I am Black. I am a Republican. I am going to vote for the Republican nominee, no matter what, and I know exactly who I am.
The progressive movement in America insists on portraying we Black Americans as an unfortunate class of weak, pitiful children, unable to sustain ourselves without the paternalistic hand of government. According to this narrative, every negative economic or social outcome we experience as Black Americans is the result of some offense perpetrated against us, as though we have no free will, make no decisions and have no aspirations.
This insulting portrayal of blacks enables two other narratives that progressives hope to ride to political power. First that Blacks and other "victim demographic groups" need the know-it-all, all-powerful progressive government to rebalance all of the economic and social scales. And second that anyone who opposes omnipotent state power is a racist, sexist, homophobe or whatever.
The Party of Lincoln that progressives now say they want Republicans to be believed in private property, free market capitalism and personal liberty. Those were the core beliefs underlying our governmental system. There was nothing inherently racist when those concepts became core American values, and there is nothing racist about them now.
The suggestion that opposition to big government is racist is simply a cynical political tactic seeking to inflame minority voters and chastise conservatives.
As we use to say, "DON"T BELIEVE THE HYPE!"
The progressive movement in America insists on portraying we Black Americans as an unfortunate class of weak, pitiful children, unable to sustain ourselves without the paternalistic hand of government. According to this narrative, every negative economic or social outcome we experience as Black Americans is the result of some offense perpetrated against us, as though we have no free will, make no decisions and have no aspirations.
This insulting portrayal of blacks enables two other narratives that progressives hope to ride to political power. First that Blacks and other "victim demographic groups" need the know-it-all, all-powerful progressive government to rebalance all of the economic and social scales. And second that anyone who opposes omnipotent state power is a racist, sexist, homophobe or whatever.
The Party of Lincoln that progressives now say they want Republicans to be believed in private property, free market capitalism and personal liberty. Those were the core beliefs underlying our governmental system. There was nothing inherently racist when those concepts became core American values, and there is nothing racist about them now.
The suggestion that opposition to big government is racist is simply a cynical political tactic seeking to inflame minority voters and chastise conservatives.
As we use to say, "DON"T BELIEVE THE HYPE!"
2
And here we go! Another republican "illuminati" bemoaning the fact that Trump is fouling up everything. To make his point, though, he takes us to fantasy land rewriting the republican way of doing things. It reminds me of the rewriting of history where all bad deeds have been expunged.
Perhaps Mr. Wehner can remind us of were he was when this country invaded Irak? What about privatizing Social Security? Citizen's United perhaps? For republicans there was no compunction criticizing health care reform, or Obama himself while we heard nothing about education, squeezing money out of dead-beats (what else) such as minorities or students and the taxpayers to pay for Irak and the financial crisis.
Let us ignore guns, zealotry, "holier than thou" attitudes, selling arms abroad, climate change.
I am sorry but I think that the excuses (and free passes for his cohort) that Mr. Wehner is touting are too big. He will not be able to squeeze in by the door he is trying to open.
Humility is where he needs to start.
Perhaps Mr. Wehner can remind us of were he was when this country invaded Irak? What about privatizing Social Security? Citizen's United perhaps? For republicans there was no compunction criticizing health care reform, or Obama himself while we heard nothing about education, squeezing money out of dead-beats (what else) such as minorities or students and the taxpayers to pay for Irak and the financial crisis.
Let us ignore guns, zealotry, "holier than thou" attitudes, selling arms abroad, climate change.
I am sorry but I think that the excuses (and free passes for his cohort) that Mr. Wehner is touting are too big. He will not be able to squeeze in by the door he is trying to open.
Humility is where he needs to start.
9
Come on people, us NYT readers are not ignorant nor are we stupid. The republican party is/has been (the last 50 years or more) predominantly the party of racists, misogynists, xenophobes, climate deniers and all other common sense and decent stances on issues.
All the people who contribute here in support of these characteristics should take a honest look at themselves. Absorb this and be honest in your reflection.
Worrying and surprising is that white, male voters - both college and non-college educated are overwhelmingly support Trump:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/opinion/campaign-stops/college-men-for....
High time that the country confronted this fact
All the people who contribute here in support of these characteristics should take a honest look at themselves. Absorb this and be honest in your reflection.
Worrying and surprising is that white, male voters - both college and non-college educated are overwhelmingly support Trump:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/opinion/campaign-stops/college-men-for....
High time that the country confronted this fact
7
Why isn't Merrick Garland getting a hearing?
Arguing about racism, nativism and misogyny, however important, is semantic sleight of hand. Republican leadership can be made up of the most kind-hearted people in the country, but the fact remains the Republican-controlled Congress has explicitly put party interest ahead of the national interest. We've had government shutdowns, self-inflicted spending crises, and now a Senate in open defiance of the Constitution because it doesn't like the politics of following the law.
I simply can't take seriously Mr. Wehner's argument while his party is openly, and proudly, playing politics with the Constitution.
Arguing about racism, nativism and misogyny, however important, is semantic sleight of hand. Republican leadership can be made up of the most kind-hearted people in the country, but the fact remains the Republican-controlled Congress has explicitly put party interest ahead of the national interest. We've had government shutdowns, self-inflicted spending crises, and now a Senate in open defiance of the Constitution because it doesn't like the politics of following the law.
I simply can't take seriously Mr. Wehner's argument while his party is openly, and proudly, playing politics with the Constitution.
22
My father, calls him self a Lincoln Republican, & holds the same values as Abraham Lincoln did.
Thank you.
Helene S Plotkin
Thank you.
Helene S Plotkin
2
If he hasn't already done so, Mr Wehner should read "Dark Money" by Jane Mayer. This will remind him where the current Republican party comes from. Names like Koch, Sciafe, Mellon, Olin, and many others who gave rise to the conservative movement, funded so called private foundations with huge amounts of money. These foundations with innocuous names set about influencing public opinion through their donations. Law and Economics curriculum at Ivy League colleges further transformed the judiciary. All this was so big business would not be impeded by govenment.
Hopefully, people are beginning to wake up and see that the Republican party has no interest in the 99%. Money and power was their mantra and that was hidden by their drumbeat on social issues. They are a do nothing party which is why their base has revolted.
Hopefully, people are beginning to wake up and see that the Republican party has no interest in the 99%. Money and power was their mantra and that was hidden by their drumbeat on social issues. They are a do nothing party which is why their base has revolted.
15
Don't they get it yet? The Republican party is terminally dishonest. The party has been blindly following the same agenda for decades now, and things keep getting worse for most of its supporters. The economy has not trickled down. The majority of Americans want changes in gun laws, are pro choice, support LGBT rights, want recognition of climate change followed by action to save our children. If Republicans want to protect our constitution, as they claim, why do they want to return power to the states without recognizing that the weaknesses of a looser confederation of states was the reason for having to write the constitution in the first place? How did that work in Flint? In Jim Crow states? Now, many Republican leaders won't endorse Trump, but nonetheless encourage voters to cast their ballots for Trump because at least he is "better than Hilary. I'd bet most of them don't really believe that, but what's one more lie in a long ruthless stream of them?
27
Abraham Lincoln faced intransigent opposition - even before he took office, the Southern states began to secede. If anyone wears Lincoln's mantle today, it is that other man from Illinois, President Obama, whose attempts at political compromise where thwarted by a Southern-based Republican party whose leaders were determined ab initio to deny him any success.
Yet Mr. Wehner's description of a "perfect storm" includes "outrage that Republicans were not nullifying President Obama". So what is it to be - GOP focused on accomplishing the work of government or on extreme partisan warfare with effective government as the victim?
Mr. Wehner almost answers the question. He illustrates the intellectual bankruptcy of the Republican party:
"... part of the problem is that we [meaning Republicans] are drenched in distaste for the actual practice of politics, and there’s an unstated sense among conservative activists in particular that the activity of governing is somehow illegitimate.
"Instead of arguing for the dignity and necessity of politics — instead of making the case for why the give and take, the debate and compromise, are both necessary and appropriate — activists and their counterparts in government disparaged it."
Until Republicans develop respect for the activity of governing, of debating and compromising and getting the necessary done, they have no business running for office.
Yet Mr. Wehner's description of a "perfect storm" includes "outrage that Republicans were not nullifying President Obama". So what is it to be - GOP focused on accomplishing the work of government or on extreme partisan warfare with effective government as the victim?
Mr. Wehner almost answers the question. He illustrates the intellectual bankruptcy of the Republican party:
"... part of the problem is that we [meaning Republicans] are drenched in distaste for the actual practice of politics, and there’s an unstated sense among conservative activists in particular that the activity of governing is somehow illegitimate.
"Instead of arguing for the dignity and necessity of politics — instead of making the case for why the give and take, the debate and compromise, are both necessary and appropriate — activists and their counterparts in government disparaged it."
Until Republicans develop respect for the activity of governing, of debating and compromising and getting the necessary done, they have no business running for office.
51
Denial is not a river in Egypt. If you genuinely believe what you're saying here, you have not been paying attention. Perhaps you've been living in an ivory tower for decades, completely out of touch with what the GOP has been doing to minorities, gay people, immigrants, women ... you name it. You seem to have more in common with the endless parade of know-nothings who can listen to Trump rant and rave and encourage violence against people who disagree with him and convince themselves they're listening to Santa Claus. It's not a liberal fantasy that the GOP has been doing this for ages. We've been listening to your media surrogates -- Fox, Rush, you name it -- for ages. They've been doing your dirty work for you and now you're surprised that you've created a base of angry, ignorant, disaffected Archie Bunkers? Where is the outrage? Where were you when your party could have disavowed this demagogue? Still not paying attention? Anyone could have predicted the rise of a character like Trump. It's not much different than what happened with Hitler. Festering grievances, populations that could be scapegoated, centuries of anti-semistim and xenophobia? And then Hitler struck the match ... and the populace erupted into flames. He merely sensed what the disgruntled were feeling and he fed them the red meat they wanted ... you're doing the same thing.
7
The Republican Party hasn't been the party of Lincoln in 52 years - not since the Democrats passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the "solid South" moved en masse from the Democratic to the Republican Party. Since then it has thrived on a veiled racism - until Trump ripped the veil down.
6
Why is this corporate lackey allowed to write in the NYT?! Yeah, I know "all the news that is fit to print," but wholly cow, why a liar and cheat like that?! What he knows about Lincoln could fit on the head of a pin.
Tax the rich, tax the corporations, tax all Republican'ts and those who vote for and assist them out of existence. People not profits.
Listen to Canadian band Rush song "Big Money."
Just another reason to vote ONLY Democrat 2016 and shove the Republican'ts and their ilk so far down that they will never recover and end up in the trash heap of history where they belong.
Tax the rich, tax the corporations, tax all Republican'ts and those who vote for and assist them out of existence. People not profits.
Listen to Canadian band Rush song "Big Money."
Just another reason to vote ONLY Democrat 2016 and shove the Republican'ts and their ilk so far down that they will never recover and end up in the trash heap of history where they belong.
3
The Republican Party has taken on a lot of distasteful agendas over the years, in order to stay in business. As it has sold off its soul, little by little, to bigots, the super rich, homophobes and xenophobes in an attempt to survive. Now we see the awful result: a party claiming to stand for the high ground that we can almost all see really stands for the low ground. This is a losing proposition. Welcome to the reality you have created for yourselves.
4
The Republican Party will never find its way back to Lincoln. While there's a case to be made for conservatism, Ronald Reagan was a conservative, what's called conservatism nowadays is anything but. Today's so-called conservatives are really radicals and know-nothings, hence their repudiation of science and anything else that makes sense. They wrap themselves in a conservative cloak to appear respectable, but really like the emperor, they have no clothes.
3
You are the first Republican I've seen to admit to the truth of where your party is at, and I always wonder why smart people like you stay in such company? Perhaps its time you form a new party!
This is nothing new. The Republican party is so fractured with extremism that it no longer makes sense. Add to that a republican controlled congress who is stubbornly stuck in inaction as a strategy, creating the ultimate disservice to the American people its supposed to serve.
So yes the result is the "Donald", who will perpetrate the biggest con and fraud on miserably hopeless millions of people.
Time for a new party!
This is nothing new. The Republican party is so fractured with extremism that it no longer makes sense. Add to that a republican controlled congress who is stubbornly stuck in inaction as a strategy, creating the ultimate disservice to the American people its supposed to serve.
So yes the result is the "Donald", who will perpetrate the biggest con and fraud on miserably hopeless millions of people.
Time for a new party!
2
I suppose, if Mr Wehner sees the protection of the power of the white male as the ideal, then pretty much any efforts to preserve those paternalistic structures would be justified, and people like him, a white male (of course) would be "honorable individuals working to advance an agenda they believed was in the national interest." I am sure this was the argument people like Richard Nixon and George Wallace (not to mention Carl Rove) used as they justified those appeals to racism, sexism and white supremacy that riddle GOP politics of the last 50 years. Of course father knows best. It has been ever thus. What's wrong with you people?
6
The GOP is the "party of Lincoln" only in name. The tides of history have largely reversed the parties' positions on a host of issues, most notably civil rights. After Johnson said "We have lost the South for a generation" in the wake of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts, Republicans, using the infamous "Southern Strategy" of dog-whistle racist appeals, pulled white Southern voters away from the Democratic party en masse, creating the solid red South we know today. The Republican presidents that Wehner worked for, as personally decent as he believed them to be, were elected on the basis of that strategy. The lesson for all of us is that there's no getting half pregnant with the darker angels of our nature. When you use them to obtain power, you are striking a Faustian bargain, and they will surely return to collect their fee.
9
Keep in mind that he was the best candidate the Republicans offered. Your party is a captive of moneyed interests. Or perhaps it's just a party of sellouts. For whatever reason the established parties have become so corrupt that we have fifteen million illegal immigrants living among us, many using public welfare programs and prospering by not paying taxes and by not obeying our laws. We have a banking system that pulled a scam on the country and siphoned off a lot of money while causing the second biggest financial crash in our history. You have set money lenders against us, backing implausible student loans and vicious payday lenders. Front running stock firms put delay machines on NASCAR and Wall Street and no investigation was made.
2
It is poignant to watch Mr. Wehner confront some of his illusions about the Republican Party. His task remains incomplete.
Mr. Wehner recalls a party "comprising mostly honorable individuals working to advance ... the national interest". Sure, but no doubt the bigots and fanatics who now dominate the party see themselves in the same light.
A short agenda united the GOP in the pre-Trump era, for which Mr. Wehner yearns: against taxes, deficits, regulation, and government; for defense. This is the very agenda that created Mr. Wehner's "perfect storm": economic stagnation, the financial crisis of 2008, the invasion of Iraq. And because Republicans insisted that government is the problem, they crippled the ability of government to enact solutions.
I have never understood the logic of a political party full of people running for government office who simply do not believe in the vocation of government.
The core values of the pre-Trump GOP were the values of an elite minority - wealthy businessmen and professionals, inheritors of privilege, a few self-made success stories. These men were insulated from most Americans. They believed in myths like "trickle down" and "job creators". These aristocrats had an agenda that did not serve most Americans.
To win the votes of a majority, they needed something more to sell. They sought buyers in the "silent majority", and in pandering to assorted bigotries they sold themselves out.
But Trump knows how to sell a shoddy product.
Mr. Wehner recalls a party "comprising mostly honorable individuals working to advance ... the national interest". Sure, but no doubt the bigots and fanatics who now dominate the party see themselves in the same light.
A short agenda united the GOP in the pre-Trump era, for which Mr. Wehner yearns: against taxes, deficits, regulation, and government; for defense. This is the very agenda that created Mr. Wehner's "perfect storm": economic stagnation, the financial crisis of 2008, the invasion of Iraq. And because Republicans insisted that government is the problem, they crippled the ability of government to enact solutions.
I have never understood the logic of a political party full of people running for government office who simply do not believe in the vocation of government.
The core values of the pre-Trump GOP were the values of an elite minority - wealthy businessmen and professionals, inheritors of privilege, a few self-made success stories. These men were insulated from most Americans. They believed in myths like "trickle down" and "job creators". These aristocrats had an agenda that did not serve most Americans.
To win the votes of a majority, they needed something more to sell. They sought buyers in the "silent majority", and in pandering to assorted bigotries they sold themselves out.
But Trump knows how to sell a shoddy product.
8
Mr. Wehner is the most rational republican I have read in a very long time.
Donald Trump embodies everything the republican party is about. They created him in their image of America. They embody that which is implied but not said regarding people of color, Muslims, and Hispanics. That which is implied but not said regarding people on welfare and disability; just a bunch of moochers. That higher taxes kill jobs and regulations are not really there to protect people but are put into place to hurt corporations. Global warming is a conspiracy to enact more regulation and on and on. The Gop imbodies contempt, hate, prejudice, and vitriol against anything perceived liberal and "those" people. Further they have corrupted our democracy and constitution to further their agenda such as in appointing or at least hearing Garland. They have never spoken out against the outlandish things Rush Limbaugh and Beck have said while saying nothing keeps the true agenda just under the surface.
I am a fiscal conservative but in observing the behavior of the party through the Obama presidency and the ugliness they have expressed toward him, I have made a personal pledge to never vote for a republican in my lifetime. Not because there are not good people in the party, there are, but because good people should not associate themselves with the low character and lack of integrity this party represents; that association is a lack of good judgment.
Donald Trump embodies everything the republican party is about. They created him in their image of America. They embody that which is implied but not said regarding people of color, Muslims, and Hispanics. That which is implied but not said regarding people on welfare and disability; just a bunch of moochers. That higher taxes kill jobs and regulations are not really there to protect people but are put into place to hurt corporations. Global warming is a conspiracy to enact more regulation and on and on. The Gop imbodies contempt, hate, prejudice, and vitriol against anything perceived liberal and "those" people. Further they have corrupted our democracy and constitution to further their agenda such as in appointing or at least hearing Garland. They have never spoken out against the outlandish things Rush Limbaugh and Beck have said while saying nothing keeps the true agenda just under the surface.
I am a fiscal conservative but in observing the behavior of the party through the Obama presidency and the ugliness they have expressed toward him, I have made a personal pledge to never vote for a republican in my lifetime. Not because there are not good people in the party, there are, but because good people should not associate themselves with the low character and lack of integrity this party represents; that association is a lack of good judgment.
8
While I dont doubt the sincerity of the writer I am not exactly sure what party he has ben looking at for the lat 20 years.
"It is a party sustained by racist appeals, composed of haters and conspiracy nuts, indifferent to the plight of the poor and the weak, anti-woman."
This is a dictionary description of the GOP.
"It is a party sustained by racist appeals, composed of haters and conspiracy nuts, indifferent to the plight of the poor and the weak, anti-woman."
This is a dictionary description of the GOP.
10
You say that you want your party back sooner rather than later? The answer is in your column, but it's clearer from a distance, as they say.
Many have suggested a rules change whereby delegates may vote their convictions, their hearts, and their gut instincts, thereby denying Trump the nomination. But, there continues to be another way....
You say that "the party guests (a.k.a. 'the repulsive ones') took over the party." Fine, let them stay in Cleveland, talk to themselves, and pay for the party's party. The rest of the delegates, who are sickened by the manners of the new guests, call in sick, and stay home, thereby casting no votes for the repulsive ones' presumptive nominee. Without a rules change, Repulsive Presumptive Nominee returns home to "pursue other interests."
Then, it will be time to schedule a new Republican Party's party, and do it right, as we remember them from our vintage 1950's and 1960's black-and-white TV's. (Smoke-filled rooms, however, must be replaced by smoke-free rooms, even for diehard G.O.P. conservatives who fondly remember 1952, 1956, and 1960 with glee.)
Many have suggested a rules change whereby delegates may vote their convictions, their hearts, and their gut instincts, thereby denying Trump the nomination. But, there continues to be another way....
You say that "the party guests (a.k.a. 'the repulsive ones') took over the party." Fine, let them stay in Cleveland, talk to themselves, and pay for the party's party. The rest of the delegates, who are sickened by the manners of the new guests, call in sick, and stay home, thereby casting no votes for the repulsive ones' presumptive nominee. Without a rules change, Repulsive Presumptive Nominee returns home to "pursue other interests."
Then, it will be time to schedule a new Republican Party's party, and do it right, as we remember them from our vintage 1950's and 1960's black-and-white TV's. (Smoke-filled rooms, however, must be replaced by smoke-free rooms, even for diehard G.O.P. conservatives who fondly remember 1952, 1956, and 1960 with glee.)
1
Find our way back to the Republican Party of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.
Republicans made a Faustian bargain with the devil a long time ago when they courted the votes of racist white supremacists with Nixon's "Southern Strategy", and also with the Evangelicals when they sought to get their votes by being anti-choice and climate change deniers. The rise of Trump as their candidate was inevitable, since he panders to these groups even better than most Republicans do. Instead of dog-whistles, he comes right out and says it. Republicans like the author need to realize that this was the road they were heading down, and they need to right the ship. They can do that be ensuring that Trump loses (vote for Hillary -- it's the only way to ensure it) and perhaps start repudiating future candidates who pander to the base's evils.
7
I am sure you yourself did not harbor racist thoughts, but surely you are aware that, in the 50s and 60s, as the Democratic party shifted, however reluctantly, to favor civil rights, the Southern Democrat segregationists abandoned the party for the Republicans, who welcomed them with open arms, purely for the purpose of maintaining power. As a result of the "Southern strategy," the racist past of these latter-day Confederates was wallpapered over with an outwardly neutral stance that favored "states rights" over federal authority to enforce equal rights for all; that spun affirmative action as an affront to individual liberty and equal treatment of whites; that opposed school desegregation for the same reason while still refusing to provide adequate support for inner-city schools. All of this was transformed into a much more general antipathy to "Big Government".
Yet you don't see the racist past that I see when I look at these core Republican "values." My vision is based on experience and history. Yours is based on your own wishful thinking.
Now you are seeing, not what you think of as your party, maybe, but certainly the people who voted with your party all these years. Ask yourself, Why did they vote Republican for all these decades? I would venture to say that they are continuing to vote (R) for the reasons they have always voted (R), but now those reasons are just being said out loud. Or, maybe you have finally been forced to take your hands off your ears.
Yet you don't see the racist past that I see when I look at these core Republican "values." My vision is based on experience and history. Yours is based on your own wishful thinking.
Now you are seeing, not what you think of as your party, maybe, but certainly the people who voted with your party all these years. Ask yourself, Why did they vote Republican for all these decades? I would venture to say that they are continuing to vote (R) for the reasons they have always voted (R), but now those reasons are just being said out loud. Or, maybe you have finally been forced to take your hands off your ears.
11
This column would be touching if it didn't rely on the absurd premise that the modern G.O.P. has anything to do with Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party. Lincoln approved the nation's first federal income tax in 1861. Lincoln provided federal funding for the Western expansion of the railroads with the Pacific Railroad Acts and supported state funds for public education with the Land Grants Act in 1862. For crying out loud, Lincoln was commander-in-chief of a war to prevent the Southern States from enacting their own anti-Federalist version of "state's rights". To "find our way back to Lincoln", the GOP is going to have to do more than defeat Donald Trump; it's going to have to do an ideological, rhetorical, and moral house-cleaning, top to bottom.
18
A brilliant article by an articulate and compassionate Republican. Rational people see that Trump could not possibly be a good president. How did he win the primaries? Who are the people that voted for him? What kind of country do they want? Many of them hate president Obama even though he has out--performed most presidents and is a class act. Trump started the "birther" movement, falsely claiming that Obama wasn't born here and therefore should be removed from office. Yesterday, Trump blamrd the president for the police killings in Baton Rouge. Last month, prominent Republican senator
John McCain blamed Obama for the mass murder in Florida. Tonite, former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani will speak at the RNC Convention. He will claim that Black Lives Matter protests are unjustified, despite the huge racial divide in our criminal justice system and random police killings of unarmed black men. So where does the "Party of Lincoln" stand today? How can it succeed when its top leaders in Congress are supporting Donald Trump? Lincoln would be crying if he saw what has become of the Republican Party.
John McCain blamed Obama for the mass murder in Florida. Tonite, former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani will speak at the RNC Convention. He will claim that Black Lives Matter protests are unjustified, despite the huge racial divide in our criminal justice system and random police killings of unarmed black men. So where does the "Party of Lincoln" stand today? How can it succeed when its top leaders in Congress are supporting Donald Trump? Lincoln would be crying if he saw what has become of the Republican Party.
3
Please don't call the GOP the party of Lincoln. Lincoln stood up for the oppressed and poor. He did not believe that it was "honorable" to work in the interests of the "deserving" rich, and he did not look down on his voters like Romney and yourself.
You (and, yes, you Peter Wehner) and others like you have created Trump. You have pulled the rug from underneath white working class voters, who now yearn to return to a time when America was great for them. And you have cynically mobilized these voters with your racist dog whistling about family values, welfare queens, and, of course, the war on drugs. But since Romney was secretly taped in Florida, Republican voters know what you and your kind truly think of them and they have gone for a demagogue who shares their racism and misogyny and promises to leave them out of their misery that you (yes, you Peter Wehner) have helped create.
If white working classes still had good manufacturing jobs, affordable health care and easy access to good education they wouldn't need someone to blame - aka Blacks and Latinos mooching off the welfare state.
So if you wonder how the GOP could become Trump's Party take a cold hard look in the mirror and reflect on what you and your kind have done to America.
You (and, yes, you Peter Wehner) and others like you have created Trump. You have pulled the rug from underneath white working class voters, who now yearn to return to a time when America was great for them. And you have cynically mobilized these voters with your racist dog whistling about family values, welfare queens, and, of course, the war on drugs. But since Romney was secretly taped in Florida, Republican voters know what you and your kind truly think of them and they have gone for a demagogue who shares their racism and misogyny and promises to leave them out of their misery that you (yes, you Peter Wehner) have helped create.
If white working classes still had good manufacturing jobs, affordable health care and easy access to good education they wouldn't need someone to blame - aka Blacks and Latinos mooching off the welfare state.
So if you wonder how the GOP could become Trump's Party take a cold hard look in the mirror and reflect on what you and your kind have done to America.
7
I always thought that the Republicans were referring to Lincoln Rockwell....?
2
Maybe you should've listened to the liberals...
2
The Republican Party you long for is dead and gone. The other night I heard talking heads going on about the number of trump reporting republicans outnumbering Rockefeller republicans. Rockefeller ran for president 50 years ago. The people behind trump were either not born or in grade school. They gave way to religious and economic zealouts 10-20 years ago and after they more or less proved to be unelectable in a national election, trump was next. The sheer level of detachment that allows someone to think that Lincoln-inspired principles could somehow be resurrected is stunning. This must have been written overlooking the ocean in kennebunkport.
3
I look at Republican Party is the most conservative party in the USA, and it is one of the strong arms of the US government with many supporters. Therefore, it is fundamental that Republican Party may be counted as a strong enemy of Democratic Party. The question is which parties will win the political run this year. May God wish both sides. It makes us remember Lincoln.
"Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better, or is this real?" Megan Kelly
4
I feel your pain.
I was there myself, only several election cycles ago.
I was a reluctant Republican when it became apparent that winning the culture wars was more important than winning the war on poverty.
I was an embarrassed Republican when it became apparent that there were no WMDs in Iraq, the needless invasion of which blew up the entire middle east.
I was a disgusted Republican when it became apparent that the mantra "give a hand up, not a hand out" really meant give a handout (in the form of tax cuts) to those who don't need it in the hopes that they will give a hand up those who do.
I became an angry and unemployed (and due to age, unemployable) Republican when it turns out that free trade really meant offshoring jobs (including my own) without a thought to the lifetime impact on communities and individuals who would be hurt.
I stopped voting Republican at the top of the ticket after Bush fils' (or rather Cheney's) attacks on civil liberties.
I stopped voting Republican altogether when the tea party caucus of conservative Republicans repeatedly attempted to shut down the government in a fit of pique against a (not very) black president.
If you can find or form a political party that will govern rationally and oppose the giveaway, entitlement mentality of the Democrats, than I would gladly join you.
Perhaps the Libertarians could be educated in real-world economics?
I was there myself, only several election cycles ago.
I was a reluctant Republican when it became apparent that winning the culture wars was more important than winning the war on poverty.
I was an embarrassed Republican when it became apparent that there were no WMDs in Iraq, the needless invasion of which blew up the entire middle east.
I was a disgusted Republican when it became apparent that the mantra "give a hand up, not a hand out" really meant give a handout (in the form of tax cuts) to those who don't need it in the hopes that they will give a hand up those who do.
I became an angry and unemployed (and due to age, unemployable) Republican when it turns out that free trade really meant offshoring jobs (including my own) without a thought to the lifetime impact on communities and individuals who would be hurt.
I stopped voting Republican at the top of the ticket after Bush fils' (or rather Cheney's) attacks on civil liberties.
I stopped voting Republican altogether when the tea party caucus of conservative Republicans repeatedly attempted to shut down the government in a fit of pique against a (not very) black president.
If you can find or form a political party that will govern rationally and oppose the giveaway, entitlement mentality of the Democrats, than I would gladly join you.
Perhaps the Libertarians could be educated in real-world economics?
3
Dear Mr. Wehner of the right-wing Ethics and Public Policy Center and the last three Republican administrations:
This is all on you and yours. You broke it, you own it. Don't pretend Trump and Pence aren't the products of your ideology.
This is all on you and yours. You broke it, you own it. Don't pretend Trump and Pence aren't the products of your ideology.
9
7 dead and 52 wounded in a weeken had to read it three time, at first thought it was from Iraq,Afghanistan, or maybe Syria?But can't find any figures on wounded or dead of American troops in any of those places over the weekend.But Rahm and the Democrats who have been in power for 80 years, really think they can cope with the wounded and deaths daily in the City of Chicago? I haven't even touched on the multitude of problems facing America today. But Trump is the scary one?
1
Like this year's Democratic nominee,, I came from a Rockefeller Republican family and found the Party a good fit with my upstate New York upbringing.
I still believe Ike was an underrated President. I also felt that my solid hometown Republican US Senator Kenneth Keating was too good a person to be targeted for defeat by Robert Kennedy... although by 1968 I fervently hoped he would be our next President. In the interim, Goldwater, Nixon and his rehetoric did me in as a Republican and I have never looked back.
I still believe Ike was an underrated President. I also felt that my solid hometown Republican US Senator Kenneth Keating was too good a person to be targeted for defeat by Robert Kennedy... although by 1968 I fervently hoped he would be our next President. In the interim, Goldwater, Nixon and his rehetoric did me in as a Republican and I have never looked back.
2
"(Set aside for now the damage he would do to the country.)"
See, the problem is I don't want to "set aside for now" the damage the Republican party nominee will due to the country. I do not doubt your sincerity, Mr. Wehner, or that you truly believed your party was doing something good. But I would have much greater faith in your judgment and capacity to have learned from your past mistakes if you didn't spend so much time worrying about the future of the Republican party and instead focused your concern on the future of our country.
The state of the GOP may not matter much longer if Trump becomes president. Are you doing everything you can to prevent this unprecedented threat from materializing?
See, the problem is I don't want to "set aside for now" the damage the Republican party nominee will due to the country. I do not doubt your sincerity, Mr. Wehner, or that you truly believed your party was doing something good. But I would have much greater faith in your judgment and capacity to have learned from your past mistakes if you didn't spend so much time worrying about the future of the Republican party and instead focused your concern on the future of our country.
The state of the GOP may not matter much longer if Trump becomes president. Are you doing everything you can to prevent this unprecedented threat from materializing?
5
Rubbish, Mr. Wehner; pure and unadulterated rubbish! You know it and we know it. Your Party is NOT the Party of Abraham Lincoln; it has not been the Party of Honest Abe at least since the days of Joe McCarthy and Dick Nixon. You and your buddies created it, now you own it. At least have the decency to admit your past mistakes and resign from the crazy Party. Unless a large number of members quit this Republican Party and publicly denounce it for what it has become, there is a good chance that Fascism will be coming to America after the November elections. You, Mr. Wehner, and your cohorts will be held responsible for it. Once our Country is destroyed, once the World has been set on fire by the crazy orange-haired monster, once millions of innocents have perished in the unnecessary conflicts that he will have ignited, there will be reckoning, there will be a Nuremberg, there will be trials, and you and your co-conspirators will be found guilty. This is serious stuff, Mr. Wehner; do not tread lightly.
6
Mr. Wehner. It must be so hard for you. You are practically a contortionist. It would amaze me if you were able to unwind your mind to the extent necessary to go to sleep.
Stop denying.
Stop denying.
2
Mr. Wehner, I hope you read another NYT article published today "Trump Ghostwriter Expresses ‘Deep Sense of Remorse’" Tony Schwartz, who was the actual writer of "The Art of the Deal", concluded from his experience shadowing and interviewing Trump that Trump is a "sociopath." “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes, there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.”
What does it say about our country's voters and the Republican Party that such a person is now one of two possible individuals to become President of the United States?
May I suggest you stop bemoaning and put all your energy into defeating that man, and addressing the root causes that led to his rise, irrespective of your party registration.
What does it say about our country's voters and the Republican Party that such a person is now one of two possible individuals to become President of the United States?
May I suggest you stop bemoaning and put all your energy into defeating that man, and addressing the root causes that led to his rise, irrespective of your party registration.
7
I'd rather not associate Lincoln's name in the same article
that mentions the republican front runner....thank you very much.
that mentions the republican front runner....thank you very much.
6
i think this op ed left out an entire period of history where the GOP members by far and large supported the South African Government during apartheid and called Mandela a terrorist. Your party has always made its views on gay people plain. I should know I grew up in a republican household and did not and could not speak to my parents for years. They may not have worn the whole coat of paint but they sure had the primer.
8
Enough said about how we got here. Most of us know how it happened. Now its time to support Hillary Clinton, who with all her warts is a positive angel compared to Trump. So Peter, start a Republicans for Hillary organization and send her some money. Then your regret will mean something.
10
The juxtaposition of this article with "Why You Don't Know Your Own Mind" was sheer genius; more likely coincidence, but I would like to think that someone on staff made this decision.
Those of us who have been following the Republican party for the last few decades read this article with an air of total disbelief. Mr. Wehner, are you really that blind? Your party long ago abandoned the best interests of the American public, openly and deliberately, in the interests of obtaining and keeping political power. I believe you when you say that, at its heart, it was trying to do what it believed best, but it is so unanchored to any real value that it would take a tremendous effort not to notice that.
