to preserve the Union, he would, and if he could free all of the slaves as the best way to preserve the Union, he would.
It was also well known that Lincoln himself was dedicated to the cause of abolition, and given his druthers he would have freed all the slaves. The South took him at his word. They detested him from the word go to the degree the “Tall, Skinny Guy from Kentucky” didn’t even register to run in the Southern States.
He took his chances in an all or nothing strategy that necessitated him sweeping the Northern States to win the Electoral College, which he did, then took us in the wildly unpopular Civil War, freed the Southern Slaves via the Emancipation Proclamation, and in the final analysis united our house divided as one, free country dedicated to the proposition that all men were created equally.
That if any were not free, none of us could truly be free and to make his point, he and his followers enshrined the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments into the Bill of Rights. He did all of this in the middle of the 19th Century. We still can’t quite get this right in 2021. Think about that for a while as you smoke it in your corn-cob pipe.
The Whigs? They hanged in for a bit, but soon descended into a regional party incapable of winning a national election, and eventually due to their inability to grasp the changing times, got left behind as victims of innovation, evolution and the inevitable march of time.
Now, I don’t claim to have a civil war era crystal cannon ball, but consider the following similarities between the Mid 19th Century demise of the Whig Party and the current split between the traditional GOP and radical wild west as racist AF GQP/MAGA/Insurrectionist Party, two feuding factions of a party that can’t decide if it wants to wink at racism, or fully embrace it as its actual central, if not only, policy tenant in its platform.
Shortly we may see several additional “right wing” parties try their hand at a third, or fourth party in an effort to usurp the Republicans of whatever power they have left.
With the GQP unwilling to come to its senses, meaning it’s candidate for president in 2024 will be Ron “Big Brother” and major Trump sycophant beef supreme DeSantis? will be running on behalf of a regional party ticket that will open the way of a big Democratic win, or, who knows? Is there another Honest Abe out there brave enough to right the racism strangling the GQP? I don’t see anyone myself. Do you?
As a result, the GQP will continue listing until its bilge is so full of dirty water, the SS GOP begins its final descent into the cold icy waters finding its rest in Davy Jones’ locker at the bottom of the sea (kraken not included).
So, tell me why then this scenario is any less reasonable, that the GQP eats itself, than that Biden does a great job, people realize it, the children tax credits will be permanent, the Democrats retain the House and Senate and go on to rule in power for the next several generations? That’s what happened after Herbert Hoover and the little big mistake we call the Great Depression until another visionary or extraordinary skill and aptitude Franklin D. Roosevelt took the wheel and set us on a course for prosperity that lasted roughly 40 years.
Why are either a return to Democratic dominance or the rise of a new conservative party that at least is I guess better than the one we would all be leaving behind any less realistic, if not more so that the near ubiquitous warnings of the death of our entire democracy? They are not. Period.
So, can we all take a break and stop already with all the fretting over “ballot counters” who are violating Federal Law and will end up in the pokey? And, for me, please, can we get over the Mitch McConnell has a spy camera in every Christmas tree and this grinchiest of grinches can even keep Christmas from coming even though he is now in the minority and has himself admitted starting to plan his retirement.
If it be from the minority seat, or in retirement at his old Kentucky Home, possibly under indictment for who knows what crimes, he will not be able to keep Congress and the Senate from returning to a majority rule institution, and certainly over something so marginal as whether the filibuster continues or not.
Save yourself some gray hair (too late for me) and leave the tortured kabuki like drama dances that the Beltway Bandits seem to thoroughly enjoy and know, our Blue elected officials are working in our best interests, can and will get the job done.
What do we do? Get busy of course doing or for most of what continue what we have already been doing what we can to help shape our bright future as the undisputed world leader in liberty, justice and the American way returns to the dominance we, forever united continue to fight for as part of the American Dream.
Final words of advice? Don’t ever bet against America. Final prognostication? Fox will soon go out of business while critical race theory is only getting started and will continue to grow, eventually making us question and address the underlying issues holding us all back, and allow us further to unite, we, who are now the true sons and the daughters of the true sons and daughters of the Abolitionists, and that makes us the true keepers of the flame of freedom, justice and equality of Lincoln’s GOP.
Ready for action, Andrew Jackson?
Like My Blog? By Me a DEVO energy dome? druckerreport.com/donate
Comentários