There have been many mentions of Reagan kicking off his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
One of my favorite moments was when every presidential candidate (was that in 2008?) denied believing in evolution. Denying science? As a political party? Really? And don't get me started with climate change (a fraud? seriously?).
Or the legislation they pass in State houses and Congress. Voter ID laws? Anyone who is awake, including all the people pushing these laws, knows that this is a solution for a non-problem, that its only purpose is to suppress voting by likely Democrats. Yet, there is the leading advocate of the movement, immersed in drafting the Republican platform. Religious freedom bills? Orwell indeed.
Wake up, Peter. This party needs to be euthanized.
Those of us who have been following the Republican party for the last few decades read this article with an air of total disbelief. Mr. Wehner, are you really that blind? Your party long ago abandoned the best interests of the American public, openly and deliberately, in the interests of obtaining and keeping political power. I believe you when you say that, at its heart, it was trying to do what it believed best, but it is so unanchored to any real value that it would take a tremendous effort not to notice that.
There have been many mentions of Reagan kicking off his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
One of my favorite moments was when every presidential candidate (was that in 2008?) denied believing in evolution. Denying science? As a political party? Really? And don't get me started with climate change (a fraud? seriously?).
Or the legislation they pass in State houses and Congress. Voter ID laws? Anyone who is awake, including all the people pushing these laws, knows that this is a solution for a non-problem, that its only purpose is to suppress voting by likely Democrats. Yet, there is the leading advocate of the movement, immersed in drafting the Republican platform. Religious freedom bills? Orwell indeed.
Wake up, Peter. This party needs to be euthanized.
8
George Bush is guilty of many things during his time in the White House but perhaps his biggest crime is giving confidence to really stupid people.
7
It took a long time for Lincoln to find a general with a winning southern strategy. The GOP lost Lincoln when it came up with its own Southern Strategy. From that Strategy you spawned Trump. Thanks GOP.
1
It's not just "Trump." Look at your platform. Look at who is in office. Look at the policies that have bee promoted over the past 30 years. The GOP has become an abomination, with or without Trump. It is frightening, it is disdainful if not outright hateful, it is regressive, it is exclusive, it is elitist, and it is unbounded by fact or science.
A whole-scale re-envisioning is required. Not merely an excommunication of one or a few leaders or followers.
A whole-scale re-envisioning is required. Not merely an excommunication of one or a few leaders or followers.
41
For half a century, the Republican Party has been the party of Nixon, not Lincoln. The Southern Strategy remains the foundation of modern Goperism. Donald Trump will do to America what he did to the Taj Mahal. His white christian nationalist supporters know that, and they know they've lost the culture war. A dominionist will destroy what he cannot control.
2
In a nutshell; trickle-down economics is a deceptive tool to funnel wealth to the already wealthy. It doesn't work. Racial dog-whistles do, unfortunately, work very well to stigmatize groups of poor people. Smaller pieces of pie, more fighting over them.
The pleebs aren't buying your line anymore. Discredited, unworkable, obstructionist and ineffectual policies. That's what gave you (and sadly us) Trump.
The pleebs aren't buying your line anymore. Discredited, unworkable, obstructionist and ineffectual policies. That's what gave you (and sadly us) Trump.
3
It is frankly impossible to believe that a person as articulate as Mr. Wehner can be so completely un-self-aware about his colleagues and friends who have been forging the directions and policies of his party for the past several decades. This is the political equivalent of Captain Renaults: " I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" I don't believe a word of it....
3
Wehner and all others like him who publicly won't praise Trumpism and appear to be shocked at Trump's elevation to the nomination are secretly in connivance with the present face of the party.
Because the present face of the party has not changed in the last 40 years. In the heart of each present day republican was the expectation that one day we will get our old time America back again! It has all been planned and executed well by the Donald; and aren't we glad? Finally....
Because the present face of the party has not changed in the last 40 years. In the heart of each present day republican was the expectation that one day we will get our old time America back again! It has all been planned and executed well by the Donald; and aren't we glad? Finally....
1
That whole party of lincoln ship was sunk when the GOP enticed and embraced the good ole dixiecrats and then set about the southern strategy, fighting civil rights every step of the way. Seriously it's been 60 years. Helms, Thurmond, Goldwater. How about Willie Horton adds? So please. Enough. Lincoln set about to destory slavery.
2
I am neither Dem or GOP, and have been accused of being both. The folks calling themselves Republicans these days bear little to any resemblance to the ones who greeted candidate Dwight D Eisenhower in my hometown of Corning, NY in 1952.
The change began when the last of the southern "Dixiecrats" switched parties after feeling betrayed by fellow Dems, particularly LBJ. This changed the Republican Party from that of much of the middle and upper middle class to that of folks who wanted the old ideas to determine our country's future. They brought with them the old divisive attitudes regarding race, religion, weaponry, and states' rights.
In a peculiar way candidate Trump did the nation a favor in that he revealed not only what folks were thinking behind doors but that there are millions of like minded souls.
They probably should find a new name for the party. It obviously no longer is the GOP.
Let's face it. This is one strange election season with two historic possibilities in the offing: a female president or a businessman with two ex-wives and a world record shattering penchant for outspokenness.
The change began when the last of the southern "Dixiecrats" switched parties after feeling betrayed by fellow Dems, particularly LBJ. This changed the Republican Party from that of much of the middle and upper middle class to that of folks who wanted the old ideas to determine our country's future. They brought with them the old divisive attitudes regarding race, religion, weaponry, and states' rights.
In a peculiar way candidate Trump did the nation a favor in that he revealed not only what folks were thinking behind doors but that there are millions of like minded souls.
They probably should find a new name for the party. It obviously no longer is the GOP.
Let's face it. This is one strange election season with two historic possibilities in the offing: a female president or a businessman with two ex-wives and a world record shattering penchant for outspokenness.
"I have repeatedly denied those charges, publicly and forcefully. The broad indictment, the unfair generalizations, were caricature and calumny, the product of the fevered imagination of the left."
And now you level the same baseless charges against Mr. Trump.
There is little difference between establishment Republicans and the Democrats. Both have sold out lower- and middle-class American citizens to enrich their special interests and themselves.
You don't like Trump. Fine. Vote for Hillary.
And now you level the same baseless charges against Mr. Trump.
There is little difference between establishment Republicans and the Democrats. Both have sold out lower- and middle-class American citizens to enrich their special interests and themselves.
You don't like Trump. Fine. Vote for Hillary.
If you can't see Trump as the Ur-Republican that he is, you are either lying or blind. The party represents nothing so much as racist handouts to the 1%. Awesome.
2
"...that doesn’t view decency as a sign of weakness or
confuse bullying and bluster with strength,
and that aims to channel aspirations
rather than stoke resentments and organize hatreds."
The republican party I've seen my whole life has been nothing but those things. The bullying and bluster of the Bushes; The resentment, hatred and hypocrisy of the religious right; The absurd focus on theiving from the poor to give to the rich.. That is all I have ever seen from the republicans except for a small bit of AIDs assistance to Africa from Bush. One "good deed" in 40 years of watching the republicans!
I wish there were a spiritually moral, high integrity, firm, strong, tolerant, thoughtful and fiscally conservative party. I would vote for them. As it stands, the Democrats are much closer to that goal than the Republicans.
confuse bullying and bluster with strength,
and that aims to channel aspirations
rather than stoke resentments and organize hatreds."
The republican party I've seen my whole life has been nothing but those things. The bullying and bluster of the Bushes; The resentment, hatred and hypocrisy of the religious right; The absurd focus on theiving from the poor to give to the rich.. That is all I have ever seen from the republicans except for a small bit of AIDs assistance to Africa from Bush. One "good deed" in 40 years of watching the republicans!
I wish there were a spiritually moral, high integrity, firm, strong, tolerant, thoughtful and fiscally conservative party. I would vote for them. As it stands, the Democrats are much closer to that goal than the Republicans.
1
Oy Vey...another GOP Soul Search?
Have you guys ever considered the possibility that the GOP has no soul?
"...they got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye".
Have you guys ever considered the possibility that the GOP has no soul?
"...they got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye".
3
The Ethics and Public Policy Center describes itself as "dedicated to applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy". It is one of the outfits set up in the 70's to legitimize conservative public policy proposals because their ideas could not get traction in ANY institution of higher learning.
Mr. Wehner, you and your fellow "academics" created this very situation. You declared government the problem, cut taxes to make government programs fail (except the military) and then stepped back, aghast and pointed to the mess you had made and proclaimed you had proven government was the problem.
You were elected and failed to govern. You willfully and openly refused to accept a legally elected U.S. President. For two terms. You continue to act in this treasonous manner.
One of your Frankenstein's was on talk radio yesterday calling for people to take up arms in this race war. Saying there would be no inauguration in January if HRC was elected.
Look at what you have brought us to. This is on your head. But we will have to pick up your mess. Vote anything but Republican in November - across the board.
Mr. Wehner, you and your fellow "academics" created this very situation. You declared government the problem, cut taxes to make government programs fail (except the military) and then stepped back, aghast and pointed to the mess you had made and proclaimed you had proven government was the problem.
You were elected and failed to govern. You willfully and openly refused to accept a legally elected U.S. President. For two terms. You continue to act in this treasonous manner.
One of your Frankenstein's was on talk radio yesterday calling for people to take up arms in this race war. Saying there would be no inauguration in January if HRC was elected.
Look at what you have brought us to. This is on your head. But we will have to pick up your mess. Vote anything but Republican in November - across the board.
1
Peter, despite your evident sincerity, you ultimately refuse to face up to the fact that calling the Republican party the party of Lincoln has become a travesty. In the past 60 years, the Republican party has been behind the curve on every major social reform: civil rights, medicare expansion and health care reform, gay rights, immigration reform, and now climate change. Your party has one answer for everything: tax cuts for the rich and unfettered free market capitalism. There's not a single recognized Republican leader in this country that is able or willing to live up to Lincoln's legacy by taking on a rights issue as profound as challenging slavery as an institution was in Lincoln's time. Until this reality is recognized and addressed by Republicans with the courage to challenge the current orthodoxy no change is remotely possible.
3
Oh please. Finding their way back to the party of Lincoln. They took an extreme right a thousand miles ago. No amount of google maps is going to help
3
While I feel some sympathy for Mr. Wehner and the principled conservatives among whom he counts himself, his column in some ways manifests the very problems of GOP that he deplores: a failure to take any personal responsibility for the problems he has helped to cause, even if unintentionally.
Part of the Republican strategy for a long time, and what seems to be explaining Trump's rise this year, is finger-pointing. Problems are someone else's fault. Usually that culpable someone looks, thinks, or worships differently.
Peter Wehner is doing the same thing. I commend him for calling for some soul-searching in the Republican Party. I think, though, that he should begin with his own soul, and a recognition of his own responsibility in bringing his party an the country to this point. One does not have to have intended to do great harm to have been complicit in wreaking it.
Part of the Republican strategy for a long time, and what seems to be explaining Trump's rise this year, is finger-pointing. Problems are someone else's fault. Usually that culpable someone looks, thinks, or worships differently.
Peter Wehner is doing the same thing. I commend him for calling for some soul-searching in the Republican Party. I think, though, that he should begin with his own soul, and a recognition of his own responsibility in bringing his party an the country to this point. One does not have to have intended to do great harm to have been complicit in wreaking it.
2
Hope you’ve learned the value of giving due consideration to the opposition, who, as it turns out, were correct about the GOP all along. Trump does not just “seem” to embody every awful charge against the GOP---the dumbed-down discourse sponsored by Fox “news” IS your anti-chandidate in the flesh. That’s “how on earth” he was produced. Why are you surprised? Out here in the land of reason and logic, we are not surprised at all. (although we will be celebrating all week)
1
Mr. Wehner,
I can accept that you are basically what you claim to be, having said that, you seem to miss many of your own points.
I seem to recall that it was Mr. Reagan who claimed that the most dangerous phrase was 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you', as he ran on a platform that essentially called for more 'States Rights'. And how about G.H. running those 'Willie Horton' ads, or the failure of most of your parties 'leaders' to forcefully deny birtherism.
It's not that there were 'some' in your party that were racists, or homophobic, or seeking a de-facto theocracy. The problem is that the Republican party has never, ever, gone out of its way to denounce these people and their ideas, as un-American, and un-democratic, and in many cases un-civilized.
Start there perhaps, and then talk of a 'New' Republicanism.
I can accept that you are basically what you claim to be, having said that, you seem to miss many of your own points.
I seem to recall that it was Mr. Reagan who claimed that the most dangerous phrase was 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you', as he ran on a platform that essentially called for more 'States Rights'. And how about G.H. running those 'Willie Horton' ads, or the failure of most of your parties 'leaders' to forcefully deny birtherism.
It's not that there were 'some' in your party that were racists, or homophobic, or seeking a de-facto theocracy. The problem is that the Republican party has never, ever, gone out of its way to denounce these people and their ideas, as un-American, and un-democratic, and in many cases un-civilized.
Start there perhaps, and then talk of a 'New' Republicanism.
4
To Mr. Wehner's position, " ... Set aside for now the damage he would do to the country ...", no, not now, not ever.
As a second point of consideration, it does strike one as perplexing the utter venomous stance Donald Trump portends against immigrants and women; oh wait, that is his mother, right? An immigrant and a woman. Perhaps we see the same kinds of Oedipal connotations that Ms. Dowd so succinctly captured in her chronicles of former Pres. Bush and his obsessions with Saddam Hussein. Look where that obsession took us.
As a second point of consideration, it does strike one as perplexing the utter venomous stance Donald Trump portends against immigrants and women; oh wait, that is his mother, right? An immigrant and a woman. Perhaps we see the same kinds of Oedipal connotations that Ms. Dowd so succinctly captured in her chronicles of former Pres. Bush and his obsessions with Saddam Hussein. Look where that obsession took us.
1
Soul of the party? Hah! A twisted, dark thing when we talk about the GOP. To be a Republican is to be a privileged white man who behaves like a child, putting his foot on everyone else's neck whilst shirking his responsibilities. Don't want to pay their taxes, but expect infrastructure to be there. Don't want to pay a living wage but expect to have productive employees. They're like twelve year olds expecting food in the refrigerator and current X box to appear, then whine about a nanny state.
5
The entire premise of this column is laughable. The GOP has no soul. It is a racist, xenophobic, misogynist, bigoted, homophobic, elitist, money worshiping collection of democracy denying, vote suppressing hypocrites united only by the most ignorant and immoral of base instincts. If you vote GOP, you are an enabler of the worst among us: Trump, Pence, the Koch brothers, Xtian zealots and money grubbing one percenters.
7
No.
6
Stop whining and get over it, the answer is that the party you so cherish spent too much time giving tax breaks to the rich, sending middle class jobs over seas, arguing over non middle class issues like abortion and gay marriage. The Republican party, like the Democratic party, became the parties of elitists. The Republican base which has be been so faithful and not rewarded so the elitist can get richer while the middle case barely get by. Good riddance!
3
I don’t think we’re due for a another civil war, so Lincoln’s magnanimity in conquest may not be the best inspiration for the moment.
1
Mr. Wehner, I trust you are sincere in your beliefs. But why, I must ask, did Governor Reagan open his candidacy in Philadelphia, Mississippi, of all places, and with speech proclaiming the virtues of state's rights, no less, if not to consolidate the votes of the very element of the electorate to which Mr. Trump most strongly appeals? Why did George H.W. Bush run the Willie Horton ad?
I admire must of what you urge for the politics of the nation, even if I don't share your political view. There must be a constructive center in which politician of the left and right can contend and reach compromise. I think, though, that you need to look deeper into history of the modern Republican Party to learn how it produced Mr. Trump as its nominee, and to reach the goals you have set out.
I admire must of what you urge for the politics of the nation, even if I don't share your political view. There must be a constructive center in which politician of the left and right can contend and reach compromise. I think, though, that you need to look deeper into history of the modern Republican Party to learn how it produced Mr. Trump as its nominee, and to reach the goals you have set out.
13
My wife and I recently visited Vancouver Island. While there, we went on a tour boat that travels by the shore at low tide. Black bears come turn over rocks and feed on crabs. I am pretty sure that those crabs had heard of Willie Horton. Where have you been hiding Peter?
5
Keep this in mind--it's the silent majority that decides presidential elections. Shouldn't both sides be worrying about the vast majority of Americans who claim to be apolitical;, always claim to be "undecided" when it comes to deciding which candidates should face off against each other and don't bother blogging at all???
If Lincoln were alive today, he'd be a Democrat.
14
Yes, the fictionalized Lincoln from the movie by Spielberg, but not the real Abraham Lincoln.
Although this is one of the most balanced appraisals of the Republican party post-Nixon to present, I still wonder how the author could've missed the blatant appeals to ignorance that issued forth from nearly every Republican over the past 50 years. The Republican party has been cultivating ignorance and prejudice for as long as I can remember--from welfare cheats to thieving union members to the shiftless homeless, the Republican bogeyman is always at the door. While I agree that "Both parties are made up of imperfect people who have very different worldviews yet who by and large are acting in what they believe is the public interest," these good Republicans fell into the temptation to pursue votes with the wrong types of appeals. So in the end it isn't more complex that that--Republicans have potentially brought themselves to an ignominious end.
4
He didn't miss the appeals. He simply cannot admit that they were the reason for Republican electoral success. In this he is like a lot of people who simply refuse to believe that a lot of the country was built on the backs of slave labor, or that at least some of their own wealth and advantage derives from luck or the exploitation of others, and not solely their own merit. We all want to see the world as rational and just, especially when it crowns us as winners.
1
At best, the GOP establishment can deny racist motivations because its notion of the national interest has consciously proceeded with the rights and needs of minority communities out of sight and out of mind. But that is the form of racism embodied in the presumption of white privilege. However benign it feels, its effects are far from being so.
But in truth, the GOP's problem is not so innocent. It has knowingly blown the dog whistle so long and so hard that finally the dogs have showed up, all of them, and the party has lost control of the pack. The only way back to the Party of Lincoln are the steps they will not take: To endorse Hillary Clinton as GOP voters' patriotic duty in a national emergency, faced with the alternative of a bigoted white nationalist who believes in nothing but the commercial value of his brand, and to form a new party. Lincoln did pretty much that in his own time.
But in truth, the GOP's problem is not so innocent. It has knowingly blown the dog whistle so long and so hard that finally the dogs have showed up, all of them, and the party has lost control of the pack. The only way back to the Party of Lincoln are the steps they will not take: To endorse Hillary Clinton as GOP voters' patriotic duty in a national emergency, faced with the alternative of a bigoted white nationalist who believes in nothing but the commercial value of his brand, and to form a new party. Lincoln did pretty much that in his own time.
6
If our white, working class GOP friends are unhappy about the off-shoring of their manufacturing jobs, in service of shareholder profits. If they don't like the systematic gutting of reasonable financial controls, that resulted in the housing collapse. If trickle down economics aren't trickling down. If they're upset with US trade policies. If they don't like the wars in the Middle East. If they don't like immigration policies designed to provide cheap labor to make richer, blotted industrial farm companies, who receive obscene levels of government hand-outs (subsidies). If they don't like the unprecedented level of local election "rigging" through voter suppression and redrawing of local election districts. If they DO like bigotry, racism and the undermining of the nations social fabric for political gain. A country awash in guns, and violence.
They need only look to who has been in control of the Congress (and passing these laws for 18 out of the last 21 years, sorry the President doesn't make law, Congress does).
You guessed it, The REPUBLICAN party.
They need only look to who has been in control of the Congress (and passing these laws for 18 out of the last 21 years, sorry the President doesn't make law, Congress does).
You guessed it, The REPUBLICAN party.
6
Also, I just checked your Wiki page and there was no mention of Willie Horton or the fact that your parents were wolves. So you may want to update that.
4
I would love for the Republican Party to go back to the policies of Lincoln!
Not only did he act to end slavery, push for equality, and arm African Americans in the Union Army, but he also did the following:
He presided over the largest ever jump forward of Federal power.
He signed into law the Morrill Land Grant act that established public universities in the States. Bernie Sanders is channeling Lincoln on this idea of free higher education.
He signed into law the Pacific Railway Act to subsidize the advance of new and vital infrastructure.
About the rights of labor, Lincoln said, "I am glad to see that a system of labor prevails under which laborers can strike when they want to."
And he also said, "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."
Republicans: Call me when you go back to being the Party of Lincoln. I'll vote for you in a flash
Not only did he act to end slavery, push for equality, and arm African Americans in the Union Army, but he also did the following:
He presided over the largest ever jump forward of Federal power.
He signed into law the Morrill Land Grant act that established public universities in the States. Bernie Sanders is channeling Lincoln on this idea of free higher education.
He signed into law the Pacific Railway Act to subsidize the advance of new and vital infrastructure.
About the rights of labor, Lincoln said, "I am glad to see that a system of labor prevails under which laborers can strike when they want to."
And he also said, "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."
Republicans: Call me when you go back to being the Party of Lincoln. I'll vote for you in a flash
4
I'm sure that there are many Republican legislators who think that they are "honorably" working towards making the rich richer and punishing the undeserving poor for being poor. But they still appealed to the racism, misogyny and nasty nationalism of their voters, even though they despised them - just like Romney did. Now, the jig is up and Republican voters have rejected the Romney and his ilk for a candidate who seems to share their beliefs instead of just cynically manipulating them.
But the oh so very honorable Republicans not only prepared the ground for Trump with their dog whistling. They also made their lives so hard that angry voters are now going for demagogues. The GOP pursued policies that depressed wages. They defended a rapacious and ineffective health care industry. They forced colleges and universities to raise tuition by defunding education.
So you honorable Republicans (a really galling term, mostly used by the dishonorable) have created Trump not just because of their rhetoric but by what they truly believed in.
The GOP seized to be the party of Lincoln over two generations ago. So don't you dare evoking his name!
But the oh so very honorable Republicans not only prepared the ground for Trump with their dog whistling. They also made their lives so hard that angry voters are now going for demagogues. The GOP pursued policies that depressed wages. They defended a rapacious and ineffective health care industry. They forced colleges and universities to raise tuition by defunding education.
So you honorable Republicans (a really galling term, mostly used by the dishonorable) have created Trump not just because of their rhetoric but by what they truly believed in.
The GOP seized to be the party of Lincoln over two generations ago. So don't you dare evoking his name!
4
Abraham Lincoln would not have been welcome in the Republican Party since the 1870s, when it became the party of plutocrats. A century later "government of the people" became "...government is the problem.”
A Party of Lincoln would not and could not spawn a Reagan, a Bush and the political ideology that made them possible.
To think otherwise specious, at best, mendacious at worst.
A Party of Lincoln would not and could not spawn a Reagan, a Bush and the political ideology that made them possible.
To think otherwise specious, at best, mendacious at worst.
3
The "Way Back to Lincoln" will be so long and difficult -- backwards through nonsensical and divisive culture wars; stupid and damaging government shut-downs; unholy alliances with undemocratic religious zealots; vigorous promotion of socioeconomic inequality; hands-off governing leading to the Great Recession; disastrous foreign policy; zealous cultivation of the Military-Industrial Complex; and the "Southern Strategy" (among other things) -- that, frankly, I believe it's impossible to get there from here.
And I doubt that Mr. Lincoln, if he were alive today, would want you "back."
I've celebrated Mr. Trump's campaign from the start because I saw in him the possibility -- FINALLY -- for euthanizing a terminally ill Republican Party. I remain hopeful.
And I doubt that Mr. Lincoln, if he were alive today, would want you "back."
I've celebrated Mr. Trump's campaign from the start because I saw in him the possibility -- FINALLY -- for euthanizing a terminally ill Republican Party. I remain hopeful.
2
Every Republican is not racist -- but over overwhelmingly most racists are Republican. You don't find leaders of the KKK endorsing Democrats. You don't find Democratic campaign staff with KKK ties. Minorities are not overwhelmingly Democrats because their complexion makes them inherently opposed to lower taxes and fiscal conservatism -- it is because they have heard the dog whistle all of their lives.
The GOP has given the idea of racism a home for quite sometime, all wrapped up in a "states rights" and "real America" hate mongering ribbons. Nixon and Reagan -- saw an opening Johnson created with the Civil Rights Act and ran with it. YES RONALD REAGAN WAS DOG WHISTLE RACE BAITING THE DAY HE STARTED HIS CAMPAIGN IN PHILADELPHIA MISSISSIPPI. Karl Rove et al perfected the same type of politics by hate mongering against homosexuals and foreigners and women and poverty. Donald Trump did not invent racism or hate mongering in the Republican Party. He just spit out the dog whistle and started shouting.
Racism does not appeal to or motivate every Republican, but every Republican who did not agree with it, or most, held their nose and their tongue for half a century because you needed the votes and you thought you could control them. And quite frankly, sir, it makes you more guilty not less.
Until you acknowledge this it will not go away.
The GOP has given the idea of racism a home for quite sometime, all wrapped up in a "states rights" and "real America" hate mongering ribbons. Nixon and Reagan -- saw an opening Johnson created with the Civil Rights Act and ran with it. YES RONALD REAGAN WAS DOG WHISTLE RACE BAITING THE DAY HE STARTED HIS CAMPAIGN IN PHILADELPHIA MISSISSIPPI. Karl Rove et al perfected the same type of politics by hate mongering against homosexuals and foreigners and women and poverty. Donald Trump did not invent racism or hate mongering in the Republican Party. He just spit out the dog whistle and started shouting.
Racism does not appeal to or motivate every Republican, but every Republican who did not agree with it, or most, held their nose and their tongue for half a century because you needed the votes and you thought you could control them. And quite frankly, sir, it makes you more guilty not less.
Until you acknowledge this it will not go away.
5
Certainly, if Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt were alive today, they would be Democrats.
The GOP, earlier bigoted against the working class and against decent progressives it painted as dangerous Commies, began its path toward increasing racism under Nixon, greatly extending its bigotry under Reagan; and repulsively magnifying its bigotry against aliens, ethnicities, races and non-Christian religions since 2009 and especially during the current Presidential campaign.
In stark comparison, beginning in 1948 and currently peaking, the Democratic Party, formerly the party of the Confederacy, KKK and racism, shed itself of most of that bigotry.
The current GOP is beyond hope and salvation, unless Trump loses both popular and electoral votes by wide margins. Even then, the GOP may be unable to recover, and will fracture or disappear, following in the footsteps of the Federalists, Whigs and Know-Nothings. And that would be a good thing for the USA and the world.
I don't want to think about the terrible bigotry and violent reactions and destruction of democracies in and out of the USA, if Trump does get elected.
I don't think Trump will be elected, and hope he loses in all 50 States, but maybe the American people are stupid enough to elect Trump, who would then replace GW Bush as the worst President the USA has had.
The GOP, earlier bigoted against the working class and against decent progressives it painted as dangerous Commies, began its path toward increasing racism under Nixon, greatly extending its bigotry under Reagan; and repulsively magnifying its bigotry against aliens, ethnicities, races and non-Christian religions since 2009 and especially during the current Presidential campaign.
In stark comparison, beginning in 1948 and currently peaking, the Democratic Party, formerly the party of the Confederacy, KKK and racism, shed itself of most of that bigotry.
The current GOP is beyond hope and salvation, unless Trump loses both popular and electoral votes by wide margins. Even then, the GOP may be unable to recover, and will fracture or disappear, following in the footsteps of the Federalists, Whigs and Know-Nothings. And that would be a good thing for the USA and the world.
I don't want to think about the terrible bigotry and violent reactions and destruction of democracies in and out of the USA, if Trump does get elected.
I don't think Trump will be elected, and hope he loses in all 50 States, but maybe the American people are stupid enough to elect Trump, who would then replace GW Bush as the worst President the USA has had.
4
Perhaps some day Mr. Wehner will realize his political vision but it may be a long time coming. His essay is certainly informative and on point but misses a few key historical facts.
Firstly, Lincoln had more in common with the rhetoric of present day democrats. He was a unifying force at a critical time in our country's history and chose to forgo divisive political posturing. Today, Trump embodies conservative republican thinking as it exists outside the proverbial ivory tower.
Second, it was the otherwise very talented Ronald Reagan who planted the seeds of destruction for the republican party. He charmed the conservative orthodoxy into believing that "government is THE problem". That seed has now grown into the ugly invasive weed that has taken over the landscape.
Hatred of government has of course been fueled by talk show radio ga-ga but the advent of the internet was perhaps the final blow for the "Party of Lincoln". Professional manipulators such as Karl Rove have managed to prove how easy it is to motivate the masses through fear, which generally leads to anger and hatred. And instead of fighting our own civil war(s) on poverty and other critically important domestic issues, republicans have taken the lead fighting other country's civil wars for them with little to show for it beyond the enrichment of the corporate war industry that Ike warned us not to do.
What we need now is a new party unifying the best of conservative and liberal principles.
Firstly, Lincoln had more in common with the rhetoric of present day democrats. He was a unifying force at a critical time in our country's history and chose to forgo divisive political posturing. Today, Trump embodies conservative republican thinking as it exists outside the proverbial ivory tower.
Second, it was the otherwise very talented Ronald Reagan who planted the seeds of destruction for the republican party. He charmed the conservative orthodoxy into believing that "government is THE problem". That seed has now grown into the ugly invasive weed that has taken over the landscape.
Hatred of government has of course been fueled by talk show radio ga-ga but the advent of the internet was perhaps the final blow for the "Party of Lincoln". Professional manipulators such as Karl Rove have managed to prove how easy it is to motivate the masses through fear, which generally leads to anger and hatred. And instead of fighting our own civil war(s) on poverty and other critically important domestic issues, republicans have taken the lead fighting other country's civil wars for them with little to show for it beyond the enrichment of the corporate war industry that Ike warned us not to do.
What we need now is a new party unifying the best of conservative and liberal principles.
1
In speaking of Trump and his followers, the author writes "That can work only with people who disdain the government and the activity of governing."
You mean, like Ronald Reagan, who famously said that government IS the problem? And who derided dedicated civil servants by denigrating the statement "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help?"
Sorry, you may not want to hear it, but you ARE reaping what you've sown over the last 35 years, with your focus on starving government to death rather than actually governing.
You mean, like Ronald Reagan, who famously said that government IS the problem? And who derided dedicated civil servants by denigrating the statement "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help?"
Sorry, you may not want to hear it, but you ARE reaping what you've sown over the last 35 years, with your focus on starving government to death rather than actually governing.
6
Memo to L in Colorado:
You are correct that St. Ronald Reagan who fought WWII from Hollywood started much of the "philosophy" of the Republican Party. "Trickle down economics" has resulted in the greatest wealth discrepancy in US history! St. Ronnie's comments about "I am from the government and I am here to help" did heap unwarranted scorn on public servants. Ironically, I am watching the briefing of the LA state police on how their three police officers were murdered yesterday in Baton Rouge and they ARE public servants as I write this blog.
You are correct that St. Ronald Reagan who fought WWII from Hollywood started much of the "philosophy" of the Republican Party. "Trickle down economics" has resulted in the greatest wealth discrepancy in US history! St. Ronnie's comments about "I am from the government and I am here to help" did heap unwarranted scorn on public servants. Ironically, I am watching the briefing of the LA state police on how their three police officers were murdered yesterday in Baton Rouge and they ARE public servants as I write this blog.
2
It is hard to see what qualities of Lincoln would be attractive to Republican rank and file if he were a presidential candidate today. Once the Republican party chose to target former Dixiecrats and conservative southern Democrats as converts to the Republican party, the descendants of Confederate rebels and modern-day segregationists, it became radically anti-Lincolnite. Lincoln is regarded today, in the abstract, even by many Republicans, as our best president. But in his own lifetime, he was viewed with contempt by many in the north and hatred by almost everyone in the south. I can think of only one president in modern times who had a similar effect on people: Obama.
9
Except that Obama has the highest approval rating of an outgoing President in decades.
4
Mr. Wehner, You are not acknowledging an uncomfortable fact: The Republican party has been cultivating racist and intolerant voters--albeit in a frequently coded and beneath-the-surface way--since the 1960s. This intolerant and dogmatic group of voters is a very significant part of the GOP base.
This IS what the modern GOP is, to a very large extent. Nothing you can say will negate this truth.
The GOP has indeed reaped what it has sown for the past four decades.
This IS what the modern GOP is, to a very large extent. Nothing you can say will negate this truth.
The GOP has indeed reaped what it has sown for the past four decades.
7
Have you asked yourself why the repulsive elements feel they had a home in the Republican party? Do you want your party to rise from the ashes? Then listen to what America is saying and don't respond with the virtues of lowering taxes on the wealthy and voter suppression for the rest of us.
But I agree that many in your party are honorable and I believe they will all be voting for Hillary Clinton this time around because they'll have a lot less to lose.
But I agree that many in your party are honorable and I believe they will all be voting for Hillary Clinton this time around because they'll have a lot less to lose.
3
Thank you Mr. Wehner. I am rooting for you and other true American conservatives and republicans to re-capture the soul of your party. Even though I'm a lifelong progressive and member of the Democratic Party, I recognize that the only way forward, which is the foundation of our national DNA, is too offer our citizens two competing visions of governance and progress within the totality of our guaranteed rights. The parties need to be "HUGE", but in no way exclusive institutions, with hundreds of variations on the themes central to their core beliefs. Compromise and tolerance must reign within the parties big tents. Then the best ideas have to be presented in DC and state capitals and town councils across the land with yet another round of compromise and tolerance.
Bullies on either side of the aisle can not accomplish this. They can't add to the process. They can only destroy the process (hopefully temporarily).
Mr. Trump is the Grand Old Bully. Please lord, don't let him build a GOB party.
Bullies on either side of the aisle can not accomplish this. They can't add to the process. They can only destroy the process (hopefully temporarily).
Mr. Trump is the Grand Old Bully. Please lord, don't let him build a GOB party.
4
Sometimes, one is compelled to tell good friends that they are wetting their own bed.
The Republican party I grew up with, and often supported in my youth, had several iconic figures who would do the right thing, and oppose our worst selves in the interest of the greater good.
The New Republican party resembles nothing so much as the Israeli government, whose core principles are defined by the smallest fringe groups, the wing nuts. Their deals with the devil are also rationalized by the "but this is what we have to do to hold the reins of power."
If you want a different outcome, perhaps it's time to try a different approach. I vote Democrat by necessity, since common sense and middle ground has been abandoned by Republicans.
My voting these days is monolithic. But I wish it didn't have to be that way. A rational choice would be truly welcome.
The Republican party I grew up with, and often supported in my youth, had several iconic figures who would do the right thing, and oppose our worst selves in the interest of the greater good.
The New Republican party resembles nothing so much as the Israeli government, whose core principles are defined by the smallest fringe groups, the wing nuts. Their deals with the devil are also rationalized by the "but this is what we have to do to hold the reins of power."
If you want a different outcome, perhaps it's time to try a different approach. I vote Democrat by necessity, since common sense and middle ground has been abandoned by Republicans.
My voting these days is monolithic. But I wish it didn't have to be that way. A rational choice would be truly welcome.
1
Mr. Wehner:
bulletin:
the Republican Party has NOT been the Party of Lincoln
since Teddy Roosevelt bolted the over-lords more than
one hundred years ago.
in fact:
its devolution cannot find its way back
until it re-recognizes and re-supports the needs
of all of this country's citizens,
and likewise sheds its corrupt-pledge to all-things-Corporate.
would you care to guess when this might occur?
Mr. Lincoln, indeed...
DJT's GOP heartedly perpetuates the long-established
and non-Linconesque mantra of fear, bigotry, greed,
closed-mindedness and narcissistic behaviors ...
in 2016, as before,
we-citiizens demand so much more than this bogus offer and deal.
3
What portion of the current republican base is only there as a result of leaving the democratic party because LBJ was willing to write them off to pursue civil rights legislation? And how many were only aligned with the democrats then because of the shift in the party that occurred after Lincoln decided that slavery needed to end?
It wasn't long ago that Trump was threatening a third-party/independent run. But the republican leadership cowered ("he makes textbook racist statements, but I still back him!"). Perhaps he couldn't have been stopped, but far too few in the "party of Lincoln" have shown the commitment to morals and principle that Lincoln ultimately did.
It wasn't long ago that Trump was threatening a third-party/independent run. But the republican leadership cowered ("he makes textbook racist statements, but I still back him!"). Perhaps he couldn't have been stopped, but far too few in the "party of Lincoln" have shown the commitment to morals and principle that Lincoln ultimately did.
3
I am very tired of the sudden lamenting that the modern GOP is no longer the party of Lincoln. It is trotted out, every time the Republican party is shown to be bigoted, but there is no practical relation to the modern GOP and the Republican party of Lincoln. It is dishonest and more of what we have come to expect of a party that more and more represents a haven for the racist and misogynistic in our society.
6
Mr. Wehner,
It's not as if Trump appeared out of nowhere and changed things radically. He just knew best how to get the attention of the bottom-of-the-human-barrel collection of voters you have been courting and feeding for generations. Find your way back to Lincoln? Your party hasn't been close for over 100 years.
It's not as if Trump appeared out of nowhere and changed things radically. He just knew best how to get the attention of the bottom-of-the-human-barrel collection of voters you have been courting and feeding for generations. Find your way back to Lincoln? Your party hasn't been close for over 100 years.
7
The Republican Party must move past the notion that government is the problem and that tax cuts for the 1% are the answer to every issue.
And it's high time that the Republican leadership acknowledged that stances like that taken by McConnell to oppose President Obama at every turn were ill advised, contrary to the best interests of the country AND contrary to the best interests of the Republican party.
The country needs a center right party to balance the Democrats, but the Republican party can only be that center right party once it's leaders and members acknowledge that that their job is to help govern, whether they are the winners in any given election, or a "loyal opposition."
And it's high time that the Republican leadership acknowledged that stances like that taken by McConnell to oppose President Obama at every turn were ill advised, contrary to the best interests of the country AND contrary to the best interests of the Republican party.
The country needs a center right party to balance the Democrats, but the Republican party can only be that center right party once it's leaders and members acknowledge that that their job is to help govern, whether they are the winners in any given election, or a "loyal opposition."
2
The Republican Party became the "emerging majority" when Lyndon Johnson announced "We shall overcome." Without the flip of race-conscious Southern whites, the GOP would not have dominated quadrennial politics from 1968 to 1992. Had the Democrats not nominated two Southern governors in 1976 and 1992, the GOP run might have continued until 2008, when the new demographic -- created by Johnson's opening of immigration from Asia, Africa and Latin America -- began to propel a long run for the Democrats.
Identity politics is the underlying theme of America. Five decades ago, the GOP hitched its wagon to the white underclass. With that demographic in relative decline, the party can shift now, or more likely later.
Of course, the party remains ascendant in Congress and many states. It's been clever with gerrymandering and voter suppression, and it benefits from the quirk of federalism that gives Wyoming and California equal Senate representation. My guess is, rather than disturb the marriage between the planter class and the race-conscious base, the party will muddle along for a while yet.
Identity politics is the underlying theme of America. Five decades ago, the GOP hitched its wagon to the white underclass. With that demographic in relative decline, the party can shift now, or more likely later.
Of course, the party remains ascendant in Congress and many states. It's been clever with gerrymandering and voter suppression, and it benefits from the quirk of federalism that gives Wyoming and California equal Senate representation. My guess is, rather than disturb the marriage between the planter class and the race-conscious base, the party will muddle along for a while yet.
5
If you believe what you say, then the only ethical action you can take is for you, and like-minded republicans, to make sure that Trump is defeated. And not just defeated. Crushed. Anything less legitimizes the poison he has been spreading. Then go back to the drawing board and build (or re-build) a party worthy of Lincoln.
9
We should know that Peter Wehner's "Ethics and Public Policy Center" is just THE OPPOSITE of what it pretends to be. We're fed up with GOP scammers and tricksters.
8
You, sir, did not pay any attention to Republican party election tactics and policy making at the national level since 1972. The southern strategy to Willie Horton to swift boating, to the birthed movement is exactly the kind of "racist appeals, composed of haters and conspiracy nuts, indifferent to the plight of the poor and the weak, anti-woman," that you suggest is illusory. For policy making, the gag ruling, anti civil rights / affirmative action legislation, the repeated irrelevant votes agains the ACA, and etc.
I'm not sure you've been paying attention. But obviously having a nominee become embarrassing for you has shaken your certainty.
I'm not sure you've been paying attention. But obviously having a nominee become embarrassing for you has shaken your certainty.
Check out Paul Rosenberg's piece in Salon, http://www.salon.com/2016/07/16/donald_trumps_weaponized_platform_a_proj.... It explains how Trumpism appears to conform to the game plan set out in "The Next Conservatism," by Paul Weyrich and William Lind, published in 2009. There is, in fact, an ideological substructure in place for what appears to be an opportunistic hijacking of the Republican party. And Wehner's Christian (he's mentioned his faith in other NYT columns) and humanistic vision for the party not only has competition already on the ground--it's on its own 90-yard line. Good luck, Peter. Like Diogenes, you'll be wandering for a long time if you continue to look for an honest man in the upper reaches of the existing Republican party.
6
A conservative is someone who is dead certain that all the things liberals whine about will never happen to him.
Like...
Being stopped 49 times for broken tail lights, not using a turn signal, etc
Being denied insurance for any of many reasons
Being turned away at a voting station for not having the right ID
Like...
Being stopped 49 times for broken tail lights, not using a turn signal, etc
Being denied insurance for any of many reasons
Being turned away at a voting station for not having the right ID
6
While I find this piece somewhat sympathetic, and I certainly agree that there are folks in the GOP that are "mostly honorable individuals working to advance an agenda they believed was in the national interest", their timidity in standing up to the less savory types in their midst is at best self delusion and at worst cowardice. Regarding Mr. Trump, the time to stand up and be counted was not during the primary. The outcome was nearly a foregone conclusion. I want to ask, where were you and your like minded compatriots when this mountebank was running about the nation, accusing the President of the United States of being born in Africa? It was politically expedient turn away and murmur no comment or even call for an investigation than to condemn a dirty, racist smear that should have no place in public discourse.
The sainted Ronald Reagan created a big tent and invited everyone into it, The only problem was that there was no "extreme vetting". Racists, religious bigots and opportunists entered with their heads held high, sheltered and protected under the 11th commandment - Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of Your Fellow Republican.
One can only hope that the loss in November is so huge, so monumental, that it forces the party to seriously clean their barn and toss out the vermin infested there.
The sainted Ronald Reagan created a big tent and invited everyone into it, The only problem was that there was no "extreme vetting". Racists, religious bigots and opportunists entered with their heads held high, sheltered and protected under the 11th commandment - Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of Your Fellow Republican.
One can only hope that the loss in November is so huge, so monumental, that it forces the party to seriously clean their barn and toss out the vermin infested there.
5
Look, a party member is either a fool or a knave, as neither party can carry all the stances a thinking person has. Some people may make trade-offs to join a party; they decide to be fools or knaves on certain issues. But you, Mr. Weiner, appear to be the genuine article -- not a self-decided fool, but a natural born one.
3
The republicans have been rank racists in the south since the '60s, when LBJ "betrayed" them by supporting Civil Rights. The northern business-friendly banker/corporation party made an unholy marriage with them then. And now the divorce at last, so long in the making. How Peter fails to see that, a split coming for fifty years and more, I do not know. Bankers and racists: If Peter wanted to find Lincoln, he was never going to find him there.
4
Peter Wehner says "The party many of us will fight for is a conservative one that appeals to rather than alienates nonwhites, that doesn’t view decency as a sign of weakness or confuse bullying and bluster with strength, and that aims to channel aspirations rather than stoke resentments and organize hatreds."
Honestly Peter, where was this party during all of President Obama's administration? The heart and soul of the GOP has been on full display these past 8 years throughout the entire nation and it showed itself to be just as heartless and soulless as the GOP's presidential nominee Donald J Trump.
Trump isn't an aberration of the GOP, he is a clear reflection of it. That's why he destroyed the other 16 candidates and won the GOP presidential nomination - because he best reflected and appealed to the members of your party.
If you don't like who the GOP selected then maybe you should join a different party that better reflects your ideals, for example the Democratic party. Or do like George Will and become unaffiliated (and be slandered by the GOP presidential nominee Trump's "soaring and uplifting" rhetoric as being a "dummy").
Honestly Peter, where was this party during all of President Obama's administration? The heart and soul of the GOP has been on full display these past 8 years throughout the entire nation and it showed itself to be just as heartless and soulless as the GOP's presidential nominee Donald J Trump.
Trump isn't an aberration of the GOP, he is a clear reflection of it. That's why he destroyed the other 16 candidates and won the GOP presidential nomination - because he best reflected and appealed to the members of your party.
If you don't like who the GOP selected then maybe you should join a different party that better reflects your ideals, for example the Democratic party. Or do like George Will and become unaffiliated (and be slandered by the GOP presidential nominee Trump's "soaring and uplifting" rhetoric as being a "dummy").
7
Mr. Wehner, it is too late. Far too late. For years - decades - you nurtured and cradled asps to your bosom, and now that they are savaging you, you cry, "Why? How did it come to this?"
Your party promoted obstructionism for obstructionism's sake. You not-so-subtlety egged on the birtherism shamefulness. You stood by silently while intellectual light-weights such as Gohmert and King commanded the GOP conversation.
You championed the causes of neo-conservatism and of the Kochs, Grover Norquist, and ALEC over the good of the nation and her people.
I have no pity for you. You sowed the wind; now it's time to reap the whirlwind. May your party shatter into a million pieces.
Your party promoted obstructionism for obstructionism's sake. You not-so-subtlety egged on the birtherism shamefulness. You stood by silently while intellectual light-weights such as Gohmert and King commanded the GOP conversation.
You championed the causes of neo-conservatism and of the Kochs, Grover Norquist, and ALEC over the good of the nation and her people.
I have no pity for you. You sowed the wind; now it's time to reap the whirlwind. May your party shatter into a million pieces.
9
I appreciate Peter's columns and soul-searching question.
I believe his answer, however, reflects a persistent denial that Republican ideology itself - beginning with Reagan - is highly flawed. At one point, conservative views had much to offer - e.g. cap-and-trade and health insurance marketplaces - as they sought to harness free markets to achieve societal goals.
A toxic stew of demonizing government, embracing evangelicals, and trickle-down supply side economics - all championed by Reagan, of course - he set an ideological path that many in the party took to the extreme to this day.
The constant and reflexive demonization of the Clintons and Obama - which conservatives encouraged and never disavowed - are manifestations of this extremism, where any deviation is declared as illegitimate or unconstitutional.
If Peter is truly honest with himself, he would look beyond partisanship and admit that Clinton is actually a good candidate - not perfect (as no candidate is) but definitely thoughtful and capable - and worth supporting.
I believe his answer, however, reflects a persistent denial that Republican ideology itself - beginning with Reagan - is highly flawed. At one point, conservative views had much to offer - e.g. cap-and-trade and health insurance marketplaces - as they sought to harness free markets to achieve societal goals.
A toxic stew of demonizing government, embracing evangelicals, and trickle-down supply side economics - all championed by Reagan, of course - he set an ideological path that many in the party took to the extreme to this day.
The constant and reflexive demonization of the Clintons and Obama - which conservatives encouraged and never disavowed - are manifestations of this extremism, where any deviation is declared as illegitimate or unconstitutional.
If Peter is truly honest with himself, he would look beyond partisanship and admit that Clinton is actually a good candidate - not perfect (as no candidate is) but definitely thoughtful and capable - and worth supporting.
5
Ted Nugent called President Obama a chimpanzee and subhuman mongrel (http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/23/ted-nugent-calls-obama-chimpanzee....
The same Ted Nugent that reoublican texas congressman Steve Stockman invited to a State of the Union speech.
Peter, sorry buddy but you are paet of the problem. You know your party is racist.
The examples of blatant racism against big players in your party are legion but elitists like you simply do not have the spine to admit it.
And, until you do, you will always be em enabler of a vile party.
The same Ted Nugent that reoublican texas congressman Steve Stockman invited to a State of the Union speech.
Peter, sorry buddy but you are paet of the problem. You know your party is racist.
The examples of blatant racism against big players in your party are legion but elitists like you simply do not have the spine to admit it.
And, until you do, you will always be em enabler of a vile party.
14
" How on earth did our party produce Mr. Trump as its nominee?"
...............
It would seem that all the name calling was right on the money. That is what the GOP is, and that is why you get the leader you deserve.
You can't blame it on flying saucers, or god-forbid, climate change, or tree rings in Siberia. In the end, the image in the mirror is yourself and what you stand for, no matter how you have waxed and polished it to seem otherwise. Lifelong disparagement of your fellow human beings get you DRUMPF.
...............
It would seem that all the name calling was right on the money. That is what the GOP is, and that is why you get the leader you deserve.
You can't blame it on flying saucers, or god-forbid, climate change, or tree rings in Siberia. In the end, the image in the mirror is yourself and what you stand for, no matter how you have waxed and polished it to seem otherwise. Lifelong disparagement of your fellow human beings get you DRUMPF.
3
The Republican Party definitively stopped being the party of Lincoln after the election of 1876. Even though the Democratic candidate Samuel Tilden received more popular votes, Democrats acquiesced to the election of Rutherford B. Hayes because Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South, and effectively paved the way for Southern states to build the legal infrastructure we now refer to as Jim Crow. So while neither party exactly covered itself in glory, the point is that then as now, Republicans were willing to tolerate racial inequality if it gave them greater freedom to protect the business wing of the party. It was modern Democratic presidents who worked hard to enact the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other civil rights legislation to reverse nearly 100 years of American Apartheid.
3
Trump has benefited from the fact that the Republican Party has increasingly become a reality-free zone. He wouldn’t have gotten away with his lies, stupid bigotry and conspiracy theories as a Democrat. His primary competitors (most of them) weren’t making their sales pitches (most of the time) based on reality either. As long as the party of Lincoln now wants to be the party of ignorance… well, let the best showman win. You deserve Trump. The rest of us don’t.
11
Does Peter think it was a coincidence that Reagan's campaign began in Philadelphia, Mississippi with a speech declaring his loyalty to "state's rights"? Is Peter incapable of hearing that dogwhistle? The racist foundations of the modern GOP aren't that hard to see. Trump's sin is in being less subtle.
56
BACK TO LINCOLN? You'll never get there by jumping on the Trumpty Dumpty bandwagon. Tragically, it took the GOP being Trumped to see itself reflected clearly. All along the way there have been warning voices telling the GOP that its ideologies were wrong and destructive to the nation. If the GOP is serious about getting back to Lincoln, they must heed, indeed heed very well, Lincoln's warnings that a House Divided Against Itself Cannot Long Stand (which, incidentally, was Lincoln's prescient allusion to Mark 3:25. For the GOP to go back to Lincoln, it must embark on a journey to accept the essential need for a dialectal debate, the basis for an enlightened democracy, so that two opposites will be validated and coexist to achieve the balance necessary for effective legislation and governance to return to Congress. In the US it is this very diversity and balance of opposites that give us the wealth of diversity in our great nation. Though a truism, it is vital that we recognize that often we learn more from others who hold different opinions from ours than from those who concur with us. Solving complex problems always demands viewing them from a variety of perspectives to identify the pros and cons of each in an attempt to arrive at the most efficient and effective solution. Such results, arising out of human effort, will, by their very nature, be flawed and imperfect, like all humans. Our task is to seek a More Perfect Union spoken to by Barack Obama. Back to Lincoln!
2
Lincoln was known to express white supremacist views.
"Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and David Blight examine the complicated historical reality behind the romanticized myth of Abraham Lincoln as the “Great Emancipator.” They explore Frederick Douglas’s impatience with Lincoln’s reluctance to make slavery the fundamental issue of the Civil War and describe Lincoln’s proposed compromise solution, in which slaves would be purchased by the government and deported to “colonies” in Panama and Liberia."
Address :
"Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and David Blight examine the complicated historical reality behind the romanticized myth of Abraham Lincoln as the “Great Emancipator.” They explore Frederick Douglas’s impatience with Lincoln’s reluctance to make slavery the fundamental issue of the Civil War and describe Lincoln’s proposed compromise solution, in which slaves would be purchased by the government and deported to “colonies” in Panama and Liberia."
Address :
"...and at important moments the Republican Party either overlooked them or played to them."
No kidding. The Southern Strategy has come full circle, and it's no longer dog-whistling its way to race-baiting. Each of the Presidents and nominees you mention played to this, and you and yours were fine with keeping your "guests" happy in this way until they voted for someone who took the long-con and made it the loud-con.
No one thinks that the Republican Party was always this ugly, anyone with a passing knowledge of history knows the Democrats were ugly in their own right for far too long, starting with the founding of the party. But for the past 50-60 years the GOP have reigned supreme on pushing or at least abetting racial tension and inequality.
It's true to this day that both parties have their seedier corners, but to deny that the GOP has had the sizable advantage in this area for the better part of a century is to continue the same self-delusion that led the Party of Lincoln to the sad state it's in now.
...to say nothing about how the GOP has fostered a distrust/resentment toward to business of governing.
No kidding. The Southern Strategy has come full circle, and it's no longer dog-whistling its way to race-baiting. Each of the Presidents and nominees you mention played to this, and you and yours were fine with keeping your "guests" happy in this way until they voted for someone who took the long-con and made it the loud-con.
No one thinks that the Republican Party was always this ugly, anyone with a passing knowledge of history knows the Democrats were ugly in their own right for far too long, starting with the founding of the party. But for the past 50-60 years the GOP have reigned supreme on pushing or at least abetting racial tension and inequality.
It's true to this day that both parties have their seedier corners, but to deny that the GOP has had the sizable advantage in this area for the better part of a century is to continue the same self-delusion that led the Party of Lincoln to the sad state it's in now.
...to say nothing about how the GOP has fostered a distrust/resentment toward to business of governing.
3
Party of Lincoln? You guys haven't been the party of Lincoln since Lincoln was shot. Trump is the Republicans' comeuppance, good sir.
We need a strong and vital Republican party, even if I choose to not be a member. No country can survive a bipolar political system when one of those poles is rational and the other is reality TV. You need to stop appealing to your members' baser instincts (believe me, we have it our party, too; it remains a free market for crazy) and pull people together. Perhaps you did not create Trump, but you enabled him.
We need a strong and vital Republican party, even if I choose to not be a member. No country can survive a bipolar political system when one of those poles is rational and the other is reality TV. You need to stop appealing to your members' baser instincts (believe me, we have it our party, too; it remains a free market for crazy) and pull people together. Perhaps you did not create Trump, but you enabled him.
3
I think GOP has to redefine the criterias of its candidates for presidency. Their candidates must possess skills, experience and characters for presidency. It is GOP's own failure that it now has Trump as its candidate. The worst is that such failure is fatal as it may endanger the entire country.
"The party guests took over the party?" Aren't the elected and party staffers the guests, and the electorate truly the party? If so then Donald Trump is the "ugly face to an ugly party." And we have much more to worry about than Donald Trump.
5
If he's elected, much, much more.
One of my few Republican friends is like the author of this article. He sees the GOP as the party of personal responsibility, liberty in the tradition of Lincoln and believes government out of control prevents the honest and hard working among us from establishing freedom and prosperity for all.
And like Mr. Wehner, my friend looks around and only sees all his honorable friends. Mr. Wehner goes with a bit larger pair of blinders, having worked at the seat of power for much of his career, but still fails to understand the mechanisms of discrimination in this society and forgets "states rights" in our nation through most of its history has been a dog whistle to unleash the forces of racism and bigotry.
He saw the last President firmly condemning any religiously based bigotry by clearly denouncing any violence against Muslims, but does not come to grips with Bush 44s' (and that of the Party going back to Goldwater) inability to separate individuals freely appealing to singling people out by race from the Party.
Democrats were stuck with these folks until the GOP gave them a place to go. What a different nation we would have if Mr. Wehner's political forebears in 1964 had told Strom Thurmond and his ilk there was no room for them in their GOP and again forced them to form their own quickly forgotten organization as their forbears had in 1948.
Mr. Wehner is belatedly discovering a political party, as Lincoln might say, is all one thing or all another.
And like Mr. Wehner, my friend looks around and only sees all his honorable friends. Mr. Wehner goes with a bit larger pair of blinders, having worked at the seat of power for much of his career, but still fails to understand the mechanisms of discrimination in this society and forgets "states rights" in our nation through most of its history has been a dog whistle to unleash the forces of racism and bigotry.
He saw the last President firmly condemning any religiously based bigotry by clearly denouncing any violence against Muslims, but does not come to grips with Bush 44s' (and that of the Party going back to Goldwater) inability to separate individuals freely appealing to singling people out by race from the Party.
Democrats were stuck with these folks until the GOP gave them a place to go. What a different nation we would have if Mr. Wehner's political forebears in 1964 had told Strom Thurmond and his ilk there was no room for them in their GOP and again forced them to form their own quickly forgotten organization as their forbears had in 1948.
Mr. Wehner is belatedly discovering a political party, as Lincoln might say, is all one thing or all another.
3
Yep, that all sounds great, until you realize it's only rhetoric. I'm so ashamed that I ever fell for their drivel and empty promises. Anyone who doesn't bother to look beyond the increasingly toxic rhetoric should also be ashamed.
A well written and thoughtful article. Many will agree and hope your prognosis will come to pass. If the party would not only recognize the events that comprised the "perfect storm" that created the Trump moment, but take responsibility for them, then it might be a teachable moment. The "disdain" for governing is not a recent development for Republicans. What may have started as a sincere desire for privacy and freedom from government supervision in our daily lives was easily coopted by the greed of the deregulation crowd. This also spawned the most amazing propaganda machine of the past half-century in Fox News, Clear Channel, and now Beck's TheBlaze, etc. that ridicule and vilify government in general, and oppositional thought in particular, with tremendous effectiveness and appeal. These media speak to more base emotion, light on facts and heavy on outrage. The anger fomented by this has inculcated the rise of Trump more than any other factor. You whipped up the mob beyond the point of reason, now you are surprised the mob is being unreasonable.
4
The problem Mr Wehner, is that your agenda of tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation and slashing of the social safety net along with massive spending on the military is not particularly popular. So, to get the votes necessary to implement a fundamentally discredited policy, Republicans have spent the past 50 years subtly winking at the white racist/xenophobe/misogynist vote with talk of "welfare cheats" and "the 47%". Trump is the logical outcome.
8
One of the biggest problems with the Republican Party today is that they have no vision of the future. All their efforts are focused on the present--primarily with maintaining their own power. Their vision is focused on recreating the 1950s, their ideal of American supremacy. In this placid paradise, women stay home, children are respectful, taxes are low, and businesses function without government oversight, minorities are quiet. It's a Beaver Cleaver dreamscape, and it is the unattainable goal of the GOP. Eisenhower embodied it, Nixon longed for it, Reagan romanticized it, and every other Republican legislator cites it as the epitome of American civilization.
The last GOP Republican president with a well-defined vision of the future was Teddy Roosevelt. He correctly saw the people as the working class as the future of the country, which was why he worked so hard for their benefit. From taking down business trusts to the establishment of the Pure Food and Drug Act, Roosevelt fought to make America a safe workshop for the average American. Big Businesses responded by sponsoring politicians with pro-business mandates, and that has become the GOP standard ever since.
Trump is their natural heir. A know-nothing egotist whose vision is a smoggy world of unrestrained profits at the expense of everyone not in the top ten percent. It is a nightmare where the disabled are mocked, women are bimbos to be used and disposed of, and ignorance is strength. This is the new GOP!
The last GOP Republican president with a well-defined vision of the future was Teddy Roosevelt. He correctly saw the people as the working class as the future of the country, which was why he worked so hard for their benefit. From taking down business trusts to the establishment of the Pure Food and Drug Act, Roosevelt fought to make America a safe workshop for the average American. Big Businesses responded by sponsoring politicians with pro-business mandates, and that has become the GOP standard ever since.
Trump is their natural heir. A know-nothing egotist whose vision is a smoggy world of unrestrained profits at the expense of everyone not in the top ten percent. It is a nightmare where the disabled are mocked, women are bimbos to be used and disposed of, and ignorance is strength. This is the new GOP!
2
What utter balderdash! Ever heard of the Southern strategy, Mr. Wehner? The overt, celebrated racism of Donald Trump *is* modern Republicanism. So Reagan and the two Bushed didn't tell racist jokes over cocktails (and I bet they did) because they were too nice to say things like 'young bucks' and 'Willie Horton' and 'welfare queen'? Please. Spare me. The modern GOP has ONLY been successful because of overt racism which has been clear for all to see. Racism is hateful, ignorant and stupid: and now it is at last the official face of your party. This is not a deviation; this is the truth. You have no right to feel dismayed. If you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind.
4
Ronald Reagan opened his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of much racial tension. GHW Bush ran the Willie Horton ad. GW Bush's administration let New Orlean drown. And none of this had even an itsy bitsy thread of racism? The Republican party has been courting the white disaffected voter for years and now you are surprised by Donald Trump? Your party let itself be taken over by the "religious" right, and now you are stunned that Trump is your nominee? The only stunning thing is that the rest of us might have to live under his presidency.
5
The author is surprised that a bigoted, misogynistic, inexperienced and ignorant blowhard is his party's presidential nominee.
I'm surprised he's surprised.
Has he heard of Rush Limbaugh, the unofficial leader of the conservative movement, who for 20 years has delighted his GOP listeners with the same racism, misogyny and ignorance that he decries in Trump?
Did he not know that Ronald Reagan, who'd previously decried "welfare queens" and strapping young bucks," launched his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi--the site of an infamous murder of three Civil Rights activists--declaring, "I'm for state's rights"?
Was he not paying attention when Newt Gingrich's gang of "Angry White Men" shut down the government, investigated every imaginary Clinton scandal they could concoct -- then impeached the president for a dalliance?
Was he on hiatus when two consecutive chairmen of the RNC (Mehlman and Steele) publicly apologized for the race-baiting "Southern Strategy"?
Was he overseas when GOP voters tried to install the majestically ignorant Sarah Palin in the executive branch?
Maybe he missed it when the Tea Party-infused GOP repeatedly shut down the government and nearly defaulted the country on its debt obligations--all while questioning the president's citizenship and his religious beliefs.
Could be, too, that he missed Mitt Romney embracing the very same Donald J. Trump when Romney accepted his endorsement in 2012.
Again, I'm surprised he's surprised.
I'm surprised he's surprised.
Has he heard of Rush Limbaugh, the unofficial leader of the conservative movement, who for 20 years has delighted his GOP listeners with the same racism, misogyny and ignorance that he decries in Trump?
Did he not know that Ronald Reagan, who'd previously decried "welfare queens" and strapping young bucks," launched his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi--the site of an infamous murder of three Civil Rights activists--declaring, "I'm for state's rights"?
Was he not paying attention when Newt Gingrich's gang of "Angry White Men" shut down the government, investigated every imaginary Clinton scandal they could concoct -- then impeached the president for a dalliance?
Was he on hiatus when two consecutive chairmen of the RNC (Mehlman and Steele) publicly apologized for the race-baiting "Southern Strategy"?
Was he overseas when GOP voters tried to install the majestically ignorant Sarah Palin in the executive branch?
Maybe he missed it when the Tea Party-infused GOP repeatedly shut down the government and nearly defaulted the country on its debt obligations--all while questioning the president's citizenship and his religious beliefs.
Could be, too, that he missed Mitt Romney embracing the very same Donald J. Trump when Romney accepted his endorsement in 2012.
Again, I'm surprised he's surprised.
8
Mr. Wehner, Republicans or at least you ,seem to have the same denial about the "perfect storm" you talk about as they do about climate change, that is that it isn't to some extent man-made.
1
Run, Peter. The "fevered imaginations" of the left were merely the truths you refused to see, lost in your own image when you looked at your favorite party. You have few choices now: admit and approve the hatred, ignorance, and will to power of the republican party as it is, or run. Your fantasies are imperiling you, and it's not liberals who will cast you down as evil, but the little monsters you defended until they grew large enough to eat you.
4
You have exactly identified why a lifelong republican like me became an independent. This year, I will hold my nose and vote for Clinton, just because, I cannot let a man like this win the presidency of my country.
Better to lose 1 election, then my soul. In four years, we can come back. If this man wins, it may take the party and the country tens of years to recover.
Better to lose 1 election, then my soul. In four years, we can come back. If this man wins, it may take the party and the country tens of years to recover.
4
Unfortunately for America and for Peter Wehner personally the Republican Party has failed to enunciate any policies that would gain traction with the American voter. All the Republicans have wanted to do since 2008 is make Obama a one-term presidents (failure), repeal Obamacare (hasn't happened yet) and stifle government (has happened too many times to count). But as for proposing alternative courses of action that create reasonable opposition absolutely zip, nada, and zilch. The party of no remains the party of no policies, no alternatives, and no leadership.
6
"FOR my entire adult life I have listened to the invective leveled against the Republican Party BY LIBERALS: It is a party sustained by racist appeals, composed of haters and conspiracy nuts, indifferent to the plight of the poor and the weak, anti-woman."
BY LIBERALS???
You "conservatives" are deluding yourselves that this is a Liberal-only criticism...I'm a registered Independent who used to be a registered Republican before the lunatic base/gun lobby/trickle downers, religious freaks, science-deniers, et.al., dragged the party into a Shariah-style alternate universe...you're being eaten by your own, and it comes as a surprise???
Stop tiptoeing around with the concept of self-reflection or "autopsies". You need to shove the crazies off the stage and get back to the business of sharing power with people you dont agree with, because there's lot more of them than there are you.
Ronald Reagan was the worst thing that ever happened to this country.
BY LIBERALS???
You "conservatives" are deluding yourselves that this is a Liberal-only criticism...I'm a registered Independent who used to be a registered Republican before the lunatic base/gun lobby/trickle downers, religious freaks, science-deniers, et.al., dragged the party into a Shariah-style alternate universe...you're being eaten by your own, and it comes as a surprise???
Stop tiptoeing around with the concept of self-reflection or "autopsies". You need to shove the crazies off the stage and get back to the business of sharing power with people you dont agree with, because there's lot more of them than there are you.
Ronald Reagan was the worst thing that ever happened to this country.
7
"But it is fair to say that there existed in the Republican Party repulsive elements, people who were attracted to racial and ethnic politics and moved by resentment and intolerance rather than a vision of the good. This group was larger than I ever imagined, and at important moments the Republican Party either overlooked them or played to them...But the opposite happened. The party guests took over the party."
At what point do the elders of the Republican party (at least those who have the decency to denounce their nominee) start acknowledging that a good part of their current dilemma is the utter cluelessness they've exhibited, time and again, in regards to the "guests" they've invited to the party? There were more Republican voters attracted to racial and ethinic politics, intolerance than you ever imagined? Where, exactly, have you been for the last 40 + years? The southern strategy... Reagan speaking in Philadelphia, Mississippi... Willie Horton... shall I go on? You call this "overlooking or playing to them?" I call it open courting of them, and so do most Republicans that I know. How is it the elites are always the last to know?
And the idea that the guests "took over" the party is a rather revealing statement about how the elites regard their Party. The guests ARE the party. Maybe if you and your colleagues had realized this long ago, Republican voters wouldn't now feel like theyve been completely abandoned and thus might not have run into the arms of a Mr. Trump.
At what point do the elders of the Republican party (at least those who have the decency to denounce their nominee) start acknowledging that a good part of their current dilemma is the utter cluelessness they've exhibited, time and again, in regards to the "guests" they've invited to the party? There were more Republican voters attracted to racial and ethinic politics, intolerance than you ever imagined? Where, exactly, have you been for the last 40 + years? The southern strategy... Reagan speaking in Philadelphia, Mississippi... Willie Horton... shall I go on? You call this "overlooking or playing to them?" I call it open courting of them, and so do most Republicans that I know. How is it the elites are always the last to know?
And the idea that the guests "took over" the party is a rather revealing statement about how the elites regard their Party. The guests ARE the party. Maybe if you and your colleagues had realized this long ago, Republican voters wouldn't now feel like theyve been completely abandoned and thus might not have run into the arms of a Mr. Trump.
6
Very well observed.
" I believe the truth is a good deal more complicated." I don't believe it so. When the racists and bigots fled to the GOP after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, they were welcomed and have been ever since. It appears Peter, you have to bite the bullet and accept the truth. Donald Trump didn't hijack your party, he gave face to the subtly hinted at dark side. Plain and simple
6
It would be nice if members of the reublican actually thought through there motives including why they have demonized Hillary for over 20 years. Go back to 1964 and the civil rights act. Who is to blame fir what?
2
The GOP's descent into darkness started with Nixon and the "southern strategy" and has continued unabated since then.
5
Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, with his Republican Revolution, basically painted his colleagues across the aisle as the devil's handmaidens. That was his strategy to win the majority in Congress. Combine that with Reagan's mantra that government is "the problem" and you have a recipe for trouble. Nothing happens in a vacuum, it takes time. Well, the election of a black president seemed to be the final catalyst for the anti-government types, nativists, xenophobics, bigots, racists, misogynists to emerge from their dark hole and proudly fly their hate flag. It is okay now to be openly bigoted and awful. Donald Trump has a good chance of becoming our president. These are scary times.
9
This is a genteel view of the Republican Party, one possible to see only with blinders. It's striking to hear someone appeal in earnest to the idea that the modern GOP is the party of Lincoln. Establishment Republicans (Paul Ryan, for example) often use this line when trying paternalistically to rein in the baser instincts of the rank and file, but with an unavoidable odor of disingenuousness and cynicism of the kind the author attributes to the left. There is a whole lot of undeniable Republican party history between Lincoln and Trump. The Republican Party in my lifetime has not been one that the Lincoln I know would have anything to do with. Trump did not happen overnight, and the soul searching of lifetime Republicans will have to go far deeper (it should have begun a long time ago). They made the house that accommodates Trump one brick at a time (it might as well have accommodated President Cruz, whose most notable achievement to date is shutting down the federal government).
4
Mr. Wehner and most of the commentators are blaming the party and not the people.
But the party was against Trump throughout the primary. And the people voted for Trump in spite of the party. In open primaries where voters did not need to be republican, Trump did better than in the closed primaries. Some states ie Pennsylvania saw an increase in the number of Democrats reregistering to vote republican presumably for the right to vote for Trump.
Trump transcends the republican party and we cannot blithely write him away from our collective responsibility by saying he is a republican or a product of the republican party.
Trump is a product of what we all republican, democrat and independent have created by the perversion of our political system. When an oligarchy proposes that the two best candidates for president are the son and brother of former president and the wife of another president, we have no one to blame but the political establishment itself when the little man rebels. When both parties ignore or pay lip service and then ignore the needs of the common man while kow-towing to the powers on Wall Street, we should not be surprised that the common man turns to anyone who might speak against them.
But the party was against Trump throughout the primary. And the people voted for Trump in spite of the party. In open primaries where voters did not need to be republican, Trump did better than in the closed primaries. Some states ie Pennsylvania saw an increase in the number of Democrats reregistering to vote republican presumably for the right to vote for Trump.
Trump transcends the republican party and we cannot blithely write him away from our collective responsibility by saying he is a republican or a product of the republican party.
Trump is a product of what we all republican, democrat and independent have created by the perversion of our political system. When an oligarchy proposes that the two best candidates for president are the son and brother of former president and the wife of another president, we have no one to blame but the political establishment itself when the little man rebels. When both parties ignore or pay lip service and then ignore the needs of the common man while kow-towing to the powers on Wall Street, we should not be surprised that the common man turns to anyone who might speak against them.
1
Mr Wehner would have us believe that Donald Trump is an insurgent who threatens the Republican Party's noble governance over the past several decades. What he fails to realize is that Donald Trump is the Frankenstein created by his once-great party's failed politics and policies.
4
I recommend that everyone should read the 1860 Republican Party Platform on Google. Trump Should reads it also. Certainly our debate on immigration would be set straight as far as original intent of the Republicans in 1860. Also, for certain, it was a platform that surely convinced the South that war was in their future.
1
Sorry Mr. Wehner - for as long as I can remember the Republican party has been a rich, white man's club. There's nothing that you or other "good guy" Republicans could do to make me think that you don't deserve every single one of these chickens that have come home to roost.
The last 8 years can only be explained by deep-seated racism against the President. Rich, white men don't like to have the colored folk (or women) sitting at the table with them. That is the message that I have gotten loud and clear from Mich McConnell, Paul Ryan, on down. No one in your party has spoken out against the rising tide of disrespect, open hostility, and open bigotry because you are all horrible, horrible cowards.
For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul.
There's no getting back to Lincoln. The stain is too well set.
The last 8 years can only be explained by deep-seated racism against the President. Rich, white men don't like to have the colored folk (or women) sitting at the table with them. That is the message that I have gotten loud and clear from Mich McConnell, Paul Ryan, on down. No one in your party has spoken out against the rising tide of disrespect, open hostility, and open bigotry because you are all horrible, horrible cowards.
For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul.
There's no getting back to Lincoln. The stain is too well set.
7
"..group larger than I ever imagined..." What? Did you have your head in a hole, or did you quietly turn your back to the hate and the fear and the intolerance that has permeated the GOP since the Roosevelt era? (Remember that Republicans hadn't the decency or common courtesy to refer to FDR as "President Roosevelt;" they called him "that man in the White House." Those pig-headed blue-bloods included my ancestors.) I suspect you let the hate and fear slide, and I'm quite sure that you, as an intellectual and observer, knew exactly the size and strength of right-wing Protestant nut religion (and ultra-conservative RC for that matter), of the NRA, right-to-lifers, KKK--all of it. You knew it, and you know it.
The GOP has never been the "party of Lincoln" except when Lincoln led it and for a short time afterward. It's been the "bully" party of crooked corporate interests for at least a 125 years. I do not excuse the Democratic party by the way. It's just as bad, just different: tainted, controlled by both corporate and union interests, the Ivy League and the Liberal establishment-set at the country club. Reagan was an idiot puppet, Dole was a genuine war hero controlled by BigAg, McCain is a war criminal and Mitt Romney destroys jobs in the name of profit and corporate rescue
None of those guys had or have the credibility or stature or dignity to sit in Lincoln's lap.
The GOP has never been the "party of Lincoln" except when Lincoln led it and for a short time afterward. It's been the "bully" party of crooked corporate interests for at least a 125 years. I do not excuse the Democratic party by the way. It's just as bad, just different: tainted, controlled by both corporate and union interests, the Ivy League and the Liberal establishment-set at the country club. Reagan was an idiot puppet, Dole was a genuine war hero controlled by BigAg, McCain is a war criminal and Mitt Romney destroys jobs in the name of profit and corporate rescue
None of those guys had or have the credibility or stature or dignity to sit in Lincoln's lap.
1
During most of his life from the time he first voted, my father-in-law, a small farmer, a local school board member, and deacon in his church, was a registered Republican. He proudly thought of himself as a member of the party of Lincoln. About a decade before he died, he abandoned his Republican Party registration, became an Independent, and voted mainly for the Democratic Party's candidates in national elections. Explaining himself to the members of his family, he said: "I didn't leave the Republican Party; it left me." I never asked him whether he'd voted for Nixon after he'd adopted his "southern strategy" or Reagan and his view that government was the problem. He probably did. But when he decided to leave his life-long commitment to the Republicans, what he objected to it was the Party's favoritism to the rich and against the needs of the poor and its dog-whistle racism.
2
Single issues partisan wins. Morals kangaroo courts. Demeaning public officials while in office (Clinton, Obama). Rovian tactics. Arguing against government not for smarter government. Safe haven for religious bigots and extremists. Obstructionist games in the house and senate. Thousands of deaths in wars that were avoidable. Nationalist trade protections. Xenophobic immigration policy.
Let the GOP burn.
Let the GOP burn.
3
I can't understand how a person can be so delusional. Mr.Wehner helped George W. Bush lie the American people into the invasion of Iraq to steal their oil, which has caused the death of hundreds of thousands and the utter destruction of Iraq as a society and he claims to be a moral man of high ideas and noble principals.
4
I, too, am a lifetime Republican although I can't remember a time when I voted a straight ticket. It's hard to remain in the party, but as a financial conservative and social moderate where do I look for reasonable candidates to support.
While Lincoln's amazing compassion for those with whom he disagreed is a good model to look to, I believe that a "Commonsense Party" is needed to take Republicans back to the ideals of Thomas Jefferson. Although he is often called a "Democratic-Republican" no such party existed in his time. He was an Anti-Federalist who believed that the government he helped create was becoming too powerful and had the potential to end badly. Perhaps Trump is the final player to prove his fears correct.
The Anti-Federalists eventually split into the Democrats and the Whigs. It seems even back then politicians were unable to amalgamate the commonsense but diverse ideas that Jefferson fervently believed in.
Here is what Jefferson supported:
* State's rights and a strict interpretation of the Constitution.
* Economic policies that benefited the working class and NOT the wealthy merchants and bankers.
* a small but powerful peacetime navy but no peacetime army.
* he believed a powerful central government & military was a threat to individual liberties.
Jefferson fought bitterly to stop Hamilton's efforts to establish a national banking system and a standing peacetime army. I wonder were we would be today had he prevailed. Perhaps worse off, perhaps not.
While Lincoln's amazing compassion for those with whom he disagreed is a good model to look to, I believe that a "Commonsense Party" is needed to take Republicans back to the ideals of Thomas Jefferson. Although he is often called a "Democratic-Republican" no such party existed in his time. He was an Anti-Federalist who believed that the government he helped create was becoming too powerful and had the potential to end badly. Perhaps Trump is the final player to prove his fears correct.
The Anti-Federalists eventually split into the Democrats and the Whigs. It seems even back then politicians were unable to amalgamate the commonsense but diverse ideas that Jefferson fervently believed in.
Here is what Jefferson supported:
* State's rights and a strict interpretation of the Constitution.
* Economic policies that benefited the working class and NOT the wealthy merchants and bankers.
* a small but powerful peacetime navy but no peacetime army.
* he believed a powerful central government & military was a threat to individual liberties.
Jefferson fought bitterly to stop Hamilton's efforts to establish a national banking system and a standing peacetime army. I wonder were we would be today had he prevailed. Perhaps worse off, perhaps not.
Let me first compliment you on your willingness to critique your own, on the NYT no less. That takes character and courage and I can imagine the onslaught of insults, name-calling and profanity you may face as a result of your openness. The change that you and a handful of others yearn for will not take place until it becomes impossible for your party to hold power, and not because of any emerging sense of ethics and social responsibility. I believe a 16 year stretch of failing to capture the White House is coming up, along with a loss of at least one house of Congress. Until there is no longer any possible path to power it is unlikely that your party will do any productive soul-searching leading to institutional change. Since you have stacked the judiciary from top to bottom and gerrymandered districts so heavily in your favor, it may be the case that you keep a strong foothold in Congress. I use "you" not just in the plural, but also the singular, because you, Peter Wehner, have been a willing part of the transformation of your party to its current state of toxic disfunction from the Reagan years. I doubt that it was a problem for you until you began to lose, and Donald Trump, the logical extension of your actions and policies, came on the scene and added his ignorant chaos to the mix. Even if the 'R' party loses power, there will still be money and votes from the older 'FOX News Generation' for those wanting to sell them straw-man scapegoats for their fears of change.
2
Peter Wehner is a Trumpster in "compassionate conservative" clothing. Don't be fooled. He's part of the problem.
3
Yup, I can just see Lincoln sitting back in his chair and thinking: More guns, yup. Whatever it takes, more guns.
2
Introspection is always a good exercise. Ideally, it leads to a better person, or in this case, party. However, Mr Wehner skims over some very important facts. The republican party has been catering to extreme right wing prejudices for some time. We all remember Lee Atwater and the Willie Horton ad of HW Bush. Now we have the deceased Atwater's partner, Paul Manafort, running the Trump campaign. We had the Romney video in which he shows disdain for the 47% of the people who don't pay taxes
( is trump included?) and how they aren't important. We had Reagan talking about the "Big Buck who buys a Steak with Food stamps". Come on. Let's be truthful. For the past 35 years, the Republicans have been building their Frankenstein Monster. Now he has become incarnate in the Person of Donald Trump. You reap what you sow. The republican party moved from a thousand points of light to death by a thousand cuts.
By the way, the 2 great Republican Presidents, Lincoln and Roosevelt, were Progressives.
( is trump included?) and how they aren't important. We had Reagan talking about the "Big Buck who buys a Steak with Food stamps". Come on. Let's be truthful. For the past 35 years, the Republicans have been building their Frankenstein Monster. Now he has become incarnate in the Person of Donald Trump. You reap what you sow. The republican party moved from a thousand points of light to death by a thousand cuts.
By the way, the 2 great Republican Presidents, Lincoln and Roosevelt, were Progressives.
2
It has been said many times before.... Where did Ronald Reagan announce his plan to run for President? Not in New York or L.A. or Chicago. In the heart of Mississippi. Readers can make whatever judgments they wish from that.
4
Peter,
This idea that your party was "stolen" from the principled, noble adults in the Republican room are utter nonsense for reasons pointed out by other comments (yes, your party did in fact custom-tailor the monster you are now trying to shove back into the closet while denying any accountability), but the thing that truly undermines your claim is watching all of the GOP elders line up to offer their support to Trump. McCain claims he won't "endorse" him but he'll "support" him, whatever that means. Ryan is on board. Preibus. Christie. Guilliani. Ironically, only the much-maligned Bush family has taken as strong of a stance as announcing they will sit out this election. If your party's experienced statesmen really felt that strongly about Trump, there would be many more politicians in the Bush camp. But alas, the tacit, silent "support" of Trump from your party leaders is deafening.
Meanwhile, voters this fall will have an opportunity to elect a pro-business, hawkish moderate to the White House. Her name is Hillary Clinton. How many of your so-called party leaders would have the courage to publicly state that electing a qualified, intelligent public servant from across the aisle is more noble that voting for the cartoonishly incompetent, narcissistic fool your own party has nominated? Wouldn't that be the genuine Lincoln thing to do?
This idea that your party was "stolen" from the principled, noble adults in the Republican room are utter nonsense for reasons pointed out by other comments (yes, your party did in fact custom-tailor the monster you are now trying to shove back into the closet while denying any accountability), but the thing that truly undermines your claim is watching all of the GOP elders line up to offer their support to Trump. McCain claims he won't "endorse" him but he'll "support" him, whatever that means. Ryan is on board. Preibus. Christie. Guilliani. Ironically, only the much-maligned Bush family has taken as strong of a stance as announcing they will sit out this election. If your party's experienced statesmen really felt that strongly about Trump, there would be many more politicians in the Bush camp. But alas, the tacit, silent "support" of Trump from your party leaders is deafening.
Meanwhile, voters this fall will have an opportunity to elect a pro-business, hawkish moderate to the White House. Her name is Hillary Clinton. How many of your so-called party leaders would have the courage to publicly state that electing a qualified, intelligent public servant from across the aisle is more noble that voting for the cartoonishly incompetent, narcissistic fool your own party has nominated? Wouldn't that be the genuine Lincoln thing to do?
4
The GOP hasn’t been the party of Lincoln since LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the entire Southern political establishment left the Democratic Party. Dick Nixon’s Southern Strategy was not the product of the fevered imagination of the Left. Neither is the subsequent history of the Republican Party. As for the argument that the GOP is comprised mostly of honorable individuals, that is belied by taking a look at the record of where the party stands on issues that impact the public good. Consider the political agenda of the Republican congress and of GOP governors and state legislators regarding fair tax policies, climate change, global warming and environmental protection, much less civil rights and separation of church and state. What about the anti-science right wing school boards who push for biology texts that teach creationism and history books that distort the facts? Get out of your ivory tower and listen to the GOP mouthpieces - read what is being written on right wing web sites and social media to inflame hatred of blacks and Muslims and liberals, or listen to the false narratives and relentless smears being spread by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and Dinesh Dsouza. They are the ugly uncivil face of the Republican Party. If they were truly outnumbered by wise and honorable people, the Republican Party would look, sound, and behave very differently instead of being on the wrong side of history of almost every major issue.
2
I'm sorry M. Wehner but the left never turned the term conservative into a epithet like the right did to the label: "liberal." Liberals didn't goad you into accepting the John Birch Society or the KKK into camp. Conservatism has fallen from grace and all any American has to do si look at Donald Trump as proof of utter failure. Now stop whining and go clean up your side of the street. As for Lincoln? Please give us readers a break. jeez . . . repealing integration laws and you want to associate the Republican Party with, "Lincoln?" That's as rich as the idea behind, "clean coal."
5
As a literary genre, the thoughtful Republican apologia has a predictable form.
The author starts with some soul searching--"This isn't the party I joined as a young Buckley admirer. Have I been deceived? Why am I sharing a tent with these barbarians?"--and then moves onto a lengthy history of recent politics that anyone who isn't a Republican already knows, chapter and verse. The conclusion consists of some forward-looking waffle that could only come true if everything described in the historical section hadn't already happened. "We could be great! All it will take is most of our party members changing everything they believe, repudiating everything they've said or stepping down. And an entirely new policy platform. And if we didn't have to sleep in this nasty bed we've made for ourselves." Well.
Maybe a lot of Republicans aren't white supremacists, xenophobes or anti-government militia fanatics. But it's clear that a lot of white supremacists, xenophobes and anti-government militia fanatics are Republicans.
So, Republicans, what are you going to do about your members? This is your problem. The rest of the country awaits your response.
And waiting isn't easy. We'd like to get on with fixing economic inequality, institutional racism, crumbling infrastructure, patchwork social safety net, absurdly complex and expensive tax, healthcare and regulatory systems, rotten electoral system, biased judicial system, and outrageous university costs.
The author starts with some soul searching--"This isn't the party I joined as a young Buckley admirer. Have I been deceived? Why am I sharing a tent with these barbarians?"--and then moves onto a lengthy history of recent politics that anyone who isn't a Republican already knows, chapter and verse. The conclusion consists of some forward-looking waffle that could only come true if everything described in the historical section hadn't already happened. "We could be great! All it will take is most of our party members changing everything they believe, repudiating everything they've said or stepping down. And an entirely new policy platform. And if we didn't have to sleep in this nasty bed we've made for ourselves." Well.
Maybe a lot of Republicans aren't white supremacists, xenophobes or anti-government militia fanatics. But it's clear that a lot of white supremacists, xenophobes and anti-government militia fanatics are Republicans.
So, Republicans, what are you going to do about your members? This is your problem. The rest of the country awaits your response.
And waiting isn't easy. We'd like to get on with fixing economic inequality, institutional racism, crumbling infrastructure, patchwork social safety net, absurdly complex and expensive tax, healthcare and regulatory systems, rotten electoral system, biased judicial system, and outrageous university costs.
4
Mr. Wehner bemoans the failure of Trump's primary opponents, "many of them talented and accomplished individuals." Of whom does he speak? Rubio, the automaton? Cruz, the zealot? Carson, the somnolent one? Maybe he means Fiorina, the only one whose business catastrophes approach those of Trump. Quite simply, the Republican Party this year had a severe absence of credible, thoughtful leaders. It was in this vacuum that a loud television personality with more money than brains (and perhaps not all that much money) was able to triumph.
1
Bringing up the Bushes undermines your infirm attempt to deny that the Republican Party has won by courting racist white voters.
George W. H. Bush used the racist Willie Horton fear-mongering ads to win against Dukakis.
Karl Rove won the S.C. primary for W. by spreading a rumor that John McCain fathered a black child. Rove's tactic was a disgusting exploitation of the fact that Sen. and Mrs. McCain -- entirely honorably and to their credit -- had adopted a beautiful child in need of a home. Really, how low can you get?
George W. H. Bush used the racist Willie Horton fear-mongering ads to win against Dukakis.
Karl Rove won the S.C. primary for W. by spreading a rumor that John McCain fathered a black child. Rove's tactic was a disgusting exploitation of the fact that Sen. and Mrs. McCain -- entirely honorably and to their credit -- had adopted a beautiful child in need of a home. Really, how low can you get?
2
Mr. Wehner, your conclusion returns to the desire to paper over the principal revelation of your piece. You optimistically posit that the Trump phenomenon will be "it will soon be politically and morally discredited, including in the eyes of most Republicans"; however Most Republicans, at least a politically dominant plurality, are the ones casting the votes for Trump. Are these 50% or more of primary Republicans suddenly going to regret their political tangent and return to the corporate elites that have used them for decades? No, I think this is now the Republican party, so you will either have to split the party or join the ranks of the now clearly prejudiced majority of your base. It should be an easy choice, but that will be up to you and others of your ilk. You can't keep pretending.
2
Facing the music, but singing a little off-key. While many northeastern Republicans have been reasonable and decent people, much of the rest of the party has always appealed to the baser attitudes that Wehner soft-pedals. Despite the epithets of those "conservatives," few Democrats have ever catered to the equivalent far left.
27
@Dr. Glenn King: The "equivalent far left" in the U.S. is outnumbered by the "conservatives" about 1000 to 1, or more. There is nothing on the left remotely comparable to Fox News' and talk radio's hate spewers with their audience of millions.
1
One marker in the wandering away from Lincoln was in 1980, dropping long-held support for the equal rights amendment.
I think "family values" must be redefined by GOP so that such values can be understood and implemented by americans LGBT as well as by american women who wants to make decisions on their own bodies. I dont think any GOP senators understand that "decency" is one of GOP principles when their only goal is too President Obama fails. It is dilutional if GOP thinks that it is Lincoln's party.
After reading this piece one is still not certain what the Republican party stands for or why Trump is such a threat to it. It is no secret that the Republicans have always favored big business. As the saying goes, the business of Anerica is business. The author of this piece can jabber all he wants about the idealism and fortitude of Lincoln as a rugged individual but underneath all the verbiage is corporate greed which is now being given greater play than ever in the rush to expand free trade across the globe. Americans can see through this corporate trickery. They are losing their jobs, but the one percent are wealthier than ever. This is what the Republican party and sadly too many Democrats really stand for. Trump alone has seen his opportunity and taken advantage of it, and this is what irks the Republican establishment the most although they will never admit it.
I do not doubt that the author is a well intentioned individual. However, he is in serious denial about the role his party has played in creating the hateful platform that is taking the stage at the Republican convention this week. Have you forgotten the absolute unwillingness on the part of republicans to negotiate with President Obama, even when he tried promoting positions that republicans had previously supported!? Out right disrespect and racist comments from Republican legislators? The incessant disinformation campaign of Fox News and the radio wave hate mongers of the Republican Party? The continued movement of many members of the party to deny minorities the right to vote? And when push came to shove, the Republican Party leadership has almost entirely endorsed him. So yes, my eyes are rolling.
3
So you really didn't see this coming? You haven't listened to the bile spewed 24/7 from talk radio and FOX News, directed at YOUR party's constituents, and not anticipated this end game? You didn't think that doubling down on God, guns, gays, and gynecology wouldn't lead you exactly to the point you are at today?
You appear to saying that Trump is an unanticipated development, and for that you are either being disingenuous or naive.
You appear to saying that Trump is an unanticipated development, and for that you are either being disingenuous or naive.
3
Ronald Reagan kicked off his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi thus rendering your underlying beliefs to be, shall we say, inaccurate.
3
You will never find your way back to Lincoln. Your party has been taken over by Velociraptors. Only a meteorite strike and an extinction event would cleanse it. But our country, for which your party has no regard whatsoever, will suffer tremendous collateral damage.
1
America was founded on liberalism, including the Founding Fathers. the Constitution. and the Republican Party. We are a liberal democracy and study liberal arts. Libertarianism is an extreme form of liberalism.
Government is the enemy in a totalitarian state but in a democracy it is the necessary solution to private and public abuse,
Conservatism has be perverted by Republican radicals who do not allow liberal Republicans into power.
Government is the enemy in a totalitarian state but in a democracy it is the necessary solution to private and public abuse,
Conservatism has be perverted by Republican radicals who do not allow liberal Republicans into power.
I couldn't help thinking about President Obama when Lord Charnwood was discussing Lincoln's behavior towards his fellow-countrymen of the South. It's too bad that Peter Wehner didn't make the connection.
2
That the march to "Trumpism" has apparently taken Mr Wehner and other Republicans by surprise demonstrates just how clueless they have been for the last 3-4 decades.
3
The party of Lincoln? Not since Civil Rights, when the Dixiecrats became republican. Or the " southern strategy". And we can't leave out trickle down economics. Your party was gone a long time ago from anything other than lining the pockets of the wealthy at the expense of the poor. Oh, and trying to control women's bodies.
Most of us with common sense left the republican party long ago.
Most of us with common sense left the republican party long ago.
1
Rationalization…and an excellent one, Mr. Werner.
I have only two items to add to the other critiques.
You write:
“FOR my entire adult life I have listened to the invective leveled against the Republican Party by liberals: It is a party sustained by racist appeals, composed of haters and conspiracy nuts, indifferent to the plight of the poor and the weak, anti-woman.
I have repeatedly denied those charges, publicly and forcefully.”
Yes, you have repeatedly denied – never successfully denied. Why is that? It is for the reason that there is truth in the invective leveled against the Republican Party. Your attempt to deny the truth is rationalization.
For example:
You write:
“The idea that one side comprises Children of Light and the other Children of Darkness is a silly, partisan distortion.”
Silly? Partisan Distortion? Nixon, Agnew, Mitchell, Kissinger, Reagan, Weinberger, Watt, Abrams, Poindexter, the S&L disaster (labeled by Galbraith as, “the largest and costliest venture in public misfeasance, malfeasance and larceny of all time”). Let me catch my breath. Bush I, Bush II, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell. Need I elaborate?
Children of Light/Darkness as silly, partisan distortion?
You might want to rethink that, Mr. Werner.
You are trying to defend a defense position, Mr. Werner. "Children of Darkness" fails to capture the nature of the Republican Party. "Darkness Incarnate" is closer to the truth.
I have only two items to add to the other critiques.
You write:
“FOR my entire adult life I have listened to the invective leveled against the Republican Party by liberals: It is a party sustained by racist appeals, composed of haters and conspiracy nuts, indifferent to the plight of the poor and the weak, anti-woman.
I have repeatedly denied those charges, publicly and forcefully.”
Yes, you have repeatedly denied – never successfully denied. Why is that? It is for the reason that there is truth in the invective leveled against the Republican Party. Your attempt to deny the truth is rationalization.
For example:
You write:
“The idea that one side comprises Children of Light and the other Children of Darkness is a silly, partisan distortion.”
Silly? Partisan Distortion? Nixon, Agnew, Mitchell, Kissinger, Reagan, Weinberger, Watt, Abrams, Poindexter, the S&L disaster (labeled by Galbraith as, “the largest and costliest venture in public misfeasance, malfeasance and larceny of all time”). Let me catch my breath. Bush I, Bush II, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell. Need I elaborate?
Children of Light/Darkness as silly, partisan distortion?
You might want to rethink that, Mr. Werner.
You are trying to defend a defense position, Mr. Werner. "Children of Darkness" fails to capture the nature of the Republican Party. "Darkness Incarnate" is closer to the truth.
3
A number of good points, as with much of Mr. Wehner's writing since the rise of Trump, especially on his party's disdain for governing. But he lets his party's elite off way too easily.
For a member of the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, Mr. Wehner too quickly washes his and his party's hands of "racism, nativism and misogyny." Or has he forgotten about "welfare queens" and Willie Horton? His party and its elites have cynically exploited racist themes since rise of the civil rights movement.
And though he claims that many members of his party are "queasy" with the prospect of Trump, the only elected Republicans who are willing to stand up to Trump are those with nothing to lose, like Ben Sasse, or those with more to gain, like Mark Kirk. The silence from other elected Republicans is deafening.
If the future of the Republican Party rests with its elite and its elected officials, I'm not optimistic.
For a member of the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, Mr. Wehner too quickly washes his and his party's hands of "racism, nativism and misogyny." Or has he forgotten about "welfare queens" and Willie Horton? His party and its elites have cynically exploited racist themes since rise of the civil rights movement.
And though he claims that many members of his party are "queasy" with the prospect of Trump, the only elected Republicans who are willing to stand up to Trump are those with nothing to lose, like Ben Sasse, or those with more to gain, like Mark Kirk. The silence from other elected Republicans is deafening.
If the future of the Republican Party rests with its elite and its elected officials, I'm not optimistic.
4
Sorry Peter, but at this point you'll be lucky to find your way back to Robert Welch and Joe McCarthy.
2
Had America indeed been united in desperately seeking Lincoln since his assassination, he would have undoubtedly been found by now!
2
Mr. Wehner, I think you embody what is best about your party. I truly appreciate your thoughtful and sincere remarks, thouoght we may differ on many points. Unfortunately, people like you should have spoken out much earlier and with more force. I agree that we need a multi party system with a loyal opposition that is treated as such by the majority. That respect for the oppositon has been eroded and for all purposes destroyed by people Senator McConnell, deliberating working to undermine the President and actually saying so, rather that working with him to rach a compromise, and blocking the appointment of Judge Garland. I had a lot of isues with speaker Boehner, but I can't blame him at all for stepping away from the madness. These are precedents that will haunt the party and the country later. I pray that Trump loses and loses big, not only because I want to see a progressive agenda enacted, but also because I hope that it is the catalyst for a rebirth of the Republican party soon, so that excesses on both sides can be tempered.
2
Abraham Lincoln? Today's Republican Party couldn't find its way back to Lincoln, Nebraska!
6
Mr Wehner,
Am I misremembering something about the Civil rights era of the 1960s or did the conservative media and in particular William F. Buckley Jr preach segregation and separate but equal?
Are my memories or my history lessons about Ronald Reagan, the McCarthy era and the thought police in the 1950s false memories and a distortion of my history lessons?
In 1937 William F. Buckley's children burned a cross in front of a Jewish summer resort and Prescott Bush's Connecticut was as segregated as Apartheid South Africa. It is over 150 years since the civil war and for more than half that time the GOP has NOT been the party of Lincoln it has been the party of William F. Buckley Senior a Franco Fascist and a divider not a uniter. Jacob Javits has been dead 30 years and in 2016 he would be a RINO even the Democrats worst enemy Joseph Lieberman is more Democrat than Republican these days.
Am I misremembering something about the Civil rights era of the 1960s or did the conservative media and in particular William F. Buckley Jr preach segregation and separate but equal?
Are my memories or my history lessons about Ronald Reagan, the McCarthy era and the thought police in the 1950s false memories and a distortion of my history lessons?
In 1937 William F. Buckley's children burned a cross in front of a Jewish summer resort and Prescott Bush's Connecticut was as segregated as Apartheid South Africa. It is over 150 years since the civil war and for more than half that time the GOP has NOT been the party of Lincoln it has been the party of William F. Buckley Senior a Franco Fascist and a divider not a uniter. Jacob Javits has been dead 30 years and in 2016 he would be a RINO even the Democrats worst enemy Joseph Lieberman is more Democrat than Republican these days.
4
This article continues the often heard refrain that the Republican Party must be rebuilt and it must of course be Conservative. I think that the evil root of the current political process is that ideological division between the parties has become almost complete. If the two-party system continues in the US, the two parties should not be purely Conservative and purely Liberal. Such a division encourages a frozen ideology in both camps exactly resembling the one we have now.
Peter, a nicely written column. I must comment though on your seeming bewilderment of how the Republican Party descended into the pit it now finds itself in. Go back to the mid-60's and the passage of both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, and you will find Richard Nixon's "Southern Strategy," which was nothing more than a decidedly racist philosophy. Then skip ahead to Ronald Reagan's choice of Philadelphia Mississippi as the jumping off platform for his campaign -- the same small racist town in which three civil rights workers were shot to death and buried in an earthen dam for trying to help black people register to vote. (that was beyond a "dog whistle," that was full blown hatred and racism.) Reagan became a Republican icon, for the next 35 years and beyond.
Skip ahead again to the election of Barack Obama in 2008. The leaders in your party met on the night of his inauguration to plot: they decided to strenuously oppose every single thing this President tried to do to drag this country out of eight years of a Republican administration disaster for our country. Remember, McConnell famously stated that his "number one goal was to make Obama a one-term President."
For these reasons (and many more) the Republican Party is what they have made themselves, and to use a simple term everyone understands: the chickens have come home to roost.
Skip ahead again to the election of Barack Obama in 2008. The leaders in your party met on the night of his inauguration to plot: they decided to strenuously oppose every single thing this President tried to do to drag this country out of eight years of a Republican administration disaster for our country. Remember, McConnell famously stated that his "number one goal was to make Obama a one-term President."
For these reasons (and many more) the Republican Party is what they have made themselves, and to use a simple term everyone understands: the chickens have come home to roost.
3
Being Republican in 1861 already meant being pro business, pro industrial empires construction, pro what you may call pre John Dos Passos or Frank Norris big money...but that was 1861 and also meant being an abolitionist of the South Special Institution...which gave Abraham Lincoln, himself turned into an icon by courage, over reaching views and fate.
It is utterly inaccurate to compare what the GOP was at the time to what it has eventually become afterwards ... changes that already occurred after the Reconstruction.
Since the 1950's, the GOP has evolved into something that has stricly nothing to do with Abe Lincoln's core beliefs, actions and values.
It is utterly inaccurate to compare what the GOP was at the time to what it has eventually become afterwards ... changes that already occurred after the Reconstruction.
Since the 1950's, the GOP has evolved into something that has stricly nothing to do with Abe Lincoln's core beliefs, actions and values.
1
Mr. Wehner you are lamenting and pontificating, but not seeing things clearly, and that is the crux of this huge political problem. As long as lying and gross excuses are rationalized and in Trumps case revered, things will continue to spiral out of control.
2
The author writes that Trumpism will be "politically and morally discredited." By whom and how will this happen? He waxes on nobility of tradition but wanes on activism. Are compassionate conservatives really willing to defeat Trump? Or is the strategy now to win the White House with a president who distracts the nation with deflated footballs while Congress passes the Speaker's agenda? I agree with the author in that the political process has been discredited: shutting down the federal government is used to prove that proponents are not Washington insiders. Vilification has been more effective than fixing things, Gerrymandering has made principles over process manifest and leaders have sabotaged good policy for power. Where were the moderates then?
2
When Nixon engaged in his "southern strategy" where was Mr. Wehner? When Ronald Reagan started his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi and spoke of "states' rights" where was Mr. Wehner? When Reagan spoke of "welfare queens" and people using food stamps to buy alcohol, something illegal, where was Mr. Wehner? When George H.W. Bush ran the "Willie Horton" Ad where was Mr. Wehner. Mr. Wehner's party has long been down the path of racism and bigotry. Trump is a lot more blunt and his voters are demanding the results that Republicans have been subtly promising.
6
Virtually nothing in this world doesn't have a tiny bright spot, and so it is with Trump. Watching the overlapping money machine of the right wing squirm is a bright spot.
Wehner's main concern seems to be that Trump didn't follow the Republican model of mortgaging his soul to the billionaires to gain high office. "Mr. Trump profited from a huge imbalance in free media, earning close to $2 billion worth of it." The Koch Brothers are in a terrible fix. They can't buy Trump and Hillary will work to make their vote the same as yours. (I recommend "Dark Money" by Jane Mayer for documentation on the process.)
The right wing money machine works mainly by creating tax exempt corporations with names that sound like they're just doing good things (Ethics and Public Policy Center) and then staffing them with the rightest of the radical right who can then be trotted out by the media - not as shills for the 1% that they are - but as actual scholars. See the comments of fathers of the Iraq War Charles Krauthammer and Irving Kristol on their site. Their source of funding is deeply hidden, however.
The right wing created Trump. They deserve him. The rest of us deserve better.
Wehner's main concern seems to be that Trump didn't follow the Republican model of mortgaging his soul to the billionaires to gain high office. "Mr. Trump profited from a huge imbalance in free media, earning close to $2 billion worth of it." The Koch Brothers are in a terrible fix. They can't buy Trump and Hillary will work to make their vote the same as yours. (I recommend "Dark Money" by Jane Mayer for documentation on the process.)
The right wing money machine works mainly by creating tax exempt corporations with names that sound like they're just doing good things (Ethics and Public Policy Center) and then staffing them with the rightest of the radical right who can then be trotted out by the media - not as shills for the 1% that they are - but as actual scholars. See the comments of fathers of the Iraq War Charles Krauthammer and Irving Kristol on their site. Their source of funding is deeply hidden, however.
The right wing created Trump. They deserve him. The rest of us deserve better.
2
You got it right the first time: The Republicans and the Democrats: children of the darkness and children of the light.
For hundreds of years the current political structures "evolved" due to two natural schemes and feelings and facts. One which sees humans as cooperative creatures that have always benefited from sharing and helping each other; the other is selfish and greedy and sees individuals as "on their own" to push others into the river or whatever it takes to "get as much of the pie as possible and share nothing" and thus demand no compassion toward others. The Ayn Rand philosophy versus the "Christian" type philosophy. The actual evolutionary (Darwinian) mechanism has given us the more cooperative truth; we are "helpful" and "caring" to a large degree; it can be seen in our brain and in our real feelings when analyzed.
So please stop with the distorted story you tell of your beloved Party and how misunderstood it is.
That shall not convince anyone.
For hundreds of years the current political structures "evolved" due to two natural schemes and feelings and facts. One which sees humans as cooperative creatures that have always benefited from sharing and helping each other; the other is selfish and greedy and sees individuals as "on their own" to push others into the river or whatever it takes to "get as much of the pie as possible and share nothing" and thus demand no compassion toward others. The Ayn Rand philosophy versus the "Christian" type philosophy. The actual evolutionary (Darwinian) mechanism has given us the more cooperative truth; we are "helpful" and "caring" to a large degree; it can be seen in our brain and in our real feelings when analyzed.
So please stop with the distorted story you tell of your beloved Party and how misunderstood it is.
That shall not convince anyone.
2
How much of the GOP's activity sounds "Lincoln-like" to you?
- Passing voter ID laws for no legitimate purpose, with the sole intent to reduce minority turnout?
- Fighting to overturn the Labor Department's new "fiduciary rule" that would require 401k and IRA managers to put their clients' interests before their own? Going so far as to slip this into Ryan's latest "anti-poverty" proposal?
- Opposing even the most reasonable gun control rules, including those supported by more than 80% of the population? Including those who have been banned from flying due to suspected terrorism?
- Nearly all current GOP lawmakers currently refuse to acknowledge the threat of human-caused climate change?
- Having the House Science Committee attack State Attorneys General for their investigation of Exxon's fraudulent disinformation campaign for the last several decades?
There's a long-standing policy of putting special interests first in the GOP. Trump is capitalizing on this to the extent that many people correctly assume that this influence has been bought, and incorrectly assume that Trump is the answer.
It's time to tell some of eccentric billionaires to buzz off, and take principled stances on the most important issues. Until then, Trump is the least of your problems.
- Passing voter ID laws for no legitimate purpose, with the sole intent to reduce minority turnout?
- Fighting to overturn the Labor Department's new "fiduciary rule" that would require 401k and IRA managers to put their clients' interests before their own? Going so far as to slip this into Ryan's latest "anti-poverty" proposal?
- Opposing even the most reasonable gun control rules, including those supported by more than 80% of the population? Including those who have been banned from flying due to suspected terrorism?
- Nearly all current GOP lawmakers currently refuse to acknowledge the threat of human-caused climate change?
- Having the House Science Committee attack State Attorneys General for their investigation of Exxon's fraudulent disinformation campaign for the last several decades?
There's a long-standing policy of putting special interests first in the GOP. Trump is capitalizing on this to the extent that many people correctly assume that this influence has been bought, and incorrectly assume that Trump is the answer.
It's time to tell some of eccentric billionaires to buzz off, and take principled stances on the most important issues. Until then, Trump is the least of your problems.
6
Peter, your handwringing dismay rings false. You believed what you wanted to believe about your party, even though it has been playing the race, nativism, and intolerance cards since the Nixon era, has steadfastly denied science, and lied repeatedly about weapons of mass destruction, to name a few faults. Turning a blind eye to all of these things, as you have done for over 20 years it would seem, has led to the Tea Party movement, a Congress that refuses to do the people's work (which includes reviewing Supreme Court and lower court nominees), climate science deniers, Citizens United, the largest income disparity in history, and now, fittingly, Donald Trump as YOUR party's nominee for president. It was broken on YOUR watch, so you own it. The first step in recovery is recognizing and accepting responsibility for the results of your party's behavior. When you appeal to the baser part of human nature, you will reap a more coarse electorate.
Congratulations - you got what you wanted. Perhaps next time you will look at what best fulfills the hopes and dreams of the entire human race, and apply the Golden Rule, rather than the rule of gold.
Congratulations - you got what you wanted. Perhaps next time you will look at what best fulfills the hopes and dreams of the entire human race, and apply the Golden Rule, rather than the rule of gold.
1
We live by myths... or is it lies?
The current political myth the media has been pushing is that 'good' republicans have been overcome by 'bad' ones; that the GOP used to represent something other than it does at present.
The garb it struts today may be garish and vulgar, but the suits and ties of the 'good 'ole days', that walked the corporate halls of our nation were the same as the ones who continue today to carry in their pockets the keys to the financial--and therefore political--power in our nation.
These good men and women of the 'moderate' right do protest too much about Mr. Trump. He says in public pretty much what they believe in private. They are ashamed, not of his principles, but of his bad demeanor. If only he would behave himself, they would stand by him and cheer.
In the end, they will. They tell us they aren't voting this year. Don't believe them. You will not see them at their local polling station because this year they will mail in their absentee ballot. they wouldn't want their neighbors to think that they are voting for HRC.
Your way back to Lincoln? Please. when did you ever walk with him?
The current political myth the media has been pushing is that 'good' republicans have been overcome by 'bad' ones; that the GOP used to represent something other than it does at present.
The garb it struts today may be garish and vulgar, but the suits and ties of the 'good 'ole days', that walked the corporate halls of our nation were the same as the ones who continue today to carry in their pockets the keys to the financial--and therefore political--power in our nation.
These good men and women of the 'moderate' right do protest too much about Mr. Trump. He says in public pretty much what they believe in private. They are ashamed, not of his principles, but of his bad demeanor. If only he would behave himself, they would stand by him and cheer.
In the end, they will. They tell us they aren't voting this year. Don't believe them. You will not see them at their local polling station because this year they will mail in their absentee ballot. they wouldn't want their neighbors to think that they are voting for HRC.
Your way back to Lincoln? Please. when did you ever walk with him?
4
Every time I read a reflection like this, I want to sit down with the author and ask them, one reasonable person of good will to another, to explain certain particulars to me. Why eschew science, whether evolution or climate change? What DO we do about guns? Why do you think your party is so white, and mine less so, and how do we get more, not fewer, people to vote? So often I like the principles I hear from conservatives – valuing families, fiscal responsibility, and others – but am befuddled at how they incarnate them. And, chances are, Mr. Wehner has similar challenging questions for we liberals and the Democratic Party, which desperately needs to engage in its own version of this self-reflection.
Possibly the defining tragedy of our nation is that we have come to a place where we can't sit down with each other and discuss the things that matter most to us. Instead, we are deafened to other views, and the lessons we could gain from them, by restricting ourselves to an ever-narrowing echo chamber. On both sides (not a knee-jerk parallelism, but a true state of affairs).
SO, Mr. Wehner, when you come to Santa Fe (everyone does eventually), dinner is on me. I have some questions, and I hope you do, too.
Possibly the defining tragedy of our nation is that we have come to a place where we can't sit down with each other and discuss the things that matter most to us. Instead, we are deafened to other views, and the lessons we could gain from them, by restricting ourselves to an ever-narrowing echo chamber. On both sides (not a knee-jerk parallelism, but a true state of affairs).
SO, Mr. Wehner, when you come to Santa Fe (everyone does eventually), dinner is on me. I have some questions, and I hope you do, too.
2
Mr. Wehner is both delusional and disengenuous. He worked for Regan who mastered the art of using racist appeals and created a template for using implicit racist dogwhistles to get support from southern whites who left the Democratic Party after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. He worked for George H. who sucessfully used the template to demonize black people with the Willie Horton ad. and set forth the mechanism for the mass incarceration of African American males. Geroge W. used the race of John McCain's adopted daughter in the south , thus continuing the tradition of using the racist, dogwhistle approach. If anything, a reasonable, rational person would have to say that Trump doesn't seek to delude anyone like other Republican presidential candidates before him. Puhleeze!!!!!!!
4
Yes, we're shocked--shocked!--that there's gambling going on in Casa Blanca. Do you seriously think that you can build your grand party on the vicious and sometimes illegal machinations of Roy Cohn, Joseph McCarthy, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, Oliver North, and Dick Cheney and now expect us to swallow your Sunday School fantasy notion of what Republicans are? As good as you are, you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
9
Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis managed to kill 750,000 of their fellow Americans in a four year long civil war. In a nation of 30 million more Americans died than in all of the other American wars combined. In a modern context multiplying those deaths by 10x would leave over 7.5 million Americans dead.
On the eve of civil war, America had 4 million enslaved Africans. They were a more valuable capital asset than all of America's other capital assets combined except for the land. America had hostile and docile natives. America was not a superpower.
America is not on the verge of a sectional socioeconomic political secession shooting civil war. There are no enslaved Africans. The government is gridlocked by partisan politics in a limited divided power democratic republic. Trump is no Lincoln. If Trump wins there will be no civil war. Lincoln would not be the best leader for these days. You can not separate Lincoln from his times.
On the eve of civil war, America had 4 million enslaved Africans. They were a more valuable capital asset than all of America's other capital assets combined except for the land. America had hostile and docile natives. America was not a superpower.
America is not on the verge of a sectional socioeconomic political secession shooting civil war. There are no enslaved Africans. The government is gridlocked by partisan politics in a limited divided power democratic republic. Trump is no Lincoln. If Trump wins there will be no civil war. Lincoln would not be the best leader for these days. You can not separate Lincoln from his times.
6
Hitler would not be a good leader for today either, and this exactly what Trump is trying to become.
Mr. Wehner appears to overlook the Trump upside: a first real dislodging of the Christian fundamentalists from holding the party of Lincoln hostage the past 40 years. All the criticism of the GOP begins and ends with this singular stranglehold. Repairing the Republican Party will take much longer than any effect Trump will have on it, but it's a good start.
You say you are fighting for the soul of the Republican party. If you are truly doing so in good faith, here's a good place to start:
Repeal voter ID laws. Expand voting and stop restricting it.
I have no confidence that such a step will be taken because there is considerable distance between the substance and the language of their policies: "Clear Skies" and "Right to Work," for example.
But let's start simple. Be the party of Lincoln again and work instead for the big business of people.
Repeal voter ID laws. Expand voting and stop restricting it.
I have no confidence that such a step will be taken because there is considerable distance between the substance and the language of their policies: "Clear Skies" and "Right to Work," for example.
But let's start simple. Be the party of Lincoln again and work instead for the big business of people.
4
Mr Wehner, it is conservatism that created the disadvantages in which these disaffected Trump voters live...and yes, the party played to their racist, nativist instincts, especially when a black president was elected. The conservative experiment of 40 years has been tried and found disastrous. I really don't know where your party goes from here.
4
I know many good people who choose the republican party too - they all are not raging lunatics. But ALL of those that I know vote republican because they want lower taxes.
The other reasons they support the republican party are more nuanced. The less informed/poorer republicans I know also talk of abortion, welfare cheats (I remind them that the social security and medicare they couldn't live without would not exist if it were up to Republicans to no avail - Fox news has an impact with them) and immigration issues.
But the college educated republicans that I know have one issue - lower taxes - their sense of community is pretty narcissistic. So let's get real here, the republican party elite care about their bank accounts above all else.
The other reasons they support the republican party are more nuanced. The less informed/poorer republicans I know also talk of abortion, welfare cheats (I remind them that the social security and medicare they couldn't live without would not exist if it were up to Republicans to no avail - Fox news has an impact with them) and immigration issues.
But the college educated republicans that I know have one issue - lower taxes - their sense of community is pretty narcissistic. So let's get real here, the republican party elite care about their bank accounts above all else.
9
Maybe, just maybe if you upstanding conservatives had shut him up when he was running around screaming for the President's birth certificate rather than winking and nodding, The Donald would only be scamming investors now rather than the American people.
10
I fail to see how a party that harbors secessionist elements can ever return to being the "party of Lincoln."
4
Mr. Wehner completely omits the efforts of people like the Kochs to reduce the size of government and discredit it; while primarily designed to reduce regulation and taxation of highly polluting industry (oil refineries), these efforts have had the 'collateral damage' of fostering tremendous cynicism - how else to explain people, who receive medicare and social security, but also believe that government can't do anything well? wake up Mr. Wehner. read Jane Meyer's 'Dark Money' if you haven't already. it's the cynicism of the Kochs (and friends), spinning webs of lies to get blue collar workers to vote for their agenda, which reduces the services these people need, and pollutes the environment, that has created the schism in the GOP - those people were snowed for years and finally figured it out.
6
Mr. Wehner:
Invoking Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush as models of fair, non-biased Republican presidents clearly demonstrates that you are still in denial. How deluded must one be to see Reagan - president of the ketchup as a school lunch vegetable policy and patron of the Iran-Contra sleaze - or Bush II - our very own crusader - as honest statesmen? While George H. W. Bush was by far the most reasonable and practical of that trio - may I even say, "apparently honorable" - his willingness to allow the Willie Horton ad to be aired stained his reputation. If for nothing else, just for being willing to stoop so low in an effort to vanquish his opponent.
The last statesman Republican president was Eisenhower. He bluntly warned us of the industrial-military complex. He is lucky to not have lived to witness the Hobby Lobby and Citizens United decisions of our polarized highest court.
I, for one, will take you more seriously once you own up to the unvarnished, ugly truth. Your party has been feeding off hatred and recycling it to recruit more voters since 1964. The mad, unreasoning knee jerk reactions to any policy that slightly deviates from the GOP's strict orthodoxy in favor of the monied class has been the party's bread and butter for the past half-century. Just recall Republican's reaction to Bush I's slight increase in taxes for the good of the nation.
Come back once you've passed the denial phase and are able to face reality.
Invoking Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush as models of fair, non-biased Republican presidents clearly demonstrates that you are still in denial. How deluded must one be to see Reagan - president of the ketchup as a school lunch vegetable policy and patron of the Iran-Contra sleaze - or Bush II - our very own crusader - as honest statesmen? While George H. W. Bush was by far the most reasonable and practical of that trio - may I even say, "apparently honorable" - his willingness to allow the Willie Horton ad to be aired stained his reputation. If for nothing else, just for being willing to stoop so low in an effort to vanquish his opponent.
The last statesman Republican president was Eisenhower. He bluntly warned us of the industrial-military complex. He is lucky to not have lived to witness the Hobby Lobby and Citizens United decisions of our polarized highest court.
I, for one, will take you more seriously once you own up to the unvarnished, ugly truth. Your party has been feeding off hatred and recycling it to recruit more voters since 1964. The mad, unreasoning knee jerk reactions to any policy that slightly deviates from the GOP's strict orthodoxy in favor of the monied class has been the party's bread and butter for the past half-century. Just recall Republican's reaction to Bush I's slight increase in taxes for the good of the nation.
Come back once you've passed the denial phase and are able to face reality.
6
Regardless of how nostalgic one may feel about the presidency of George W Bush (and others), it must not be minimized or discounted, that he lied to millions of people--not to save himself the embarrassment of a sex-scandal, (heavens no), but to take thousands of Americans out of their homes, out of their relationships, out of their parenthoods, and into a war--some for years on end--and some to their deaths. He did so without recourse. That is an obscenity. It may not have the immediate impact of Trump's cruel mimic of a disabled man, but the obscenity underlies the country's cynicism and preference for lies and vulgarity that are blatant.
5
Republicans have no demonstrated respect for the representative government of the United States. W lied to involve us in a horrible war. There are efforts constantly to thwart legitimate voters from casting ballots--it's a highly-funded activity! and for those unfamiliar, please see the quote below from Wikipedia on Ronald Reagan's great respect for the American People and our representative government. As I recall in Congressional hearings, he repeatedly indicated he didn't remember anything. Does this compare to a sex scandal involving one individual and a President? for which Republicans committed millions of tax-payer dollars to investigate.
"The Iran–Contra affair was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.[3] They hoped thereby to secure the release of several U.S. hostages and to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. Under the Boland Amendment, further funding of the Contras by the government had been prohibited by Congress."
"The Iran–Contra affair was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.[3] They hoped thereby to secure the release of several U.S. hostages and to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. Under the Boland Amendment, further funding of the Contras by the government had been prohibited by Congress."
To constantly think "I am a Republican" or "I am a Democrat" obviously supports Einstein's definition of insanity "Somebody who never changes his mind." Welcome to America.
2
Your post assumes that all decisions are up for review from time to time so smart people can reassess and perhaps change their minds.
This is, of course, incredibly stupid.
Slavery's just wrong.
Sorry, that is not going to change down the line.
Equal Rights for all is just right.
That fact is also not going to change down the line.
Mocking those who refuse to change their core values is...well...very republican of you.
This is, of course, incredibly stupid.
Slavery's just wrong.
Sorry, that is not going to change down the line.
Equal Rights for all is just right.
That fact is also not going to change down the line.
Mocking those who refuse to change their core values is...well...very republican of you.
2
Mr. Wehner, I think you wrote this to try to convince yourself that Mr. Trump is not the ugly face of an ugly party and that his victory does not prove that the "liberals" were always right.
We were always right. It's really not "complicated." Occam's Razor: Trump says out loud what your candidates used to only dog whistle and he provides a safe place for bigotry.
Your party is anointing him this week. Yes, there are a few hold-outs, but everybody else is happy to jump on board the ugly train that is your party.
We were always right. It's really not "complicated." Occam's Razor: Trump says out loud what your candidates used to only dog whistle and he provides a safe place for bigotry.
Your party is anointing him this week. Yes, there are a few hold-outs, but everybody else is happy to jump on board the ugly train that is your party.
8
I imagine it must be nice to believe that the Republican Party is the, "Party of Lincoln". Personally, I'm sure that if Abraham Lincoln looked in to see how his party was doing, he'd be appalled!
4
Mr. Wehner has himself and like-minded Republicans to blame for Trump. Why? Because they did not work to expunge from the Party those who year after year communicated by lies with their "base" to stay in office, filling them with ridiculous beliefs. Yes, they believed what the Party told them, everything from all the racist lies about President Obama, about Democrats wanting to take away their guns, about Democrats wanting to ruin the economy and not pursue terrorists, too many to mention. The lie that to me confirmed the totally bankruptcy of the Republican Party was that Democrats, if elected, would "take away our Bibles." Yes, this was the subject of a Party letter to the people, during the first Bush presidency. I received one of these, and heard no Republican call this out as a ridiculous lie. As the years passed it became clear that people did actually believe all the Party's lies. You have no one else to blame but yourself because you did not speak out against all the GOP-sanctioned propaganda. Good job, Mr. Wehner!
4
Very good analysis; much the best I've seen. I differ, though, about what happens if Trump loses. The writer says: "There will be a pitched battle to rebuild the Republican Party; to make it different and better, more hopeful, humane and in touch with the concerns of both working- and middle-class voters, than it was pre-Trump." I fear that's unrealistic. I would expect a pitched battle all right, but one designed to institutionize Trump's brutal, fascistic world view. The party will become openly racist; it wouldn't surprise me if Mexicans, Muslims, cop-killers and perhaps Jews were demonized and blamed for Trump's electoral defeat. In other words, welcome to Germany 1932. What has happened to our country???
2
The reason the South is Republican is the Civil Rights Act. That says more than enough about the Republican Party.
5
The GOP departed from "The Party of Lincoln" not long after his assassination. As the nation became industrialized the party took the attitude "that what was good for business was good for America." In the second half of the 20th Century they added to their numbers the racists from the South (not that there weren't any in the North as well). Now their candidate for POTUS has said so many ridiculous things one loses count and the lies that he has told one wonders why anyone would believe any of his promises. If they squeak in and take over the control of the country they may end up hastening their destruction.
3
Mr. Wehner you say, "For many of us lifelong Republicans, the convention in Cleveland will be a time of serious self-reflection, a difficult and honest reckoning." You're about 30 years too late. I saw it during Ronald Reagan's first term and you boys at the seat of power did nothing to prevent it.
"The "Don" is the result. BIG democracy-destroying money masters have spoken long enough. Time to do a deep clean and get them out of OUR governments at all levels on November 8 and every election before and after for the foreseeable future. At the same time, we must be diligent to get their democrat and independent operatives OUT of government as well. Money masters do not care who they corrupt as long as they get the payback. Time for the American public to give them all the payback they deserve.
"The "Don" is the result. BIG democracy-destroying money masters have spoken long enough. Time to do a deep clean and get them out of OUR governments at all levels on November 8 and every election before and after for the foreseeable future. At the same time, we must be diligent to get their democrat and independent operatives OUT of government as well. Money masters do not care who they corrupt as long as they get the payback. Time for the American public to give them all the payback they deserve.
6
Peter,
You are still in denial.
Your party stopped being an American party and started becoming a party of ideology, a win-at-any-cost, malignancy that worked to prevent sound governance with Saint Ron...
America survived that assault because our strengths and prominence overwhelmed and disguised the underlying corrosion. And the G.O.P. exploited that strength for its own enrichment....
So please, open your eyes ! These poorly rationalized self-deceptions make me want to puke !!!
You are still in denial.
Your party stopped being an American party and started becoming a party of ideology, a win-at-any-cost, malignancy that worked to prevent sound governance with Saint Ron...
America survived that assault because our strengths and prominence overwhelmed and disguised the underlying corrosion. And the G.O.P. exploited that strength for its own enrichment....
So please, open your eyes ! These poorly rationalized self-deceptions make me want to puke !!!
4
Thank you for an insightful article that helped, for me, clarify Republican thinking on the tragedy that has befallen Americans of all stripes, in the form of Donald Trump's candidacy. Maybe I'm too much of a history buff, but I would have included more explicitly Nixon's Southern Strategy in the seeds of this tragedy. It was a cynical move at the time, and did it ever bear its racist fruit in our time.
5
"If not, and certainly if Mr. Trump wins the presidency, the Republican Party will fully enter its dark age. (Set aside for now the damage he would do to the country.)
It may be worth noting that the Dark Ages, the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of Italian Renaissance, lasted 1000 years.
What a terrifying prospect for all those who still cannot come to terms with the fact that Trump has a realistic chance at presidency.
It may be worth noting that the Dark Ages, the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of Italian Renaissance, lasted 1000 years.
What a terrifying prospect for all those who still cannot come to terms with the fact that Trump has a realistic chance at presidency.
2
Finding the way back to Lincoln is regressive.
While supporting freedom for black Americans, he also thought they were inferior and that colonization was a viable solution. He was no bold abolitionist, for sure; nor a civil rights activist (witness his stripping of the writ of habeus corpus; imposition of military law; and his politically-calculated Emancipation Proclamation free slaves *only* in areas that the Union did NOT control!).
The author also ignores the many explicit views & policies--and dog-whistle language--that Reagan and other Republicans have used over the years-- and, were definitely racist, bigoted, anti-poor, and misogynist.
He needs to remove his rose colored glasses and recognize the elephant in the room for the Republican Party (home of the elephants). Johnson was right-- signing the Civil Rights Act led to the loss of the South, as bigoted southern Democrats became Republicans, where they were quite comfortable and welcomed.
The racism and sexism, in other words, go *way*, *way* back.
While supporting freedom for black Americans, he also thought they were inferior and that colonization was a viable solution. He was no bold abolitionist, for sure; nor a civil rights activist (witness his stripping of the writ of habeus corpus; imposition of military law; and his politically-calculated Emancipation Proclamation free slaves *only* in areas that the Union did NOT control!).
The author also ignores the many explicit views & policies--and dog-whistle language--that Reagan and other Republicans have used over the years-- and, were definitely racist, bigoted, anti-poor, and misogynist.
He needs to remove his rose colored glasses and recognize the elephant in the room for the Republican Party (home of the elephants). Johnson was right-- signing the Civil Rights Act led to the loss of the South, as bigoted southern Democrats became Republicans, where they were quite comfortable and welcomed.
The racism and sexism, in other words, go *way*, *way* back.
4
"...the rise of Mr. Trump doesn’t invalidate my own experiences of life in a party comprising mostly honorable individuals working to advance an agenda they believed was in the national interest."
The Republicans might have avoided a candidate like Trump if the party could have stopped defining the "national interest" as the interests of the 0.1%.
The Republicans might have avoided a candidate like Trump if the party could have stopped defining the "national interest" as the interests of the 0.1%.
6
I, at 18 years old, registered Republican. I was raised in a traditional Cuban home, by Cuban immigrants--all of whom were fiscal conservatives. I know what it means to be a lifelong Republican, which means also that I recognize that this party has, since the 1980s, been "sustained by racist appeals, composed of haters and conspiracy nuts, indifferent to the plight of the poor and the weak, anti-woman." Trump is a mere symptom of a diseased party. There is a reason that the GOP ballot has space sufficient for a character like Trump, but the Democratic ballot does not.
Also, just because I'd like to think that I'm on the right side of important issues in this country (i.e., I am pro-choice and pro-gun reform), does not negate the very fact that the party to which I belong is not. Peter, you are not representative of today's outdated GOP.
Also, just because I'd like to think that I'm on the right side of important issues in this country (i.e., I am pro-choice and pro-gun reform), does not negate the very fact that the party to which I belong is not. Peter, you are not representative of today's outdated GOP.
9
The sins of the Republican Party are legion and legendary. To say that this is a recent development is specious.
And while SOME Republicans are staying strong against the xenophobic, racist, homophobic, misogynistic rantings of a political neophyte, far too many are lining up behind him, in mute lock-step with this potential Hater-in-Chief: John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Louis Gohmert, Joni Ernst - frankly, the list is longer than I have space in which to write. The majority of the leadership of the Republican Party have put party ahead of country and, as such, have sold both their souls as well as that of Party, to the devil.
Your intellectual and political hubris have brought this upon our nation. Stop the crocodile tears.
And while SOME Republicans are staying strong against the xenophobic, racist, homophobic, misogynistic rantings of a political neophyte, far too many are lining up behind him, in mute lock-step with this potential Hater-in-Chief: John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Louis Gohmert, Joni Ernst - frankly, the list is longer than I have space in which to write. The majority of the leadership of the Republican Party have put party ahead of country and, as such, have sold both their souls as well as that of Party, to the devil.
Your intellectual and political hubris have brought this upon our nation. Stop the crocodile tears.
11
The Ethics and Public Policy Center is part of the Koch network, bent on kidnapping our public sphere on behalf of the wealthy and powerful. History shows we humans are the earth's top predator; our success will eventually be our undoing. As our expanding and greedy population attains peak looting of our finite planet, it needs to get rid of the excess poor and disadvantaged. Then the dump we have created will implode.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ethics_and_Public_Policy_Center
"'U.S. domestic and multinational firms find themselves increasingly under siege at home and abroad. They are accused of producing shoddy and unsafe products, fouling the environment, robbing future generations, wielding enormous power, repressing peoples in the third world, and generally being insensitive to human needs. We as a small and ethnically oriented center are in a position to respond more directly to ideological critics who insist the corporation is fundamentally unjust.'"
"Created in 1976, EPPC was the first neocon institute ... in the frontal attack ... has functioned as the cutting edge of the neoconservative-driven culture war against progressive theology and secularism, and the associated effort to ensure right-wing control of the Republican Party. It explicitly sought to unify the Christian right with the neoconservative religious right .... Directed by Elliott Abrams from 1996-2001, EPPC counts among its board members well connected figures in the neocon matrix"
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ethics_and_Public_Policy_Center
"'U.S. domestic and multinational firms find themselves increasingly under siege at home and abroad. They are accused of producing shoddy and unsafe products, fouling the environment, robbing future generations, wielding enormous power, repressing peoples in the third world, and generally being insensitive to human needs. We as a small and ethnically oriented center are in a position to respond more directly to ideological critics who insist the corporation is fundamentally unjust.'"
"Created in 1976, EPPC was the first neocon institute ... in the frontal attack ... has functioned as the cutting edge of the neoconservative-driven culture war against progressive theology and secularism, and the associated effort to ensure right-wing control of the Republican Party. It explicitly sought to unify the Christian right with the neoconservative religious right .... Directed by Elliott Abrams from 1996-2001, EPPC counts among its board members well connected figures in the neocon matrix"
4
Character limit required me to leave out a few things. Mr. Wehner's association with the EPPC belies his gentlemanly and tolerant writing, and I am no judge of his adherence to the actions of his organizations.
I also wanted to mention the Statue of Liberty:
No more the Statue of Liberty:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the people of the United States from the people of France. She stands in the middle of the harbor of New York City. She is a symbol of hope and freedom for immigrants.
http://www.kidport.com/RefLib/usahistory/AmericanIcons/StatuteLiberty.htm
Worth a thought in this immigrant torn rhetoric? It seems the most ardent terrorists are not from the desperate fringes driven from their homes by the very same forces we hope to resist. Research shows that they thrive on hate rhetoric, and are most active in xenophobic environments.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
I also wanted to mention the Statue of Liberty:
No more the Statue of Liberty:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the people of the United States from the people of France. She stands in the middle of the harbor of New York City. She is a symbol of hope and freedom for immigrants.
http://www.kidport.com/RefLib/usahistory/AmericanIcons/StatuteLiberty.htm
Worth a thought in this immigrant torn rhetoric? It seems the most ardent terrorists are not from the desperate fringes driven from their homes by the very same forces we hope to resist. Research shows that they thrive on hate rhetoric, and are most active in xenophobic environments.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
4
Can We Find Our Way Back to Lincoln? Huh? We are lucky if we can find our way back to a stable America. Perhaps, with rational people, even.
4
Mr Wehner,
You'll have to tame the Christian Right wing and their outsized influence first.
You'll have to tame the Christian Right wing and their outsized influence first.
8
Mr. Wehner,
I agree with many aspects of your analysis, and applaud you for your party loyalty. I must take issue however with a point or so.
The Republican party is inherently racist. You must understand and accept that. There is a large contingent of states, now red, that were blue, before the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts. The common thread there is not anything related to progress, or governing, or compromise. It is about race, first and foremost.
The Republican party has proven itself to also be an anti-women party. It cloaks this bias in pro-life extremism, and works tirelessly to circumscribe the rights of women in health choices, in employment, and in access.
The Republican Party is anti-worker. Large swaths of the red states routinely, and often under the cover of darkness, use the power of government to override the rights of workers to unionize, to get fairer compensation for wages and workers injuries.
Your party is known for adherence to anti-science polemics. Climate change, research into stem-cell and gun violence, are but three well-known examples of the Republican Party's great resistance to science and fact.
These are indeed your party's efforts and legacy, proven through time. There is great, overwhelming evidence to support my claims. Your party is increasingly out of touch with the people, and a lying blowhard such as Mr. Trump is indeed, the logical conclusion to this history.
I agree with many aspects of your analysis, and applaud you for your party loyalty. I must take issue however with a point or so.
The Republican party is inherently racist. You must understand and accept that. There is a large contingent of states, now red, that were blue, before the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts. The common thread there is not anything related to progress, or governing, or compromise. It is about race, first and foremost.
The Republican party has proven itself to also be an anti-women party. It cloaks this bias in pro-life extremism, and works tirelessly to circumscribe the rights of women in health choices, in employment, and in access.
The Republican Party is anti-worker. Large swaths of the red states routinely, and often under the cover of darkness, use the power of government to override the rights of workers to unionize, to get fairer compensation for wages and workers injuries.
Your party is known for adherence to anti-science polemics. Climate change, research into stem-cell and gun violence, are but three well-known examples of the Republican Party's great resistance to science and fact.
These are indeed your party's efforts and legacy, proven through time. There is great, overwhelming evidence to support my claims. Your party is increasingly out of touch with the people, and a lying blowhard such as Mr. Trump is indeed, the logical conclusion to this history.
17
Mr. Wehner's comments are certainly thoughtful. However, one important point that he has failed to raise is the outright obstructionist policies of the Republican Party. The last several years have been characterized by the Party's desire to not make this a better country but rather to thwart and destroy anything related to the President. Whether its the unrelenting drive to reverse Obama Car, bringing the country to the brink of economic disaster or most recently their determined failure to even consider the President's Supreme Court nominee, the Republic Party has become the party of active obstruction. Mr Wehner and his colleagues should focus on proposing some clever ideas that harness the greatest of this country rather than promoting the negativity that paved the way for their current Presidential Nominee
10
Absolutely! Wehner's perfect storm includes "outrage that Republicans were not nullifying President Obama" and yet I haven't heard a single Republican official point out that nullifying a democratically elected president is inappropriate and off the table. Not. A. One.
You can't erase from my memory what Republicans have said to me in private throughout my life. Time and time again they have shown their true colors. More than just racist jokes - they have consistently conveyed opinions that Mr. Wehner claims he's never held. But here's the problem, as a white male, I KNOW he's heard the same rhetoric in private - and as a Republican, he's no doubt heard even more of it. He should have called out the "haters and conspiracy nuts" a long time ago.
14
Wehner seems to be in "open revolt" the same way that most conservative elites like Paul Ryan and Bob Dole are: miffed but still backing the company horse. If Peter was being honest, he could admit that there is a candidate that espouses the moderate values he would have championed a few decades ago. Don't like the racist? Endorse his opponent or just stay quiet. I don't think Lincoln would have advocated hypocritical hand wringing in lieu of real action, but then I guess he was never my party's president.
4
Mr. Wehner wonders about Trump? How about Cruz? Or Rubio? Of Christie? Or any of them for that matter? All were terrible. All stood for more and more and more tax cuts for the wealthy and more and more increases in military expenditures; all opposed basic civil rights for anyone other than white males, and I could go on. It is a myth that Republicans are "fiscally conservative." The last R president to even so much as submit (much less accomplish) a balanced budget to congress was Eisenhower. St. Reagan started the Republican inability to do simple math by blowing up the national debt and GW Bush blew it up even more. Paul Ryan, a media favorite deemed (erroneously as it happens) a Policy Wonk -- cannot add. Too many of the states now controlled by Republicans are failing. Find your way back to Lincoln? Pathetic.
11
Back in 1860 most American of all political stripes, liberals and conservatives, were bigots, homophobes, misogynists, racists and xenophobes, Mr. Wehner.
But you are 100% wrong!
Today in 2016 MOST Republicans (including some gays, women, blacks and foreign-born citizens) demonstrably are bigots, homophobes, misogynists, racists and xenophobes, Mr. Wehner.
YOUR denials of YOUR party's attribute show that YOU are in complete and total denial of reality.
But you are 100% wrong!
Today in 2016 MOST Republicans (including some gays, women, blacks and foreign-born citizens) demonstrably are bigots, homophobes, misogynists, racists and xenophobes, Mr. Wehner.
YOUR denials of YOUR party's attribute show that YOU are in complete and total denial of reality.
5
How to fix the GOP?
Something tells that me cutting taxes for the Kochs again will be part of their plan.
Something tells that me cutting taxes for the Kochs again will be part of their plan.
10
in general, a nice attempt to integrate conflicting impulses within the party. however, he seems to have "forgotten" that the Republican party has been running against the Federal government since Reagan. the more moderate voices may claim that they believe in "smaller government." but, their behavior has been to sabotage government so as to prove that "Washington is broken." The Tea Party and Trump are the natural consequence of the party's success in convincing their voters that responsible governance isn't possible.
8
Too little too late. It occurs to me that in not such a few years, someone will write an equally thoughtful analysis of why there will be millions of climate refugees in the U.S
8
"Find our way back to Lincoln?" At this point the GOP would be fortunate to find its way back to Nixon.
9
Beware the military-industrial complex.
... President Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower
Where are the honorable Republicans today?
... President Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower
Where are the honorable Republicans today?
2
Please. What Mr. Wehner dislikes is Trump's honesty.
Trump correctly calls the Republican Party corrupt and happy to sell out the working class. Trump is is honest about immigration. Trump, like most Americans, even Democrats, doesn't particularly like the idea of the USA become a Latin American or a traditional Muslim country. Trump just says it in a way that is honest and clear and ugly. Mr. Wehner and most Americans would prefer euphemisms.
Me. I can't stand Trump (e.g, I'm for open borders, come what may), nor can I stand Hillary Clinton (e.g, I can't stand elitists in politics who believe the rules don't apply to them).
I find all the fingers pointed at Trump utterly hypocritical. He just says plainly what many, or most Americans believe, even if they don't realize it.
Trump correctly calls the Republican Party corrupt and happy to sell out the working class. Trump is is honest about immigration. Trump, like most Americans, even Democrats, doesn't particularly like the idea of the USA become a Latin American or a traditional Muslim country. Trump just says it in a way that is honest and clear and ugly. Mr. Wehner and most Americans would prefer euphemisms.
Me. I can't stand Trump (e.g, I'm for open borders, come what may), nor can I stand Hillary Clinton (e.g, I can't stand elitists in politics who believe the rules don't apply to them).
I find all the fingers pointed at Trump utterly hypocritical. He just says plainly what many, or most Americans believe, even if they don't realize it.
1
Trump is being Trump! Last evening on Sixty Minutes, it was OK for Spence to have voted for the Iraqi War but Clinton took the same vote and once again Trump lied about his initial support for the war. This morning he blamed the Baton Rouge police killings on President Obama! The true culprit in hear killings is the NRA which opposes keeping automatic weapons from terrorists and mentally deranged people! Please remember that Don the Con is now the "law and order" candidate even though he has a 30-year history of swindling people with scams such as Trump University and even his daughter has been accused of stealing shoe designs! He is the worst presidential candidate in US history!
8
This result is the logical outcome of Nixon's Southern strategy, which was based on a cynical appeal to aggrieved whites, many of them racist, in the aftermath of the Civil rights movement. A strategy based on its appeal to racists is the Trojan Horse that gave us Donald Trump, but he is far from the first clue or only example. Ever since Richard Nixon and ramping up after the election of Ronald Reagan the Republican partyhas brought us Reagan's kickoff speech abot States' rights in Philadelphia MS, the Willie Horton ad, Welfare Queens, the use of the word Liberal as a term of disparagement, Mitt Romney's Takers vs. Makers, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, Pat Buchanan, et al. It has been a steady trickle of thinly veiled diviseness,dog-whistles, xenophobia, and appeals to racists (Sheriff Arpaio) which conveniently could be ignored, brushed off as misunderstood, or disavowed by the establishment of the party while the embers of hatred were fanned while at the same time the white working class was being either exploited or ignored by the same Establishment, and non - whites, women, LGBT people, non Evangelicals alienated. This was the huge pile of tinder built for over fifty years to which Trump has put a match. Small wonder. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.
6
It's not Donald Trump "playing to the back row" that's changed the GOP, but it's the mindset that party loyalty is more important than (1) serving the voters, (2) serving the nation and its needs, and (3) the oath of office to uphold the Constitution and its Amendments.
It's a mindset that we try to discourage in our children before it takes root. That mindset begins with "Well, so-and-so does it, and HIS parents allow it," to "Life is all about ME!!!" I guess we didn't discourage it enough, to look at the GOP candidate for president.
The German experience from 1930-present should stand as a model for the GOP. They already followed 1930-1942 in (1) a manipulated 2000 election, where bussed in demonstrators in Florida took that state's vote to the Supreme Court, (2) Condi Rice's willful blindness/deafness to nine months of warnings made 9/11 a certainty, and (3) exploiting the resulting atmosphere of fear enabled Cheney and Rumsfeld to start a war against Iraq for control of its oil (and profits to Halliburton, of which Cheney was CEO when this whole strategy was planned from 1997-2000) when Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
If we follow Trump...and the GOP follows Trump out of loyalty, there are two possibilities. If they win, we have every chance of becoming a failed state and falling into ruin, as Germany did in 1945. If we don't, the current party self-destructs, and it's the only hope that it finds itself again as a loyal opposition.
It's a mindset that we try to discourage in our children before it takes root. That mindset begins with "Well, so-and-so does it, and HIS parents allow it," to "Life is all about ME!!!" I guess we didn't discourage it enough, to look at the GOP candidate for president.
The German experience from 1930-present should stand as a model for the GOP. They already followed 1930-1942 in (1) a manipulated 2000 election, where bussed in demonstrators in Florida took that state's vote to the Supreme Court, (2) Condi Rice's willful blindness/deafness to nine months of warnings made 9/11 a certainty, and (3) exploiting the resulting atmosphere of fear enabled Cheney and Rumsfeld to start a war against Iraq for control of its oil (and profits to Halliburton, of which Cheney was CEO when this whole strategy was planned from 1997-2000) when Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
If we follow Trump...and the GOP follows Trump out of loyalty, there are two possibilities. If they win, we have every chance of becoming a failed state and falling into ruin, as Germany did in 1945. If we don't, the current party self-destructs, and it's the only hope that it finds itself again as a loyal opposition.
5
"It is a party sustained by racist appeals, composed of haters and conspiracy nuts, indifferent to the plight of the poor and the weak, anti-woman."
This is a good description of the Republican party since the advent of Nixon's southern strategy. Trump has merely removed the thin veil of respectability they hid behind.
This is a good description of the Republican party since the advent of Nixon's southern strategy. Trump has merely removed the thin veil of respectability they hid behind.
10
Find their way back to Lincoln? They're finding it impossible to find their way evn back to Mitt Romney.
5
So supporting every sort of anti-white policy is "inclusive" while recognizing that the MAJORITY of the country do have legitimate issues is something only a heinous racist would do.
1
Would you consider the Civil Rights Act anti-white? That's where the base is. Equity is anti-white it appears.
There is a reason Congress is looked upon with general contempt by the country and it's not a simple matter of left or right (although the right heaps endless misery upon itself currying favor with particularly absurd arguments). If people believed that politicians were acting in good faith, there would not be such disdain for their governance. Unfortunately, it is not at all clear that the most powerful politicians in Congress ARE acting in good faith because their rationalizations beggar belief. First and foremost is the money problem. Politicians generally deny the very basic concept of money's corruptive influence on government. When ANYONE, left or right, routinely accepts millions of dollars from a small number of donors, it compromises their ability to govern. Instead of finding common interests, political discourse now revolves almost exclusively around "special" interests. At BEST it creates a powerful appearance of impropriety, which erodes public trust in government institutions. At worst, it creates ACTUAL impropriety. It does not matter whether politicians accept the money directly or through an "independent" (again, beggaring belief) Super PACs. With all ethically compromised politicians in power and their dubious pecuniary interests/loyalties, their "compromises" and "debates" don't seem like the actions of public servants. Really, it sounds like thieves debating amongst each other how to divide their loot.
2
I was a Republican too. "Was" begin the operative word. Race-baiting, gay-baiting, politics of resentment and a priority on winning over governing all served notice to me that this was not my party any longer. My experience is not unique. As the party moved way from me it's rules precluded my participating in the primary process. The erosion of the moderating influence has left the party in hands of people driven by more than their resentments. This has created an insular non-representative grouping of people without the capacity to distinguish religious from political activity nor to deal with change. They vote their fear, anger and hate and will continue to have a disproportionate impact on Republican politics.
6
Dr./Mr. Wehner, claims to be stressed about returning Republicans to Lincoln, but deluded is a more likely diagnosis than stress.
His party never has and never will be Lincoln.
But his main diagnosis is a lack of guts.
He whines at being labeled a racist, but also refuses to attend the convention to be a part of the solution.
Pontificating from his ivory tower he has no credibility.
His party never has and never will be Lincoln.
But his main diagnosis is a lack of guts.
He whines at being labeled a racist, but also refuses to attend the convention to be a part of the solution.
Pontificating from his ivory tower he has no credibility.
3
I appreciate and admire Wehner's sentiments, his honesty, and integrity. His analysis is forthright and sincere. His decision to 'boycott' the RNC is honorable. However, the fact that his course of action is not being followed by the bulk of his Republican colleagues leads me to question his prediction that the Republican Party will emerge from a failed election campaign with an adoption of a new set of more inclusive values. There is no evidence to indicate there is sufficient will to enable a major shift on its post Lincoln/Eisenhower historic course. After all, not only is Trump currently being supported by the vast majority of Republican leaders, it is those same leaders who he appears to be relying on who had fostered the Trump phenomenon long BEFORE his advent on the political scene. On the contrary, it is far more likely that after witnessing Trump's popularity when appealing to disaffected male white voters, the Party elite will re double their efforts to appease this demographic rather than marginalize it and remove it from its ranks. I fear that ultimately Wehner's analysis fails. It fails precisely because he chooses to focus on one individual and not the matron who birthed and nurtured him.
9
Lincoln is turning over in his grave and his statue is about to get up from his seat at the memorial and go lie down in front of the Capital Building.
3
So...
When Bush put anti-gay measures on state ballots in 2004 to boost turnout of "his" voters, was that the honorable Republican Party, or proto-Trump?
How about when he tried to politicize the Justice Department?
Or implemented torture?
What about when Newt Gingrich came to power in the '90s by calling liberals "sick," or "twisted," or "degenerate"?
Or pretty much anything on Fox News in prime time, or right-wing hate radio 24/7? More like Lincoln, or more like Trump?
I neither castigate every Republican as purely evil, nor do I dispute that Trumpism arises in part from an understandable, even legitimate grievance that government isn't delivering the goods for a large share of Americans. Then again, you guys won for years on the bait-and-switch of promising cultural revanchism, then delivering mostly giveaways to the already-very-rich. The difference between Rubio and Trump is that Trump seems somewhat more likely to actually act on the awful impulses both tried to summon up.
So, yes: you and your fellow regulars have some claim to victimhood here, Peter, but you're really more like perpetrators.
When Bush put anti-gay measures on state ballots in 2004 to boost turnout of "his" voters, was that the honorable Republican Party, or proto-Trump?
How about when he tried to politicize the Justice Department?
Or implemented torture?
What about when Newt Gingrich came to power in the '90s by calling liberals "sick," or "twisted," or "degenerate"?
Or pretty much anything on Fox News in prime time, or right-wing hate radio 24/7? More like Lincoln, or more like Trump?
I neither castigate every Republican as purely evil, nor do I dispute that Trumpism arises in part from an understandable, even legitimate grievance that government isn't delivering the goods for a large share of Americans. Then again, you guys won for years on the bait-and-switch of promising cultural revanchism, then delivering mostly giveaways to the already-very-rich. The difference between Rubio and Trump is that Trump seems somewhat more likely to actually act on the awful impulses both tried to summon up.
So, yes: you and your fellow regulars have some claim to victimhood here, Peter, but you're really more like perpetrators.
8
Please... Anyone possessing an ounce of critical thinking can see that the GOP began its Devil's Bargain in earnest decades ago with the "Southern Strategy" and continued with the Pat Buchanan's "cultural war" ideology.
6
Mr. Wehner,
It's frustrating that it's taken you so long to see the problems, but I'm glad you acknowledge what so many Americans (and much of the world) has been concerned about for years. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I can only hope your words will influence others to take the actions necessary to create a respectable party that chooses active, thoughtful governance over obstructionism.
It's frustrating that it's taken you so long to see the problems, but I'm glad you acknowledge what so many Americans (and much of the world) has been concerned about for years. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I can only hope your words will influence others to take the actions necessary to create a respectable party that chooses active, thoughtful governance over obstructionism.
5
Thanks for your thoughtful commentary, Mr. Wehner. But I believe you are bring unrealistic in your hope that a coalition of those who opposed Trump, and those who were "queasy" with him but supported him anyway can ever undo the stain of Trumpism. The "queasy but support" crowd, including Speaker Ryan, will never find a credible way to explain their support for this misogynistic, narcisstic bigot. I think your time might be better spent building a new party that has a morally clear vision.
5
Interesting, and no doubt, honest, assessment of the republican party and the rise of crooked lying Trump. I can view things from a relatively impartial perspective, as a nonpartisan yet interested observer of our amazing reality, and the politics (the art of the possible) that makes it practical to find the right circumstances, the appropriate compromises, and the funding, and the timing, so the people's government (of which the current Obama administration, including Congress and the Supreme Court) actually fulfills its duty to serve us all, and trying to minimize the inequities of inequality any capitalistic system engenders (as capital always trumps labor). As you may be aware, these last 7 years have witnessed the most vicious and protracted obstructionism on G.O.P.'s part (interpreted by some of us as 'racist'), of any and all the proposals Obama brought up and sent to Congress. That the republicans helped Trump's rise, in spite of his arrogant deep ignorance and prejudices, is unquestioned since the shameful "Birtherism" that enjoyed republican complicity of silence, and of which Trump's feet were never put to the fire of truth nor decency. There is something positive Trump has done (I thought I would never say this), and that is his unmasking the republican establishment's divorce from the people they claimed to represent, and the hypocrisy and cowardice that followed, subservient to the rich and powerful, and, lest we forget, to the gun lobby and the N.R.A.
3
The Republican party hasn't been the Party of Lincoln since April 15, 1865.
6
Let's say you're correct, that there is Children of Light version of the Republican Party. I'm listening. What does it stand for, and is there a single statesman out there who represents it? I'm waiting...
Guess what a Republican "child of light" is, Peter? You got it! A Democrat! Believe it or not, most Democrats embody so-called Republican principles better than any Republican I know:
We want fiscal responsibility -- a dollar spent on birth control or pre school is $4 or more saved on food stamps and jail.
We want government to stay out of private lives -- an abortion decision, a same-sex marriage decision -- these are not the purview of intrusive government.
Like many in law enforcement, we want safer communities -- that's why we argue for common sense gun control.
We want people to work for a living, not take handouts -- that's why we believe in a living wage of at least $15 an hour.
We want more jobs for working Americans, particularly those hit by the demise of the steel and coal industries -- that's why we are for investing in hard-hat jobs like infrastructure repair and renewable energy.
We want kids to learn in school, not just goof off; that's why we call for more dollars for education and better pay for teachers.
We want people who are here in our country to pay taxes, get jobs, contribute to the economy, and embrace our values; that's why we call for comprehensive immigration reform.
The GOP may well ask for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Guess what a Republican "child of light" is, Peter? You got it! A Democrat! Believe it or not, most Democrats embody so-called Republican principles better than any Republican I know:
We want fiscal responsibility -- a dollar spent on birth control or pre school is $4 or more saved on food stamps and jail.
We want government to stay out of private lives -- an abortion decision, a same-sex marriage decision -- these are not the purview of intrusive government.
Like many in law enforcement, we want safer communities -- that's why we argue for common sense gun control.
We want people to work for a living, not take handouts -- that's why we believe in a living wage of at least $15 an hour.
We want more jobs for working Americans, particularly those hit by the demise of the steel and coal industries -- that's why we are for investing in hard-hat jobs like infrastructure repair and renewable energy.
We want kids to learn in school, not just goof off; that's why we call for more dollars for education and better pay for teachers.
We want people who are here in our country to pay taxes, get jobs, contribute to the economy, and embrace our values; that's why we call for comprehensive immigration reform.
The GOP may well ask for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
10
I grew up in a staunchly Republican household. I voted straight Republican when I was young. I voted for Reagan, etc. But I gradually started voting a mixed ticket as the Republicans seemed to drift from emphasizing economic and military platforms I agreed with to more and more social platforms I absolutely didn't. Perhaps I just grew more liberal as I matured, but I perceive the party as morphing into something fairly hateful in the last 30-40 years. Now in my 50's, I've found it impossible to justify voting Republican for the past several elections. I find myself standing in the center, shaking my head at both sides.
5
And what are those of us in the middle to do? I am financially conservative and socially moderate. What party do I look to?
The Republican establishment had their chances to speak truth to their base about issues of race, gun violence, access to health care for the working poor, equal rights for LGBT and effective governance. Instead they were complicit by their pandering to their base and political contributors (e.g. the NRA). The cowardice of Republican House leadership combined with the "Obama must fail" approach of Republican Senators is a GOP disgrace. Whether Trump wins or loses the damage to the Republican party is baked into a toxic mix of racism, an embarrassing focus on Ameican's private sex lives, a willingness to
stoke xenophobic rhetoric, while refusing effectively govern through meaningful debate and compromise.
stoke xenophobic rhetoric, while refusing effectively govern through meaningful debate and compromise.
6
Tony Schwartz, the ghost writer of "The Art of the Deal" gives a must read and share article from The New Yorker:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-t...
This articles many quotes from Tony Schwartz:
“I put lipstick on a pig,” he said. “I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is.” He went on, “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.”
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-t...
This articles many quotes from Tony Schwartz:
“I put lipstick on a pig,” he said. “I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is.” He went on, “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.”
8
What's really telling about the Republicans (no matter where they are on the food chain...Mitch McConnel or Mr. Angry White man) is that they continue to follow the likes of P Ryan & swim in the sewage even they know it will kill them.
3
You wonder "why Republicans so devalued any focus on policy this election season, and why the former reality television star was rewarded for his vast ignorance on issues." ... when republicans are the party works hard to appeal to people who believe the universe was created 7 days, 5-6,000 years ago?
You seem surprised that "That can work only with people who disdain the government and the activity of governing." ... When Ronald Reagan, the great patron saint of republicans campaigned and won big on the phrase "government _is_ the problem"
If the depth and quality of your analysis misses these points then the "pitched battle to rebuild the republican party" will produce the results we see today.
/s/ An Ex Republican
You seem surprised that "That can work only with people who disdain the government and the activity of governing." ... When Ronald Reagan, the great patron saint of republicans campaigned and won big on the phrase "government _is_ the problem"
If the depth and quality of your analysis misses these points then the "pitched battle to rebuild the republican party" will produce the results we see today.
/s/ An Ex Republican
3
All the Republicans patting themselves on the party of Lincoln are laughable and delusional like this writer. It's been the party of racists for 50 years.
But hey, denial is a powerful analgesic.
But hey, denial is a powerful analgesic.
6
From a former "life long" Republican, the answer to your question Mr. Wehner is, not in our life time if ever. Trump is just an example of reaping what you sow. We left Lincoln by beginning to pursue the southern white vote. Just the fact that you worked for a New England family who turned themselves into Texans sums it up, right? The Bush Family is the perfect example. Old line New England Republican family moves to Texas and Florida, GWB is "Born Again" ect. ect. In addition, these "Repulsive" elements that you mention and the party inherited from the democrats, came along with this grand southern strategy. Even Jimmy Cater's organizing of the evangelical vote , we pursued and now have to deal with. So instead of pursuing a moderate form of libertarian ism, based in the Midwest, New England, and the west, we are left with a Southern based evangelical white party that is eventually, Trump or no Trump, demographically headed for disaster. Regardless of what happens in the future, I doubt "back to Lincoln" will not be one of the options.
6
To Mr. Wehner the old saying that "he who sleeps with dogs wakes up with fleas" applies to you and your "thoughtful and decent" fellow conservatives.
Do more than speak to the NY Times readers and get together with your compassionate republican friends and speak to the country, especially to republicans who have lost their way.
Do more than speak to the NY Times readers and get together with your compassionate republican friends and speak to the country, especially to republicans who have lost their way.
4
Republicans are a party in name only at this point. What Mr. Wehner fails to realize is that his Grand Old Party has effectively split into the Trump Party and the Old Party (grand omitted). Look, Trump whipped the dissatisfied people into a frenzy and ran off with the nomination. There is no reconciling with the Trumpists. It's time to initiate the divorce and get it over with. The New Party can then set an agenda that it thinks enough voters support and move forward. Trying to mend the fences is an exercise in futility only to protect House and Senate seats, and that might not work either.
3
Mr. Wehner declares his party to be, "a force for good and a force for justice". I ask "good for who, justice for who"?
In his declaration that the new Republican party is the "Party of Lincoln", does he actually see this modern day iteration of his party issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, or actually fighting a war to end slavery. I think not.
Never before in our history has there been such a gap between the "haves" and "have nots" and the lion's share of the wealth redistribution has been the changes to the tax codes that sent the largest share of tax cut benefits to the very wealthiest in our country, leaving the burden of paying the freight on the shoulders of what is left of the middle class.
I repeat my question, "Good for who, justice for who"? I have an idea who he is talking about and it's not the majority of people who live in this country.
In his declaration that the new Republican party is the "Party of Lincoln", does he actually see this modern day iteration of his party issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, or actually fighting a war to end slavery. I think not.
Never before in our history has there been such a gap between the "haves" and "have nots" and the lion's share of the wealth redistribution has been the changes to the tax codes that sent the largest share of tax cut benefits to the very wealthiest in our country, leaving the burden of paying the freight on the shoulders of what is left of the middle class.
I repeat my question, "Good for who, justice for who"? I have an idea who he is talking about and it's not the majority of people who live in this country.
2
What an infuriating article! Mr. Wehner, you and people like you are the reason why the Republican party is becoming a failed institution that trafficks in hate.
Trump is not the problem! Have got read your party's brand new platform? It reads like something out of the Victorian era, Mr. Wehner. It has no bearing on a modern society or a modern nation. Stale old ideas from frightened, stale old white people.
Stop writing article after article about Republican soul searching if you don't intend to really do it. Trump is merely your party's scapegoat, and when he loses you'll blame everything on him and take no responsibility for the failed policies and treasonous behavior that got the GOP to this point.
Trump is not the problem! Have got read your party's brand new platform? It reads like something out of the Victorian era, Mr. Wehner. It has no bearing on a modern society or a modern nation. Stale old ideas from frightened, stale old white people.
Stop writing article after article about Republican soul searching if you don't intend to really do it. Trump is merely your party's scapegoat, and when he loses you'll blame everything on him and take no responsibility for the failed policies and treasonous behavior that got the GOP to this point.
10
Thank you , Karen! You have said it best of among the severall hundred comments on this topic I have seen in recent days.
You have GOT to be kidding me. The Republicans lost their line to Lincoln when the Dixiecrats bolted the Democratic party to join the GOP. Way before Trump showed up.
6
It seems to me I heard this song before. It is from an old familiar score, I know it well. It is the song William F. Buckley Jr sang when he first incorporporated the Dixiecrats into the GOP.
For those of us with long memories or a love of history it isn't Trump. We have known many Trumps but Trump has been able to translate the GOP message to the segment of society transfixed to the boob tube to see what grotesque object their fellow citizens are willing to consume for a few shekels.
For those of us with long memories or a love of history it isn't Trump. We have known many Trumps but Trump has been able to translate the GOP message to the segment of society transfixed to the boob tube to see what grotesque object their fellow citizens are willing to consume for a few shekels.
3
Okay, Wehner, you and your colleagues may well be, as you have claimed, decent human beings, but please explain how that translates into GOP principles and workable party policies.
I can list a bunch of principles, many of which I agree with:
Family values, strong defense, fiscal prudence, and a market economy. I understand why these are important.
However, what I can't do is identify any policies from the GOP that are based on these principles without violating others. Family values gets warped into denying gays the right to marry or women the right to control their bodies. Strong defense gets warped into stupid wars in the Middle East and elsewhere. Fiscal prudence seems to mean tax cuts for the rich and slashing everything except the budget for perpetual wars. And a market economy --- that requires understanding what a free and fair market is, something I've seen no evidence that GOP policymakers understand.
I can list a bunch of principles, many of which I agree with:
Family values, strong defense, fiscal prudence, and a market economy. I understand why these are important.
However, what I can't do is identify any policies from the GOP that are based on these principles without violating others. Family values gets warped into denying gays the right to marry or women the right to control their bodies. Strong defense gets warped into stupid wars in the Middle East and elsewhere. Fiscal prudence seems to mean tax cuts for the rich and slashing everything except the budget for perpetual wars. And a market economy --- that requires understanding what a free and fair market is, something I've seen no evidence that GOP policymakers understand.
8
As a Democrat (and democrat) I, for one, would be overjoyed if the Republican Party could find its way back to Eisenhower!
8
I read your column and agree that Lincoln would not recognize your party; and would not have done so for most of my life since at least the Nixon era. The further irony is that that party that most publicly proclaims "Christian Values" would not be recognized by Jesus. The presumptive nominee rejects the Beatitudes and the Great Commission in favor of division and hatred; valuing strong dictators rather than seeking to protect the poor and needy. It is now a party of exclusion as evidenced not only by the positions taken by its nominee, but also by the Party Platform. It is most certainly not the party that in the words of Lincoln looks to heal America "[w]"ith malice toward none, with charity for all". Lincoln would be ashamed and horrified by what it has become.
104
Lincoln would recognize this party. He quit it. And it was called Whig.
"Can We Find Our Way Back to Lincoln?" What a wonderful encapsulation of the self-delusion that the GOP has become. Republicans can't even find their way back to Reagan at this point. It won't be long until Romney and the Bushes are also seen as RINOs at this rate. Each decision the GOP makes drives it further to the extreme, the VP selection being the most recent example. The Trump candidacy is merely part of the GOP tag-team routine -- racism, nativism and misogyny's turn in the ring.
The truth may be a good deal more complicated, but the next effect is not. Far from being reassuring, the plea of viewing GOP leaders as "imperfect people who have very different worldviews yet who by and large are acting in what they believe is the public interest" describes the actions of past world tyrants and dictators with uncomfortable accuracy. As others have commented, Republicans gave up on Lincoln long, long ago, and not even the best GOP spinmeisters and brand managers can bring even his ghost back...
The truth may be a good deal more complicated, but the next effect is not. Far from being reassuring, the plea of viewing GOP leaders as "imperfect people who have very different worldviews yet who by and large are acting in what they believe is the public interest" describes the actions of past world tyrants and dictators with uncomfortable accuracy. As others have commented, Republicans gave up on Lincoln long, long ago, and not even the best GOP spinmeisters and brand managers can bring even his ghost back...
5
"He is the ugly face of an ugly party." Yes he is, and this statement is not in the least exaggerated. We are sick and tired of the juvenile attacks on Democrats, aghast at the denial of basic science, fearful of the apparent desire for a Redneck Caliphate, weary of the constant attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Your party just becomes more and more offensive, what are you going to do about that?
12
"But if he loses, there will be a pitched battle to rebuild the Republican Party; to make it different and better, more hopeful, humane and in touch with the concerns of both working- and middle-class voters, than it was pre-Trump."
Nonsense, and until this kind of magical thinking stops, the GOP will continue its slide into the abyss. Here's what my crystal balls says:
Even before the inauguration, Republicans will go after President H. Clinton with every specious charge they can scrape off the floor. They won't even try to govern, but rather obstruct in every way possible. They might even be able to cobble together an impeachment based on something yuge, like whether or not she lied about how often she dyes her hair. In 2020, Paul Ryan will aim for the White House under the very old and totally unexamined party platform that got them Donald Trump.
Nonsense, and until this kind of magical thinking stops, the GOP will continue its slide into the abyss. Here's what my crystal balls says:
Even before the inauguration, Republicans will go after President H. Clinton with every specious charge they can scrape off the floor. They won't even try to govern, but rather obstruct in every way possible. They might even be able to cobble together an impeachment based on something yuge, like whether or not she lied about how often she dyes her hair. In 2020, Paul Ryan will aim for the White House under the very old and totally unexamined party platform that got them Donald Trump.
10
Mr. Wehner describes his party as once "comprising mostly honorable individuals working to advance an agenda they believed was in the national interest." Perhaps had Trump arrived forty ago, we could return to such status simply by replacing the demagoguing and toning down the hateful rhetoric, but such a shift could not come today without also jettisoning the disproven positions that are so central to the Republican Party and which few like Mr. Wehner bring up as part of the Trump problem.
I'm talking about anti-science and anti-intellectual tenets of the Republican party: denial of climate change, voodoo economics and Christian fundamentalism, in addition to the white supremacism Wehner correctly calls out but does not properly name when discussing the hateful appeal at the heart of Trumpism.
There are only two types of climate change denialists, fools and evil men. Fools don't understand the science, evil men do but don't care. So it goes with those who ignore history and suggest tax cuts for the wealthy will trickle down, those using faith to excuse hate, and those who blame their problems on racial and ethnic minorities.
I'm glad that Trump is a step to far for Mr. Wehner, and that he will not support this demagogue who brings the Republican party to a new low. But his protest is shallow without repudiation of all that comes with Trump, all the hate and ignorance that has been bubbling up through the Republican Party for so long.
I'm talking about anti-science and anti-intellectual tenets of the Republican party: denial of climate change, voodoo economics and Christian fundamentalism, in addition to the white supremacism Wehner correctly calls out but does not properly name when discussing the hateful appeal at the heart of Trumpism.
There are only two types of climate change denialists, fools and evil men. Fools don't understand the science, evil men do but don't care. So it goes with those who ignore history and suggest tax cuts for the wealthy will trickle down, those using faith to excuse hate, and those who blame their problems on racial and ethnic minorities.
I'm glad that Trump is a step to far for Mr. Wehner, and that he will not support this demagogue who brings the Republican party to a new low. But his protest is shallow without repudiation of all that comes with Trump, all the hate and ignorance that has been bubbling up through the Republican Party for so long.
8
How can you truthfully say that the Republican party is "a force for good and a force for justice", while during the Obama years it has been a party of "no" to anything Obama wanted, even if it was good and just. Millions have been spent by the Republicans in Congress on repeated investigations of Bengazi and Hillary's use of e-mail, how many votes to repeal Obamacare, and how many attempts to deny women health care, even if Planned Parenthood clinics did not perform abortions. The list can go on and on. What good for the country has been accomplished by the Republican dominated Congress and the Republican governors in many states who would not expand Medicare, leaving many constituents uncovered by medical insurance.
13
Poor Mr. Wehner! It really isn't all that difficult to just up and leave the GOP and join with the Dems! I did it years ago and life went on! Today the Comments to this article are way better than the article itself!
10
Me too! I left after G.W. first term and I'm glad I did. I will never, ever go back.
2
Not likely Lincoln would have anything to do with today's Republican party--or likely that today's Republicans would even want him. Nixon, who signed the EPA, and even St. Ronnie, who reached across the aisle frequently and raised taxes numerous times, would no doubt not be nominated today as they would be considered too far left. Even Goldwater might be suspect--so extreme has the party become.
The Tea Party should have had the courage of their convictions and become an actual party a couple of years ago, then whatever is left of the moderates and more reasonable Republicans would have a chance at survival as the Republican Party.
The Republican divide is widening by the day, and the overall divide between right and left has now become an unbridgeable political Grand Canyon.
The Tea Party should have had the courage of their convictions and become an actual party a couple of years ago, then whatever is left of the moderates and more reasonable Republicans would have a chance at survival as the Republican Party.
The Republican divide is widening by the day, and the overall divide between right and left has now become an unbridgeable political Grand Canyon.
6
What are you trying to say? That Trump is a math error? That this kind of thinking didn't go on in the GOP prior to his emergence? Sorry, but Trump is merely a product of the hateful, racist, bigoted white-supremacist undercurrent that has been a part of the GOP for a while now. You see it in the Tea Party; you see it in the voter suppression methods used in certain Red states; you see it in the Red states pressure on womens' rights by the now declared illegal measures put upon abortion clinics forcing many to close. Yes, you were the party of Lincoln, and in fact the Dems gave rise to the KKK, but all of that was long ago and has reversed positions. Stop lamenting and start talking to your similarly confused GOPers and maybe they see the light, and see just how cruel, controlling, dictatorial and insensitive they have been, particularly when aiming at minorities.
14
The notion that the American Republican political party of 2016, and in the face of setbacks, internal problems, problematic message framing and conception of itself must find its way back to Abraham Lincoln as the sterling example to preserve itself?
That strikes me as absurd. As it would be to ask "Well, what about Theodore Roosevelt?" For the simple reason that both of those Presidents were not conservatives, not Republicans and no they were not Democrats either. They were geniuses. They embodied a profound synthesizing process of the heart and mind, similar to what one sees in Whitman or Melville or even a stranger such as Dvorak writing his New World symphony.
They were not trying to conserve something easily defined so that an entire crowd can just step back into it nor were they progressing in a sense that we all can easily grasp and just step forward into. They were not some easy political party program we all just fall into. This means if we want to have politics today aligned with such historical figures we have to first find the most profound, indeed great people among us and have politics align with the past primarily by keeping a succession of great people occurring rather than trying to conserve or progress in a simple sense, not to mention a sense which does not require great human beings.
Perhaps our major problem today is we think we can preserve, conserve or progress without great human beings. And we certainly hate the small ones thrust upon the stage.
That strikes me as absurd. As it would be to ask "Well, what about Theodore Roosevelt?" For the simple reason that both of those Presidents were not conservatives, not Republicans and no they were not Democrats either. They were geniuses. They embodied a profound synthesizing process of the heart and mind, similar to what one sees in Whitman or Melville or even a stranger such as Dvorak writing his New World symphony.
They were not trying to conserve something easily defined so that an entire crowd can just step back into it nor were they progressing in a sense that we all can easily grasp and just step forward into. They were not some easy political party program we all just fall into. This means if we want to have politics today aligned with such historical figures we have to first find the most profound, indeed great people among us and have politics align with the past primarily by keeping a succession of great people occurring rather than trying to conserve or progress in a simple sense, not to mention a sense which does not require great human beings.
Perhaps our major problem today is we think we can preserve, conserve or progress without great human beings. And we certainly hate the small ones thrust upon the stage.
10
Yes.
And one may add comparing the RP in 1861 to what it became afterwards is just historically irrelevant. What the GOP embodied in the mid 19th century has nothing in common with what it evolved in after the post Civil War Reconstruction.
And one may add comparing the RP in 1861 to what it became afterwards is just historically irrelevant. What the GOP embodied in the mid 19th century has nothing in common with what it evolved in after the post Civil War Reconstruction.
1
Call Reagan a racist for opening his campaign in Philadelphia Mississippi if you want.
I don't really think he was a racist.
I think he was more like Woody Allen in 'Zelig'.
Reagan was a Hollywood elitist who played the part his directors told him to play.
In Hollywood Reagan was President of The Screen Actors Guild...a Labor Union.
When he played President he was against labor unions.
During WWII Reagan was a no show.
When he was playing President he sure acted tough and warlike.
Reagan was simply a blank onto which the GOP stamped its mark...a Zelig if you will.
I don't really think he was a racist.
I think he was more like Woody Allen in 'Zelig'.
Reagan was a Hollywood elitist who played the part his directors told him to play.
In Hollywood Reagan was President of The Screen Actors Guild...a Labor Union.
When he played President he was against labor unions.
During WWII Reagan was a no show.
When he was playing President he sure acted tough and warlike.
Reagan was simply a blank onto which the GOP stamped its mark...a Zelig if you will.
7
Peter Wehner's "confession" is the latest in a series published by the NY Times, either by columnists like Mr. Wehner or regular columnists like David Brooks or Ross Douthat who try to explain the transformation of the Republican Party, circa 2016. Liberals can scoff at these attempts to rationalize or just explain what the heck is going on, but that may not be appropriate given the number of GOP governors who hold power or their numbers in Congress (gerrymandering of House districts being only partly responsible).
A key sentence in this latest confession is actually in parentheses. In directing our attention to the political consequences of the sins of the party, Wehner writes, "(Set aside for now the damage he would do to the country.)"
Perhaps taken in a different context, this sentence reveals what is wrong with political discourse these days - a criticism I aim more at the GOP but not entirely. The polarization and venom being spewed this year seem to "set aside the damage" being done to the country. Even in this space for comments we saw contributors on the right using the tragedy in Nice to make a tortured political point about gun control being unnecessary in the United States. Our insanity is not confined to the right (though it is concentrated there) as we all seem only to eager to "set aside the damage" to our country.
Honest attempts to confess our political sins - like this column - are a welcome reminder that not all of us have completely lost our minds.
A key sentence in this latest confession is actually in parentheses. In directing our attention to the political consequences of the sins of the party, Wehner writes, "(Set aside for now the damage he would do to the country.)"
Perhaps taken in a different context, this sentence reveals what is wrong with political discourse these days - a criticism I aim more at the GOP but not entirely. The polarization and venom being spewed this year seem to "set aside the damage" being done to the country. Even in this space for comments we saw contributors on the right using the tragedy in Nice to make a tortured political point about gun control being unnecessary in the United States. Our insanity is not confined to the right (though it is concentrated there) as we all seem only to eager to "set aside the damage" to our country.
Honest attempts to confess our political sins - like this column - are a welcome reminder that not all of us have completely lost our minds.
54
The Republican Party first has to get through their "open carry" convention without a gun fight. It will be remarkable if this is accomplished.
The Republican response to most issues is " we are against" -- the threat of terrorism, against all Muslims; lost factory jobs, against immigrants; climate change, against sensible environmental regulations; gun violence, against sensible gun control, and so on. Their megalomaniac standard bearer expresses these position quite clearly.
Being against everything is not leadership, it is obstructionist. And this strategy didn't start with Trump. Shout out to Mitch McConnell.
I'm all for state's rights and personal responsibility, but the current Republican Party offers me nothing but what it is against. Talk about low energy!
The Republican response to most issues is " we are against" -- the threat of terrorism, against all Muslims; lost factory jobs, against immigrants; climate change, against sensible environmental regulations; gun violence, against sensible gun control, and so on. Their megalomaniac standard bearer expresses these position quite clearly.
Being against everything is not leadership, it is obstructionist. And this strategy didn't start with Trump. Shout out to Mitch McConnell.
I'm all for state's rights and personal responsibility, but the current Republican Party offers me nothing but what it is against. Talk about low energy!
5
Mr Wehner, I, too, was a Republican: was reared in a family of Republicans. Then, when I grew up and used my brain, I easily discovered that this party's principles are wrong for America at large. All I had to do, Mr Wehner, was watch Dubya and his narcissistic money-mongering bullies make a mockery of democratic ideals by thrusting America into a Get-Rich-Scheme-For-A-Few called the Iraq War. All I have to continue to do, Mr. Wehner, is watch the GOP's egotistical blowhards -- Mitch McConnell, et. al -- day in and day out squash the president's Sensible agenda. O, how I wish I could express more disgust here. But alas, there are space limitations....
10
I personally think Carl Roves pandering and brilliant organization of the Christian right has led to many of the troubles the Republican party is enjoying. By playing the religion card too many times, the Republican establishment has proven to be con artists. You can only lead the religious to a conservative vision of America which is ultimately unsupported or forgotten once the election is over a few times. They will catch on that you don't mean what you say or can't or won't produce. This could be called the revolt of the suckers! It could also prove that social conservatives and business or fiscal conservatives don't make very good bedfellows.
2
You've had your head in the sand. You wanted to believe in your party, but just like your party, you refused to look up and see reality.
4
The title of this 'opinion' made me laugh out loud--as if Republicans were 'trying' to get back to Lincoln. It would help if they stopped looking in the direction of the KKK.
4
"Set aside for now the damage he would do to the country" For a dem, this wouldn't be a side point. The damage to the country would be the main point. This encapsulates the difference between the parties.
4
"Invective hurled" - really? When George W Bush was elected, I hoped for the best. When the election scandal broke I was worried for our democracy and urged people to get behind the newly elected president. When Justice Scalia hurled poison invective in his opinions, I counseled belief in the institution. Mr Wehner should come in out of the cable and radio talk show maelstrom. Nobody's hurling invective. We're calling balls and strikes.
4
Since Abraham Lincoln, when has the Republican Party ever been the party of Lincoln? Never. Killed by a firearm, the magic wand of current Republicans dutifully supporting the Second Amendment, Abraham Lincoln was the poetry of our now prosaic days.
3
The Republican Party has not been the "Party of Lincoln" for decades. It is a myth which bears no relationship to reality any longer. Some date its demise with Theodore Roosevelt's bolting the party in 1904. Others date it with Hoover's clinging to big business ideology as the nation spun into depression and, at the same time, FDR embodied Lincoln's principal virtues. But surely when the emperor clearly was naked, namely when Nixon implemented his racist southern stratgy, any semblance of the "Party of Lincoln" had been effaced.
4
I think the author needs to set his sights a little lower. I am reminded of my time in a corporate law department, many years ago. Our then-general counsel pompously declared he would make us "the best law department in the country." You know, because HE was in charge. After the meeting, one of my colleagues suggested something else: "Forget about 'the best.' How about 'We're no worse than anyone else.'" With a laugh, she said "It's way more achievable!"
So don't worry about Lincoln just yet. "With malice toward none, with charity for all" seems an impossibly high bar, which will just discourage well-meaning post-Trump reformers. Besides, the Tea Party would have to go out of existence, since it believes in malice towards many.
How about setting your sights on Eisenhower. No doubt not our greatest President ever, but a man who actually lived a life of public service, a man of the highest personal standards and integrity. A man who had seen 2 world wars and knew the folly of needless foreign entanglements. A man who had the diplomatic skills to manage the complex personalities of Churchill, Roosevelt, Montgomery, etc., and still deliver the successful invasion of Europe. A 5-star general who, upon leaving office, warned us of the military-industrial complex.
Yes, try for Eisenhower. See if you can persuade your rank-and-file to err on the side of unity over divisiveness for a change, decency over name-calling. I'll take that any day.
So don't worry about Lincoln just yet. "With malice toward none, with charity for all" seems an impossibly high bar, which will just discourage well-meaning post-Trump reformers. Besides, the Tea Party would have to go out of existence, since it believes in malice towards many.
How about setting your sights on Eisenhower. No doubt not our greatest President ever, but a man who actually lived a life of public service, a man of the highest personal standards and integrity. A man who had seen 2 world wars and knew the folly of needless foreign entanglements. A man who had the diplomatic skills to manage the complex personalities of Churchill, Roosevelt, Montgomery, etc., and still deliver the successful invasion of Europe. A 5-star general who, upon leaving office, warned us of the military-industrial complex.
Yes, try for Eisenhower. See if you can persuade your rank-and-file to err on the side of unity over divisiveness for a change, decency over name-calling. I'll take that any day.
4
You miss one essential fact: Presidential elections are, for more than 50% of voters, contests between two - sometimes three - human beings. Not parties nor principles: people.
Barack Obama, born of a white mother and a black father, found himself a person who did not fully belong in either category - white or black. Clearly, he found a way of connecting to a sizeable number of people in each group. He developed a personality over 47 years up to 2008 that allowed him to connect to more people than John McCain and, four years later,Mitt Romney.
In evert Presidential race, surveys tell us that the winning candidate wins more independent votes, and there are more Party Loyalists voting for him (example: 95% of self-declared Democrats voted for Obama in 2008, vs. 89% of self-declared Republicans voting for McCain.)
I have voted in every Presidential election since 1964 (except in 1996), I've voted for Republicans and Democrats and occasionally for third-party candidates, winners and losers. In each case, I chose the person I felt could do a better job as POTUS than his opponent. Not likeable, nor good-looking. Intelligence and the ability to not just communicate, but be seen as credible, in my estimation.
NEVER because of party loyalty. That's like believing in the supernatural. Or "American Exceptionalism". Or any other myth.
Barack Obama, born of a white mother and a black father, found himself a person who did not fully belong in either category - white or black. Clearly, he found a way of connecting to a sizeable number of people in each group. He developed a personality over 47 years up to 2008 that allowed him to connect to more people than John McCain and, four years later,Mitt Romney.
In evert Presidential race, surveys tell us that the winning candidate wins more independent votes, and there are more Party Loyalists voting for him (example: 95% of self-declared Democrats voted for Obama in 2008, vs. 89% of self-declared Republicans voting for McCain.)
I have voted in every Presidential election since 1964 (except in 1996), I've voted for Republicans and Democrats and occasionally for third-party candidates, winners and losers. In each case, I chose the person I felt could do a better job as POTUS than his opponent. Not likeable, nor good-looking. Intelligence and the ability to not just communicate, but be seen as credible, in my estimation.
NEVER because of party loyalty. That's like believing in the supernatural. Or "American Exceptionalism". Or any other myth.
2
The writer far too easily includes, by default, those in the G W Bush White House as "honorable men." I take umbrage with that assessment: Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld --- and for that matter, Colin Powell --- honorably lying us into Iraq, one of the greatest national disasters ever? It would appear that we are witnessing an entire re-definition of that adjective herein.
8
What has the Republican Party brought to America?
It created and justified a false war against Iraq, after 9/11, an event that really had its genesis in the Mr. Reagan's support for the Afghanis who fought against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. From there it metastasized into a cancer of Radical Islam, chiefly financed by Sunni allies of the GOP in Saudi Arabia.
That war, and its destruction, and its suffering has multiplied across the Middle East and Europe, resulting in the migration of millions of refugees in Europe.
Meanwhile, along with the GOP love of guns, we have HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of weapons in America, and also some soldiers who learned battle in Iraq, now killing cops. Every week sees mass shootings, and the GOP turns a blind eye to mass murder while worshiping the blind adherence to Freedom of Gun for All.
The GOP, under Bush, created the worst recession since the Great Depression. That alone was quite an achievement of unemployment, foreclosure and human suffering. That alone ought to disqualify its candidate for consideration for the highest office in the land.
But human life, killed on a daily basis, and the GOP, silent, blind, deaf and dumb, that is what Lincoln's party is.
This Summer of 2016 is sickening in its blood-stained brutality. And one party above all has created the situation and refuses to own it: the GOP.
It created and justified a false war against Iraq, after 9/11, an event that really had its genesis in the Mr. Reagan's support for the Afghanis who fought against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. From there it metastasized into a cancer of Radical Islam, chiefly financed by Sunni allies of the GOP in Saudi Arabia.
That war, and its destruction, and its suffering has multiplied across the Middle East and Europe, resulting in the migration of millions of refugees in Europe.
Meanwhile, along with the GOP love of guns, we have HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of weapons in America, and also some soldiers who learned battle in Iraq, now killing cops. Every week sees mass shootings, and the GOP turns a blind eye to mass murder while worshiping the blind adherence to Freedom of Gun for All.
The GOP, under Bush, created the worst recession since the Great Depression. That alone was quite an achievement of unemployment, foreclosure and human suffering. That alone ought to disqualify its candidate for consideration for the highest office in the land.
But human life, killed on a daily basis, and the GOP, silent, blind, deaf and dumb, that is what Lincoln's party is.
This Summer of 2016 is sickening in its blood-stained brutality. And one party above all has created the situation and refuses to own it: the GOP.
10
Can the Republican party find its way back to Lincoln? Of course, just adopt a completely left wing agenda in line with what they abolitionists were in Lincoln's time.
Otherwise, just stop pretending the Republican party today has anything to do with the legacy of Lincoln- it's current southern fried version is the party of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.
Otherwise, just stop pretending the Republican party today has anything to do with the legacy of Lincoln- it's current southern fried version is the party of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.
4
It feels depressingly ironic to read this statement from someone who worked for and is proud of the Reagan administration: Donald Trump's rise "... can work only with people who disdain the government and the activity of governing." After all, it was candidate Ronald Reagan who first declared that government is the problem rather than the solution. And it was Grover Norquist, who founded Americans for Tax Reform at then-President Reagan's request (or so he has said), who called colorfully for reducing government to a size at which it could be drowned in a bathtub. Since then, Republicans have seemed intent on making government less effective in the name of making it smaller (although they have generally made it bigger rather than smaller) -- and they have succeeded brilliantly. Why be surprised, then, that so many Republicans are now so disdainful of government? Thanks to Republican practice, the government offers little to the Republican base; thanks to Republican rhetoric, the base no longer believes the government exists or is able to offer it anything.
2
The GOP hasn't been the party of Lincoln since Herbert Hoover was campaigning, and it is insulting to even hear it claimed. There is a direct link between current GOP voters and the proponents of Jim Crow.
6
Back to Lincoln?! What about Theodore Roosevelt?! Or even, Eisenhower! And at another level, Vandenberg and Dirksen?! What, has collective amnesia set in among Republicans?! Have they no sense of history, or a supposedly Reality TV Party, they have become! Ironically, if they go back, the way lots of them have been acting, in an assortment of ways, they'd actually be going forward!!!
4
It's ambitious to think that today's GOP can "find its way back to Lincoln". Aim for Teddy Roosevelt and then get back to me when you reach there.
Isn't hindsight great! Where have the Republican cognoscenti been?
2
Peter, for decades the Republican Party, despite your protestations, has serially attracted, tolerated and welcomed the very people you describe in your first paragraph. Now they're yours and you, the Republican Party, are responsible for them, in the same way one is responsible for a pet. You feed it. You clean up after it. You prevent it from biting others.
The first question I would ask is: How did you get a leash on that rattlesnake?
The second is: Why?
The first question I would ask is: How did you get a leash on that rattlesnake?
The second is: Why?
5
Sorry, Mr. Wehner, but the depths of your denial are unfathomable. The "Party of Lincoln" died with the Southern Strategy. Now you are dancing with a corpse in the pale moonlight.
7
In the martial arts practice of Aikido the basic principle is this : "Aikido techniques consist of entering and turning movements that redirect the momentum of an opponent's attack, and a throw or joint lock that terminates the technique."
What has happened with GOP and Trump is an example of such self-inflicted defeat which originated in an unbalanced attack. Rather than exploiting the failed ideology which underpins the left, GOP chose to attack through racial and populist agenda. It has caused GOP to throw itself on the political floor while Democrats rejoice.
However, a lopsided victory for such a flawed candidate as Clinton and continuation of the Obama foreign and domestic policies, may allow GOP to reinvent itself and cater to the vast majority in the middle.
What has happened with GOP and Trump is an example of such self-inflicted defeat which originated in an unbalanced attack. Rather than exploiting the failed ideology which underpins the left, GOP chose to attack through racial and populist agenda. It has caused GOP to throw itself on the political floor while Democrats rejoice.
However, a lopsided victory for such a flawed candidate as Clinton and continuation of the Obama foreign and domestic policies, may allow GOP to reinvent itself and cater to the vast majority in the middle.
Why can't Republicans acknowledge the fact that America chose President Obama—twice? We embraced his platform. We sent people from both parties to Washington to work with him, not to nullify him as you put it (what about hearings for judicial nominees, for example?). It's easy to see how your all-or-nothing tactics would be sanctuary for racist elements in your party. All the while, Republicans have been selling the message: "government is bad; don't trust the government with your money." No sir, you created this monster.
10
Mr Wehner is the same psychological position of the wronged partner in an abusive relationship, who stays by rationalizing bad behavior, focusing on some (any?) positive characteristic, all the while enabling the abuser's actions by refusing to take responsibility, speak the truth and leave.
The Republican party of today is at its core mean-spirited, divisive, anti-government, anti-science, and has destroyed the very concept of compromise and the ability to work toward some mutually agreed common good. For examples, just read the many eloquent comments here describing the Republican agenda over the last 40 years.
And this twin behemoth (of ideas and ideologues) that they have set on its destructive path will not easily be slayed.
What I find particularly troubling is that Mr Wehner ends this piece with a reference to Lincoln's ability to retain his "tender compassion" towards the Confederates in the South while fighting them in deadly conflict. A noble quality of Lincoln's to be sure, but in this context surely suggests at best he still doesn't have the capacity to confront the bigotry at the core of this party and at worst is a subtle analogy between the Democratic opposition of today with slave-holders who must be defeated at all costs.
No, the Republican party is not on the right side of history now as they were when they gave us that great President who preserved the republic. They are now offering us one who could destroy it and for good measure, empty platitudes.
The Republican party of today is at its core mean-spirited, divisive, anti-government, anti-science, and has destroyed the very concept of compromise and the ability to work toward some mutually agreed common good. For examples, just read the many eloquent comments here describing the Republican agenda over the last 40 years.
And this twin behemoth (of ideas and ideologues) that they have set on its destructive path will not easily be slayed.
What I find particularly troubling is that Mr Wehner ends this piece with a reference to Lincoln's ability to retain his "tender compassion" towards the Confederates in the South while fighting them in deadly conflict. A noble quality of Lincoln's to be sure, but in this context surely suggests at best he still doesn't have the capacity to confront the bigotry at the core of this party and at worst is a subtle analogy between the Democratic opposition of today with slave-holders who must be defeated at all costs.
No, the Republican party is not on the right side of history now as they were when they gave us that great President who preserved the republic. They are now offering us one who could destroy it and for good measure, empty platitudes.
2
A Republican congressman shouted "you lie" at the President of the United States and was not thoroughly rebuked by his party and you wonder how your party got to this point?
240
"A Republican congressman shouted "you lie" at the President of the United States"
And not in a bar or on the street, but in the middle of a State of the Union address!
And not in a bar or on the street, but in the middle of a State of the Union address!
1
Mr. Wehner's plight reminds me of a bad marriage. I suspect he saw this coming for some time, but kept wanting things to work out. He tried to ignore the warning signs, thinking they were just momentary lapses or that somehow the better angels of his union would prevail. He remained true, but she wandered. He was in "all the way" until he wasn't and now it's over.
I would ask my fellow commenters to be gentle with him. His relationship with the GOP is over and he's in mourning. He is about to embark on the long, arduous task of rebuilding his political life. He's nervous about being alone, but deep down he knows he needs some alone time. For now, I suggest a "rebound" date with Hillary. It won't last, but he'll feel better knowing he put country first.
I would ask my fellow commenters to be gentle with him. His relationship with the GOP is over and he's in mourning. He is about to embark on the long, arduous task of rebuilding his political life. He's nervous about being alone, but deep down he knows he needs some alone time. For now, I suggest a "rebound" date with Hillary. It won't last, but he'll feel better knowing he put country first.
7
"A friend of mine pointed out to me that part of the problem is that we are drenched in distaste for the actual practice of politics, and there’s an unstated sense among conservative activists in particular that the activity of governing is somehow illegitimate."
The Republican problem distilled? Not quite, as there's an influential faction of the party that wants to govern us into complying with their religious beliefs, yet the vast majority of Republicans think government solves nothing. Both are uninformed opinions.
The Republican problem distilled? Not quite, as there's an influential faction of the party that wants to govern us into complying with their religious beliefs, yet the vast majority of Republicans think government solves nothing. Both are uninformed opinions.
2
Lincoln was not a fan of States' Rights. He was for a strong central government that unified the country. He created the IRS, 40 years before it would be constitutionalized. He imposed executive orders that emancipated slaves who were in states that claimed immunity from the federal government. He was not a Republican, in the modern sense. Modern Republicans believe that wealth and power should be inherited, not earned.
It would be very encouraging if Republicans nowadays would remember Lincoln, but mostly they are on the side of John Wilkes Booth and share his humiliation, especially by the idea we have had our first Black president and by their legal losses in the theater of civil rights. No, there's not a Republican alive today who would support Lincoln.
It would be very encouraging if Republicans nowadays would remember Lincoln, but mostly they are on the side of John Wilkes Booth and share his humiliation, especially by the idea we have had our first Black president and by their legal losses in the theater of civil rights. No, there's not a Republican alive today who would support Lincoln.
3
Wehner wrote:
"that aims to channel aspirations rather than stoke resentments and organize hatreds"
Virtually all of the 'regular working people' that are in my circle of acquaintances who call themselves 2016-era Republicans are quite happy having their resentments stoked and their hatreds organized by whichever political/media figure savvy enough to figure out how to accomplish these things.
Wehner and his fellow old-school Republicans should be embarrassed for playing important roles in all of this. I'm serious. They should be embarrassed.
"that aims to channel aspirations rather than stoke resentments and organize hatreds"
Virtually all of the 'regular working people' that are in my circle of acquaintances who call themselves 2016-era Republicans are quite happy having their resentments stoked and their hatreds organized by whichever political/media figure savvy enough to figure out how to accomplish these things.
Wehner and his fellow old-school Republicans should be embarrassed for playing important roles in all of this. I'm serious. They should be embarrassed.
3
The republicans cannot even find their way back to their own constituents, much less back to a man who thought like Lincoln.
2
Mr Wehner was doing well until he got to the paragraph beginning 'So what now?' One hallmark of the American mindset is the conviction that nothing is so broken it is beyond fixing, just as that of Christianity is that no human soul is beyond saving.
Both these tenets of faith are well-meaning but untrue. It is possible for some people's sins to be so scarlet they cannot be made white as snow, and for some things - and some political parties - to be so broken they cannot be fixed. The GOP has long ago -- at least as far back as 1964 -- stopped being 'the party of Lincoln' except as an historical accident and a slogan.
Another truism: rats desert a sinking ship. In this case, the opposite is true. Moderate conservatives of good will and sincere patriotism (NYT readers often do not admit there are such people, but there are) will take the plunge; it's the vermin who will sail on and sink. I sincerely believe there are enough such decent conservatives to form the foundation of a center-right party which will serve as a necessary corrective to the center-left.
Both these tenets of faith are well-meaning but untrue. It is possible for some people's sins to be so scarlet they cannot be made white as snow, and for some things - and some political parties - to be so broken they cannot be fixed. The GOP has long ago -- at least as far back as 1964 -- stopped being 'the party of Lincoln' except as an historical accident and a slogan.
Another truism: rats desert a sinking ship. In this case, the opposite is true. Moderate conservatives of good will and sincere patriotism (NYT readers often do not admit there are such people, but there are) will take the plunge; it's the vermin who will sail on and sink. I sincerely believe there are enough such decent conservatives to form the foundation of a center-right party which will serve as a necessary corrective to the center-left.
I think the author needs to stick his head back in the sand where it's obviously been for the last 30 years or more. To forgo any responsibility by the GOP elite (and himself) for its racist, misogynist, mean-spirited, xenophobic party is to miss the most important lesson that can be learned from the ascension of Trump - that the GOP only pretends to represent the people while serving its masters - the 1% (or more likely the 0.1%). The gig is up!
2
The Republican establishment thought it was cute as heck when Mr. Trump went on his birther binge in 2011-2012, yet in hindsight Trump used this odious smear campaign to establish his bona fides with racists in the Republican base. You've made your bed, now lie in it.
3
The GOP is finally fully reaping what it has been sowing since the late 1960's when its leaders realized they could pander to the most selfish, ugliest sides of people who previously didn't support the party and win their votes. Of course, this rabble was never meant to run the party or be elected to office. But now that very rabble is in control and Donald Trump has beaten the GOP establishment at its own game.
2
Finally, a voice of reason among Republicans. Where have you and your like-minded fellows been? And what have you and the others done to stop this trainwreck other than write this column?
Yes, your party is tarnished forever. And as the country marches toward full diversity and whites become the minority, don't think the cowardly actions of your party won't come back to bite you.
Yes, your party is tarnished forever. And as the country marches toward full diversity and whites become the minority, don't think the cowardly actions of your party won't come back to bite you.
1
An interesting essay, but if, as Mr. Wehner says, the Republican party stops catering to the racist, misogynist, anti-cooperation, and social conservative/evangelical/Christian Right subgroups, and focuses on his ideals of a 'conservative vision', there won't be enough members of the coalition to elect a dogcatcher, let alone a president.
Fact is, that without the working class whites who feel that their dominance is slipping away in the demographic change, who hate the net results at their level of free trade, who recall fondly the 1950's where Women and "those people" knew their place, and want to return to that comfortable worldview. That is what appeals to them about Trump.
Fact is, that without the working class whites who feel that their dominance is slipping away in the demographic change, who hate the net results at their level of free trade, who recall fondly the 1950's where Women and "those people" knew their place, and want to return to that comfortable worldview. That is what appeals to them about Trump.
2
Ridiculous. The navel-gazing comes far too late. You mean you didn't ever notice Rush Limbaugh speaking on behalf of the Republican party? Or countless others over the years--politicians, Fox media stars, bloggers alike--who all spout the same bigoted nonsense, all differing only in degree of crudeness? Fine time to take stock! The damage is permanent!
3
He didn't notice the Willie Horton ads either
From a democratic, election based point of view, the Republican Party has been working against the interests of it's base. This is obvious in the effort to turn people away from voting for no other reason than their demographics.
A large number of the Republicans economically in the lower two-thirds of the population realize this. In the primaries, the only person they could identify with was Trump. Just how big this group is has come as a surprise to some Republicans.
The Democratic Party also has the same problem. But, it may not become so evident until the general election.
A large number of the Republicans economically in the lower two-thirds of the population realize this. In the primaries, the only person they could identify with was Trump. Just how big this group is has come as a surprise to some Republicans.
The Democratic Party also has the same problem. But, it may not become so evident until the general election.
2
You broke it, you own it.
1
If Lincoln were alive today he would surely be a democrat (or independent).
2
To racism, nativism and misogyny I'd add science antipathy and you'd sum up the core principles of the Republican Party over the past three decades. It's an act of complete denial to lament how such a party would wind up with this buffoon as its standard bearer. He is the very essence of all of the bad traits of this fading, non-representative organization.
And he still could win. Aargh.
And he still could win. Aargh.
2
Good job. In one essay you both admitted that the left was right and denied that it was right.
Here's a little insight for you: Trump isn't leading the Republican base. He's simply running out ahead of the mob that is the Republican base. You stirred this mobile up. You roused them to anger for their votes. You own this.
Now for Lincoln. That wonderful Emancipation Proclamation that people get all teary eyed over was carefully crafted so that it only applied to the territories still in active rebellion. It specifically excluded the territories captured by the union army and the slave owning states that didn't rebel. In other words, it only applied to slaves that the union had no control over. The slaves we controlled remained slaves. And of course the slaves we didn't control remained slaves. Lincoln pretended to help the slaves while doing no such thing. It looks like you're still the party of Lincoln.
Here's a little insight for you: Trump isn't leading the Republican base. He's simply running out ahead of the mob that is the Republican base. You stirred this mobile up. You roused them to anger for their votes. You own this.
Now for Lincoln. That wonderful Emancipation Proclamation that people get all teary eyed over was carefully crafted so that it only applied to the territories still in active rebellion. It specifically excluded the territories captured by the union army and the slave owning states that didn't rebel. In other words, it only applied to slaves that the union had no control over. The slaves we controlled remained slaves. And of course the slaves we didn't control remained slaves. Lincoln pretended to help the slaves while doing no such thing. It looks like you're still the party of Lincoln.
2
Finding their way back to Lincoln? The GOP can't find its way back to Reagan. They've dissed every Republican president since. George H. W., George W., both will not be attending their party's convention in Cleveland. Neither will their last two candidates, McCain and Romney. What a sad pathetic statement about the GOP.
The party of Lincoln died long ago. Just as the anti-Lincoln Confederacy of a hundred years went from Democrat to Republican after Nixon, the moderates in the GOP in the North disappeared. When you can't find any powerful Republican left in the Northeast, a former bastion of moderate country club Rockefeller Republicanism, they have disenfranchised a large portion of the electorate which they're not getting back any time soon.
DD
Manhattan
The party of Lincoln died long ago. Just as the anti-Lincoln Confederacy of a hundred years went from Democrat to Republican after Nixon, the moderates in the GOP in the North disappeared. When you can't find any powerful Republican left in the Northeast, a former bastion of moderate country club Rockefeller Republicanism, they have disenfranchised a large portion of the electorate which they're not getting back any time soon.
DD
Manhattan
2
Mr. Wehner says "Both parties are made up of imperfect people who have very different worldviews yet who by and large are acting in what they believe is the public interest. The idea that one side comprises Children of Light and the other Children of Darkness is a silly, partisan distortion."
I enjoy the hopefulness in Mr. Wehner's columns. But I can't ignore that the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnel, said that his most important job is to ensure that Obama is a failed president. And I can't ignore that the Republican Senate refuse to carry out their Constitutional duty and hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee, so that "the people" can decide. Such cynicism can only come from Children of Darkness.
I enjoy the hopefulness in Mr. Wehner's columns. But I can't ignore that the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnel, said that his most important job is to ensure that Obama is a failed president. And I can't ignore that the Republican Senate refuse to carry out their Constitutional duty and hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee, so that "the people" can decide. Such cynicism can only come from Children of Darkness.
4
The current and ongoing claims by Republicans that their party is "the party of Lincoln" is a distortion of history and it is false.
There are and there has always been two main threads that have run through the political discourses of the United States. Regardless of party, they may be best described as conservative/traditional and liberal/progressive. These two general social philosophies have appeared in both parties at different times as personalities, demographics and events changed. In America's history, sometimes the Democrats have been the "conservatives," while sometimes the Republicans have been the "liberals." Indeed, the Republican Party of Lincoln was mainly northeast, urban, liberal.
The current Republican party will never find its way back to Lincoln because it it comes from the conservative faction of America that never had anything to do with Lincoln. The current Republican Party, which dates from the late 1950's, echoes the stances espoused by the likes of Goldwater. It traces itself to the conservative, states rights, biased south. It was Republicans who were against the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's, against the Equal rights Amendment of the 1970's, and today fights against gay marriage and LBGT rights.
While this explanation is simplistic with clear exceptions, it is true.
If Donald Trump comes as a surprise to Mr. Wehner, he lives in an intellectual and historical fog.
There are and there has always been two main threads that have run through the political discourses of the United States. Regardless of party, they may be best described as conservative/traditional and liberal/progressive. These two general social philosophies have appeared in both parties at different times as personalities, demographics and events changed. In America's history, sometimes the Democrats have been the "conservatives," while sometimes the Republicans have been the "liberals." Indeed, the Republican Party of Lincoln was mainly northeast, urban, liberal.
The current Republican party will never find its way back to Lincoln because it it comes from the conservative faction of America that never had anything to do with Lincoln. The current Republican Party, which dates from the late 1950's, echoes the stances espoused by the likes of Goldwater. It traces itself to the conservative, states rights, biased south. It was Republicans who were against the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's, against the Equal rights Amendment of the 1970's, and today fights against gay marriage and LBGT rights.
While this explanation is simplistic with clear exceptions, it is true.
If Donald Trump comes as a surprise to Mr. Wehner, he lives in an intellectual and historical fog.
5
So racism is something new in the Republican Party? What about the Southern Strategy, i.e. winning over Southern racist Democrats to the Republican side? That goes back to Nixon and Reagan. What about the Willie Horton ads that George H. W. Bush ran in his campaign? The Republican Party has repudiated Lincoln for decades. And if Mr. Wehner thinks not, just look at the pictures of delegates this week at the Republican Convention. I guarantee that you will be hard pressed to find very many black faces.
95
Mission impossible to change ideology/thinking of current GOP's leadership.
Republicans must get used to be an extreme right wing party and expel moderate elements like Jeb Bush. The question is how about wining elections and holding to power?
Netanyhau/Likud show feasible to be an extremist right wing racist leader and win elections. The playbook is to stoke terror and fear among the population.
The coming presidential election will be an acid test whether the American people are ready for a Trump presidency.
Republicans must get used to be an extreme right wing party and expel moderate elements like Jeb Bush. The question is how about wining elections and holding to power?
Netanyhau/Likud show feasible to be an extremist right wing racist leader and win elections. The playbook is to stoke terror and fear among the population.
The coming presidential election will be an acid test whether the American people are ready for a Trump presidency.
1
The party of Lincoln hasn't been the party of Lincoln since Lincoln. The only time it came close was Teddy Roosevelt and he was despised by the rank and file Republicans.
1
Yes Mr. Wehner. Lincoln would be a good choice to emulate today. But the ocean liner you and your ilk are piloting left the Lincoln Dock long ago, and as they say...it is very hard to turn an ocean liner around. Good luck.
1
Mr Wehner, you are in denial.
Mitt Romney thinks 47% of Americans are takers. Paul Ryan's proposed budget to lower taxes, cut benefits, increase military spending, remove Obamacare without a replacement to cover TENS of millions who may go without any cover was nothing but foolish at best, cynical at worst.
John McCain cynically chose Sarah Palin to appeal to the right wing, intolerant religious right.
That's just in the last 8 years and to Presidential nominees and their selected VPs.
Rush Limbaugh's rants about women needing contraception, Creationists, Climate change deniers, on and on it goes.
4 Years ago, Bob Jindal said that the GOP should not be the Stupid Party. But in the end, no real changes were made. You have become the Party of Intolerance and the Party of Stupid. That's why you got Trump.
Now, we who live in the rest of the world can only hope it's Hilary, not Dump who wins the elections.
Mitt Romney thinks 47% of Americans are takers. Paul Ryan's proposed budget to lower taxes, cut benefits, increase military spending, remove Obamacare without a replacement to cover TENS of millions who may go without any cover was nothing but foolish at best, cynical at worst.
John McCain cynically chose Sarah Palin to appeal to the right wing, intolerant religious right.
That's just in the last 8 years and to Presidential nominees and their selected VPs.
Rush Limbaugh's rants about women needing contraception, Creationists, Climate change deniers, on and on it goes.
4 Years ago, Bob Jindal said that the GOP should not be the Stupid Party. But in the end, no real changes were made. You have become the Party of Intolerance and the Party of Stupid. That's why you got Trump.
Now, we who live in the rest of the world can only hope it's Hilary, not Dump who wins the elections.
5
"Nor can you take presidents like Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush and nominees like Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney and say that the common denominator, the core of their appeal, was racism, nativism and misogyny."
I guess the "welfare queens driving Cadillacs" was a reference to all the white folks on welfare.
While it may not have been the "core of their appeal" it was certainly present, and the frustration from liberals arises from much of the GOP ignoring the increasing frequency of statements like these from conservative sources (news media, pundits, talking heads). You let those folks run free because they reliably delivered votes. Now, the Republican party is paying the price.
I guess the "welfare queens driving Cadillacs" was a reference to all the white folks on welfare.
While it may not have been the "core of their appeal" it was certainly present, and the frustration from liberals arises from much of the GOP ignoring the increasing frequency of statements like these from conservative sources (news media, pundits, talking heads). You let those folks run free because they reliably delivered votes. Now, the Republican party is paying the price.
3
Eliminating race-baiting, xenophobia and immigrant-bashing rhetoric would be the worst marketing decision of all time. Even New Coke was still a sweet cola beverage that people liked; what does a non-racist Republican Party have to offer to 99% of the population? Demographic changes may hinder your future prospects, but there is a clear and inevitable solution. Just broaden the definition of white people. elevate the status of East Asians and light-skinned Hispanics to "real Americans" and triple down on the racist policy for everyone else. This is ultimately where you guys are headed anyway, but instead of dragging the process out for 20 years the Trump convention should be a golden opportunity to make this strategy explicit. It might make for some icky TV, but you guys will still get to trot out the name of Lincoln, so that's pretty cool.
Sorry, Peter, this is not going deep enough. True, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are perfect. But the Republicans have, for fifty years, been courting intolerance. A lot of this goes back to their aim to capitalize on Southern anger at the passage of Civil Rights legislation.
A Republican politician invoking "conservative values" is not just appealing to a desire to contain government and promote self-reliance. It's also a phrase anyone in politics should know will be taken as code. And it's been used that way, over and over. There are other examples of this sort of thing. To shore up conservative credentials, the presidents you admire -- Reagan and the Bushes -- were willing to court racists (visits to Bob Jones University).
I'd also ask you to look at the right-wing media side of things. Republicans don't dare cross the bigots and nativists there; the harm that has been done by that group is incalculable.
A Republican politician invoking "conservative values" is not just appealing to a desire to contain government and promote self-reliance. It's also a phrase anyone in politics should know will be taken as code. And it's been used that way, over and over. There are other examples of this sort of thing. To shore up conservative credentials, the presidents you admire -- Reagan and the Bushes -- were willing to court racists (visits to Bob Jones University).
I'd also ask you to look at the right-wing media side of things. Republicans don't dare cross the bigots and nativists there; the harm that has been done by that group is incalculable.
4
Would that you had spoken up against the Southern strategy and refused a welcome to the Dixiecrats when it mattered.
Karma, baby.
Karma, baby.
2
My fear is that Trump-mania will spread, rather than decline. In this age of instant everything, the idea of the instant fix with Trump-like leaders is very attractive.
If Donald Trump is elected, we may see the rise of tyrannical leaders all over the USA and all over the globe. Not only might we see tyranny but we might be plunged into another recession, or worse.
I hope that sane Republicans and sane Democrats will work to defeat Donald Trump. Heaven help us!
I think the only thing we have to fear now is...Trumpism!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If Donald Trump is elected, we may see the rise of tyrannical leaders all over the USA and all over the globe. Not only might we see tyranny but we might be plunged into another recession, or worse.
I hope that sane Republicans and sane Democrats will work to defeat Donald Trump. Heaven help us!
I think the only thing we have to fear now is...Trumpism!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1
Mr Wehner, if you know Republicans who are honorable people, working for what they believe to be for the good of the country, please name names. We don't seem to ever hear from them.
6
Denials not withstanding,racists did take over parts of the GOP before Trump's rise,and states where they then proceded to make difficult for Democratic leaning non whites to vote.Or what Liberals such as me call the New Jim Crow.
I certainly hope the nation doesn't have to wait 4 years for the "after Trump " because I do agree much damage will have been done by then.
I certainly hope the nation doesn't have to wait 4 years for the "after Trump " because I do agree much damage will have been done by then.
Mr. Wehner has Richard Nixon to blame. Nixon saw that the worst elements of political opinion in the mid-60s - racist, reactionary, anti-change Southern Democrats - were in the wrong party and belonged in the GOP, the party of the so-called "Silent Majority." Nixon's siren song worked gradually, not quickly, but it succeeded as successive GOP candidates "dog-whistled" Southern Democrats into the GOP corral. This is 1968 again and Donald Trump, a reincarnation of the worst of Nixon's most cynical impulses, is the ascendant nominee. We can only hope that the flawed but vastly more experienced and temperamentally suited Hillary Clinton wins the day in November. To Bernie fans and Hillary haters in the Democratic Party who may prefer to sit on their hands in November: Remember - it's all about who gets to appoint the heads of our government's agencies and fill the vacancies in the federal judiciary. Do you really not care if Donald Trump gets to be that person?
5
You can't find your way back to Lincoln, because you're not the party of Lincoln. You're the party of Reagan/Bush-all race-baiters. It seems like the only real problem you have with Trump is that he gleefully says in public what you've all been hinting at with coded language. Other commenters have brought up Reagan in Mississippi, the Willie Horton ads, etc. The thing is, you can't use racist language and encourage racists to join your party, and then act surprised and shocked that you're in a party of racists. It's not intellectually respectable. That is coded language for "it's stupid."
20
Never heard of this gentleman, but reading the whole the thing kept thinking...he must be the establishment. And, he is...."served in the last Republican administrations..." has some Ethics and Public Policy gig.
Is it really a surprise? Your mainstream, Harvard BA, Harvard MBA handsome, family man, ex-Bain guy struggled to win his nomination. And, when he did, he said things like "No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate!" and the whole "leechers" comment in private.
He lost to a guy who spent a lot of government $ expanded social services and had like 9% unemployment during the election.
Your "cross the aisles" war-hero guy elevated an absolute nativist and anti-intellectual to national prominence.
The utter hatred of a man who has cut government spending, reduced debt, triggered a sky high stock market, reduced unemployment, bailed out major industries which your party was against bailing out (autos) was not just a Trump thing.
Let's not even get into the homophobia...
Trumpism was in every facet of the party before you even knew it was there.
You gotta remember the humble origins and worldview that shaped Lincoln. And an obscure biographer quote is not required to cite how far the party has come from him:
"With malice toward none, with charity for all...."
That pretty much says it and describes more of the Democrats nowadays than the Republicans....whatever that amorphous entity is....
Was this moment truly a shock? Elites are clueless indeed.
Is it really a surprise? Your mainstream, Harvard BA, Harvard MBA handsome, family man, ex-Bain guy struggled to win his nomination. And, when he did, he said things like "No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate!" and the whole "leechers" comment in private.
He lost to a guy who spent a lot of government $ expanded social services and had like 9% unemployment during the election.
Your "cross the aisles" war-hero guy elevated an absolute nativist and anti-intellectual to national prominence.
The utter hatred of a man who has cut government spending, reduced debt, triggered a sky high stock market, reduced unemployment, bailed out major industries which your party was against bailing out (autos) was not just a Trump thing.
Let's not even get into the homophobia...
Trumpism was in every facet of the party before you even knew it was there.
You gotta remember the humble origins and worldview that shaped Lincoln. And an obscure biographer quote is not required to cite how far the party has come from him:
"With malice toward none, with charity for all...."
That pretty much says it and describes more of the Democrats nowadays than the Republicans....whatever that amorphous entity is....
Was this moment truly a shock? Elites are clueless indeed.
139
The Republican Party is not about to reflect and change. If this were true, we'd see more than a few Republican leaders refusing to endorse one of the most repulsive candidates their party has ever produced.
4
"Nor can you take [Republican presidents]....and say they their common denominator was racism, nativism and mysogony."
You're right Mr Wehner, the body was not entirely made of cancer. But cancer killed the entire body nonetheless. Own the fact that you did nothing to treat that cancer until it was too late.
You're right Mr Wehner, the body was not entirely made of cancer. But cancer killed the entire body nonetheless. Own the fact that you did nothing to treat that cancer until it was too late.
7
The willful self-dishonesty and level of ingenuousness of Mr. Weiner is a wonder to behold!
Calumny??
I refer him to an editorial also in today's Times: "Kansas Zealot Helps Shape the G.O.P.’s Right-Wing Platform".
Mr. Kobach was there before Trump. He'd be there if Trump never existed. As are the many, many republicans in national and state politics who are "Korbach's" working to limit voter's rights, undo civil liberties for many, and blow, ever more loudly, the dog-whistle.
The elephant in the room is the extraordinary levels of hypocrisy attained by republican politicians and their supporters as they try so desperately not to look in the mirror and see who and what they've been... and what they are.
Calumny??
I refer him to an editorial also in today's Times: "Kansas Zealot Helps Shape the G.O.P.’s Right-Wing Platform".
Mr. Kobach was there before Trump. He'd be there if Trump never existed. As are the many, many republicans in national and state politics who are "Korbach's" working to limit voter's rights, undo civil liberties for many, and blow, ever more loudly, the dog-whistle.
The elephant in the room is the extraordinary levels of hypocrisy attained by republican politicians and their supporters as they try so desperately not to look in the mirror and see who and what they've been... and what they are.
11
"but in this man a natural wealth of tender compassion became richer and more tender while in the stress of deadly conflict he developed an astounding strength."
Lord Charnwood may also have described the current President Barack Obama. The GOP has long ago lost the ability to field such a candidate.
Lord Charnwood may also have described the current President Barack Obama. The GOP has long ago lost the ability to field such a candidate.
7
Step #1: rid yourselves of the idea that you can institutionalize racism for electoral purposes without it affecting your country.
Step #2: buy your souls back from the NRA.
Step #3: global climate change is real. Deal with it. (That's not a dig; it's your job.)
Step #2: buy your souls back from the NRA.
Step #3: global climate change is real. Deal with it. (That's not a dig; it's your job.)
17
At the start, there were 17 party candidates. Through out the primary campaign they held the same views, the same political positions and the same beliefs as Donal Trump's. They were nos as charismatic as he was, they were not as rogue as he was, they were not as irreverent as he was, they did not convince the voters as he did, even though they repeated the same lies he spread! With different degrees of conviction all were racist, misogynistic, spreading hate and disunity, proposing policies that benefit the rich and hurt the normal american, nationalist and isolationists. And Trump beat all of them at their own game! You may well keep deluding yourself about your party being the party of Lincoln!
6
Maybe it is different in your area, but where I live, it is not hard to find self-identified Republicans openly spouting racist remarks or really off the wall conspiracy theories. This has been common and open for at least the past decade or two. So it should not surprise you that many of us have that image of the G.O.P. now.,
5
Trump is where he is because the Republican party have long been focused on winning rather than on leadership; Trump epitomizes this.
If the Republican party could leave citizens' sex lives alone, and stop appealing to Biblical authority, and instead focus on personal, social, and fiscal responsibility, they might win again.
If the Republican party could leave citizens' sex lives alone, and stop appealing to Biblical authority, and instead focus on personal, social, and fiscal responsibility, they might win again.
1
"... outrage that Republicans were not nullifying President Obama ..." There it is: the Republican base that would rather oppose a black man than support what is in their own best interests. Obama is a centrist whose policies would have placed him, at an earlier time, in the liberal wing of the Republican party: the ACA (a Republican health plan that endorses for-profit health care and the insurance industry), comfort with BIg Business as usual, including support of Wall Street, an immigration policy that enforces huge numbers of deportations and quietly finances Mexico to keep Central American refugees out of the US, and so on and so on. How is this not a racist, nativist, narrow-minded, small-minded, even, dare I say it, stupid party?
4
It's hard to know where to start this one. There is a nearly 40 year history of barely concealed race baiting that Mr. Wehner simply avoids. Meg Whitman, to name another anti-Trump Republican, is also wondering what happened. The Whitmans and the Wehners of the world seem to live in a polite bubble of Republicanism where people really and truly believe that low taxes for wealthy people and gutting entitlements like Social Security are necessary to preserve freedom and prosperity. This is the Paul Ryan wing -- where Paul Ryan's latest policy imperative is to overturn Obama rules that require brokers to serve their clients' best interests. Most of us hoi polloi are probably shocked that wasn't already the law, but Ryan considers making brokers less accountable with your money to be part of his anti-poverty platform. Mr. Wehner never addresses whether there is any critical mass of voters who agree with these kinds of policies. For most would be Republican voters, without the white identity politics, there is no reason to vote Republican. Maybe those angry nativist people wouldn't vote at all, or maybe they are amenable to compromises that address their economic distress, but they certainly aren't voting Republican just so Meg Whitman and Peter Thiel can have more money to buy private islands and jets. And that's pretty much where the Republican Party has been for a long time.
7
Lincoln is a real stretch right now---maybe Eisenhower.
3
Anyone to whom this commentary sounds like rubbish should consider how natural it is for 1%'ers to believe that working class voters lowering their bosses' taxes and outsourcing their own jobs are not racists and reactionaries but yeoman economists of the first rank.
4
I honestly wish you luck, sir, with all my heart. I would love to see your version/vision of the Republican Party come true. You might have to start a third party in the end but if made up of people like you, with worthwhile ideas and values, maybe that's a good thing.
1
Your comments about the demonization of compromise and politicking is spot on. We've experienced a holy war on our soil and it's been divisive and detrimental to those who rely most on government to even the playing field.
5
Well come on Peter. It isn't like conservatives have not similarly demonized liberals with the same sort of calumny you defend the right against. Like many republicans you tend to have this sort of tunnel vision when it comes to political villainy. An entire cottage industry has grwon up in the media with an edifice constructed entirely of villainizing liberals. Talk radio depends on it.
93
Rather than finding a vision down the road for a political party, I suggest instead you articulate NOW a vision for the country. Because the GOP as a “party” decided eight years ago to block everything the first black American president did without offering concrete alternative solutions, Trump is what you all deserve and what you get. The proverbial pendulum has swung from GOP regulars who did nothing, to a Trump who promises to do everything. As for Lincoln – Trump’s ignorance is a perfect copy of Honest Abe’s. Andrew Jackson faced the same tumult of regional conflict thirty years before Lincoln did, replete with S. Carolina threatening secession, and because Jackson understood the consequences of armed conflict, managed to use his presidential powers to steer the nation away from it. Lincoln's total ignorance of it made it impossible for him but to blunder right into it, even foment it and sustain it – for which he personally paid the price. If you want to do something other than send an angry letter to the TImes, I suggest you gather those who feel as you do and broadcast over the Internet your reactions to each and every speech made at the GOP convention, especially that of Chris Cox of the NRA on Tuesday. I’d like to see how you and your colleagues fit Cox’s ideas in with what is happening to our policemen in the country today, and what your collected wisdom says a true leader should do to take us through these troubled times. I’d really like to know.
2
Let's see. . . .who was that nameless "operative" who so belittled government that today's Republicans can't say the word without sneering. Could that have been. . . .Ronald Reagan?
3
...Republicans were not nullifying President Obama or promoting an agenda connected to their concerns."
This statement is thrown off with no apparent thought, but is NOT the real problem.
The problem is that Republicans created stalemate. They did nothing and would not allow anybody else (especially Obama) to do something. Rather than trying to nullify Obama, which you think is the proper course, you could have worked with him on something... ANYTHING. Transportation and infrastructure; Public education. Fighting terrorism. These really aren't partisan issues, but the republican party made them so in pursuit of "nullifying" Obama. Opposition rather than rather proposition became the organizing principal.
This statement is thrown off with no apparent thought, but is NOT the real problem.
The problem is that Republicans created stalemate. They did nothing and would not allow anybody else (especially Obama) to do something. Rather than trying to nullify Obama, which you think is the proper course, you could have worked with him on something... ANYTHING. Transportation and infrastructure; Public education. Fighting terrorism. These really aren't partisan issues, but the republican party made them so in pursuit of "nullifying" Obama. Opposition rather than rather proposition became the organizing principal.
7
I wish someone would explain to me the pride in being a Republican. Joining a political party isn't an accomplishment; it's checking a box at the DMV.
2
The GOP left Lincoln long before Trump
4
At the 11th hour, yes, but glad that Mr. Wehner is willing to face the music late rather than never. Even if he's ignoring a lot of the last fifty years.
1
The writer almost has it right but misses on some major points;
1. The "heart" of Republicanism ought to be a push towards self-regulatory and business-first policies, within a profound respect for tolerance and equality for all. Unfortunately this simple dictum was distorted and destroyed since at least Reagan through a celebration and defense of the very rich and a disdain for the middle and lower classes.
2. The "heart" of Republicanism ought to be a celebration of small business in support of products and policies that fight against climate change and environmental degradation in the the context of a deep respect for America's National Park System and the full defense and integrity of small towns against corporate malfeasance. Since at least Reagan deregulation has been the fundamental orientation of the party in full retreat from anything else that might demonstrate any sensitivity whatsoever to science or the climate.
3. The "heart" of the Republican Party ought to be about religious liberty in the context of modern philosophy and scientific inquiry where love of the best of religion in terms of community inclusiveness and good works supersedes intolerance xenophobia and religion based self-superiority. Since at least Reagan the party is mired in a fantasy of Christian supremacy if not white supremacy with a vague attempt at a kind of fatherly acknowledgment of other ways of believing bordering on intolerance.
1. The "heart" of Republicanism ought to be a push towards self-regulatory and business-first policies, within a profound respect for tolerance and equality for all. Unfortunately this simple dictum was distorted and destroyed since at least Reagan through a celebration and defense of the very rich and a disdain for the middle and lower classes.
2. The "heart" of Republicanism ought to be a celebration of small business in support of products and policies that fight against climate change and environmental degradation in the the context of a deep respect for America's National Park System and the full defense and integrity of small towns against corporate malfeasance. Since at least Reagan deregulation has been the fundamental orientation of the party in full retreat from anything else that might demonstrate any sensitivity whatsoever to science or the climate.
3. The "heart" of the Republican Party ought to be about religious liberty in the context of modern philosophy and scientific inquiry where love of the best of religion in terms of community inclusiveness and good works supersedes intolerance xenophobia and religion based self-superiority. Since at least Reagan the party is mired in a fantasy of Christian supremacy if not white supremacy with a vague attempt at a kind of fatherly acknowledgment of other ways of believing bordering on intolerance.
3
This is a quick hit, but c'mon. Lincoln's was never a legacy recognized, embedded or embraced by the modern Republican Party.
2
Is Mitch McConnell one of the honorable members? ...the one who vowed
on the day of Obama's election to deny him anything other than a
stone wall?
Your musings and "excuse analysis" come a little too late..............
Remind me....where was it exactly that Reagan announced his candidacy?
Didn't you hear that dog whistle....? and by the way, it doesn't matter
whether Reagan was racist or not...he knew there were people just aching to vote on the hope that his signal mirrored their deepest prejudices.....which is even
more cynical and unworthy of a seeker of the highest office in the land.
on the day of Obama's election to deny him anything other than a
stone wall?
Your musings and "excuse analysis" come a little too late..............
Remind me....where was it exactly that Reagan announced his candidacy?
Didn't you hear that dog whistle....? and by the way, it doesn't matter
whether Reagan was racist or not...he knew there were people just aching to vote on the hope that his signal mirrored their deepest prejudices.....which is even
more cynical and unworthy of a seeker of the highest office in the land.
8
The truth is that the dark underside of the Republican Party has been in ascendancy for quite some time now. Having said that, I truly hope that the Republicans find their "better angels". Liberals (like me) need conservatives for the simple reason that no individual (or political philosophy) is right 100% of the time, no matter how much we are.
3
Wehner was writing a lucid, compelling essay up until the moment he decided to blame the GOPs woes on "party guests took over the party".
For my entire life, the Republican Party has embodied intolerance, made deals with less desirable elements of society in the name of votes and homogeneity, and held stringent purity tests for candidates - all at the behest of Party leadership who tightly controlled the message and process of choosing messengers.
I used to marvel at the efficiency of the organization, while wondering why the Democratic Party couldn't find a similar formula for success.
To try to blame a minority faction of the party is both patently false, and hilariously ironic as the party of "personal responsibility" again denies any responsibility for their own situation.
For my entire life, the Republican Party has embodied intolerance, made deals with less desirable elements of society in the name of votes and homogeneity, and held stringent purity tests for candidates - all at the behest of Party leadership who tightly controlled the message and process of choosing messengers.
I used to marvel at the efficiency of the organization, while wondering why the Democratic Party couldn't find a similar formula for success.
To try to blame a minority faction of the party is both patently false, and hilariously ironic as the party of "personal responsibility" again denies any responsibility for their own situation.
6
Dear Mr. Wehner,
I am purely an observer of US politics. I am sometimes frustrated, and sometimes intrigued, by the complexity of the debate and the difficulty of understanding the whole picture. I would love if you had the opportunity of further unpacking what you mean by this "A kind of perfect storm occurred: the financial crisis of 2008 combined with long-term economic stagnation, significant demographic and cultural changes, utter contempt for the political class and outrage that Republicans were not nullifying President Obama or promoting an agenda connected to their concerns. " I would be especially curious of knowing what you think President Obama did not do for those voters.
I am purely an observer of US politics. I am sometimes frustrated, and sometimes intrigued, by the complexity of the debate and the difficulty of understanding the whole picture. I would love if you had the opportunity of further unpacking what you mean by this "A kind of perfect storm occurred: the financial crisis of 2008 combined with long-term economic stagnation, significant demographic and cultural changes, utter contempt for the political class and outrage that Republicans were not nullifying President Obama or promoting an agenda connected to their concerns. " I would be especially curious of knowing what you think President Obama did not do for those voters.
4
Many Republicans recognize that Donald Trump will be a disaster for us if he is elected. How many, knowing this, will still vote for him?
2
Oh, I've talked to quite a number of them....
I was a Republican once- and I could become one again, if the party of "No" actually had a platform that I could support. I DO believe healthcare can be made competitive and cost-effective- with Gov reg and without Gov subsidy- I would like Mr. Wehner to write a Republican Manifesto that could be supported by those who are rational.
This is an interesting comment and I would like to hear more about your thoughts on this.
I'm also curious to know if you can point to an example where this kind of idea has had some success.
I'm also curious to know if you can point to an example where this kind of idea has had some success.
I certainly feel your pain. But it seems that you've been napping while the base of the party was busy lurching to the far right. When all the Republican candidates essentially had to toe a certain ideological like...anti-global warming, anti-evolution, pro-theocracy, with a penchant for controlling women's bodies, and shutting down the government while actually refusing to govern according to the customary courtesies afforded the dully elected president...somehow it seems that you must have dozed off.
Did you just wake up to the fact that famed oxycontin addict Rush Limbaugh was one of the party's leaders? Or that Fox News' distortions of Obama's efforts to revive the economy veered to a promotion of hate? Very sad to say that Lincoln wouldn't recognize the party today. And no, there's no way back for the present GOP. You need another party altogether.
Did you just wake up to the fact that famed oxycontin addict Rush Limbaugh was one of the party's leaders? Or that Fox News' distortions of Obama's efforts to revive the economy veered to a promotion of hate? Very sad to say that Lincoln wouldn't recognize the party today. And no, there's no way back for the present GOP. You need another party altogether.
3
"A friend of mine pointed out to me that part of the problem is that we are drenched in distaste for the actual practice of politics, and there’s an unstated sense among conservative activists in particular that the activity of governing is somehow illegitimate."
That's not part of the problem, it IS the problem. The Republicans have held the majority of the House for 6 years, and the Senate for 2 years. That's plenty of time to pass meaningful legislation. Yet nothing gets done. Time for them to step aside.
That's not part of the problem, it IS the problem. The Republicans have held the majority of the House for 6 years, and the Senate for 2 years. That's plenty of time to pass meaningful legislation. Yet nothing gets done. Time for them to step aside.
6
Boo, Hoo! I would have more sympathy for your position if you had not used the Republicans devised medical reform policy also known as Obamacare as a political club; if you had not tried to shut down the government to thwart "this President" (dog whistle alert) from getting credit for helping the economy; If you had not had the utter disrespect for "this President" calling out "liar"; if you had not basically refused to cooperate with the majority elected representatives on tax policy, budget policy etc.
As you said, the core of the Republican party is not racism, nativism and mysogyny, but the fact you used the "Southern strategy" "Willie Horton" ads, anti-Muslim rhetoric makes it clear that you don't mind using demagoguery to get votes. The Republican Party has not been the party of Lincoln for a very long time. It has become the party of the "have's" and the "1%". It is not convincing that you don't actually believe that Muslims are evil, or Obama is a Muslim, or that "dreamers" don't deserve respect, so long as it gets votes to keep tax low on those who have hundreds of millions of dollars. It seems you reap what you sow. Boo Hoo!
As you said, the core of the Republican party is not racism, nativism and mysogyny, but the fact you used the "Southern strategy" "Willie Horton" ads, anti-Muslim rhetoric makes it clear that you don't mind using demagoguery to get votes. The Republican Party has not been the party of Lincoln for a very long time. It has become the party of the "have's" and the "1%". It is not convincing that you don't actually believe that Muslims are evil, or Obama is a Muslim, or that "dreamers" don't deserve respect, so long as it gets votes to keep tax low on those who have hundreds of millions of dollars. It seems you reap what you sow. Boo Hoo!
3
Wow! All of these commenters are spot on Mr Wehner. I assume that you are better off from a career perspective, attaching yourself to pockets of moderate Republican money in D.C. and elsewhere rather than attempting to earn a living leading from behind the mob of irresponsible takers, whiners, anti-patriots and spoiled babies that constitute 98% of the Republican Party. All of the rest of us in America have watched people like you trying to appear relaxed and in control, attempting to re-spin the haters and Tea Party ignoramuses and the lies and filth coming from your media hosts...into something more benign....but now its over. Trump is not an anomaly, he is the future for your brood. You should make a bold career move and attempt to re-focus your sources of funding on working with the Democrat Party...make that party better. I would give up on your current party.
5
Although this article is written in a lofty tone, and at first blush would sound reasonable, it ignores the crucial problem. The Republican Party hasn't been the party of Lincoln since Lincoln. Since 1968, its premise and strategy has been very simple: stoke social and racial anger to win elections, and once in power work to cripple government, lower taxes on the wealthy, and advance the interests of big business. The GOP has only itself to blame now that the social and racial anger has boiled over.
5
One of the first things that is mentioned in any American political theory 101 class is that the 'labels' of Republican and Democrat in the time of the Civil War should not be applied to today's parties.
Any Republican alive right now doesn't get to claim Lincoln.
Any Republican alive right now doesn't get to claim Lincoln.
6
"Can We Find Our Way Back to Lincoln?" In a word, no.
2
It's clear that many in the Republican Party are not queasy (as Wehner puts it) about Trump. The problem is that so few of them are speaking out against him as forcefully as they need to. Instead, they are putting their Party first, and America second. This isn't how they would act if they were "honourable individuals working to advance the national interest." It's not too late for them to refuse to nominate Trump, but they won't do it. At best, they are cowards. At worst, they are exactly like Trump.
2
The Republican Party often pays lip service to the need for a 'bigger tent'.
Donald Trump, who insists that 'Blacks love him', made a mockery at one of his appearances by saying: 'Where's my African-American? Oh, there he is'.
The larger tent Republicans speak of, needs only to accommodate that one man.
Donald Trump, who insists that 'Blacks love him', made a mockery at one of his appearances by saying: 'Where's my African-American? Oh, there he is'.
The larger tent Republicans speak of, needs only to accommodate that one man.
4
Lincoln said,
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country…corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”
does any of this sound familiar?
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country…corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”
does any of this sound familiar?
6
While I entirely agree with the sentiment of this quote, it surprised me enough that it came from Lincoln that I went searching for confirmation. Sadly, I found only this: http://www.abrahamlincolnassociation.org/Newsletters/1-1.pdf
Mr. Wehner is what Nicholas Kristof calls delusional as he forgets conveniently the rhetoric of the GOP since 1964.
The base and winning margin on the state wide and national stage has always (post 1964) been tied to the racial tension in America. Take Nixon and his call as the law and order candidate for starters. Throw in some Pat Buchanan too.
Today, it is not cloaked by Mr. Trump. And his most rabid supporters want none of the politically correct law and order nonsense.
Lastly, getting back to Lincoln is not what the current theme is for the majority of the GOP.
Guess that was not when America was great.
The base and winning margin on the state wide and national stage has always (post 1964) been tied to the racial tension in America. Take Nixon and his call as the law and order candidate for starters. Throw in some Pat Buchanan too.
Today, it is not cloaked by Mr. Trump. And his most rabid supporters want none of the politically correct law and order nonsense.
Lastly, getting back to Lincoln is not what the current theme is for the majority of the GOP.
Guess that was not when America was great.
1
I do not believe Trump is racist, either outright or subliminally, nor I am certain am I for having supported him. He has shown in his business no hint of racsism or religious intolerance. Muslims are not a race by the way. And he is equally abrasive to men and women and equal opportunity. He is also refreshingly pro-LBGT, something that seems to get lost in the the hip shooting judgements that have become distorted beyond control, though I'm sure I am in the minority in this opinion.
The reason however I most likely will not vote for Trump is because of his choice in same old, same old running mate which indicates to me that Trump has buckled under the pressure of status quo. An even more problematic show stopper is that he is no longer self-funded.
Moreover, having voted the past 40 years only for Democrats, I will not vote for Hillary. I'd rather leave it up to chance since in my mind a presidency under Hillary has an equally high chance of catastrophe. She is beholden to special interests (including her own), has her exceedingly bad judgement and lack of foresight will most surely lead us down the path of ruined Europe.
The reason however I most likely will not vote for Trump is because of his choice in same old, same old running mate which indicates to me that Trump has buckled under the pressure of status quo. An even more problematic show stopper is that he is no longer self-funded.
Moreover, having voted the past 40 years only for Democrats, I will not vote for Hillary. I'd rather leave it up to chance since in my mind a presidency under Hillary has an equally high chance of catastrophe. She is beholden to special interests (including her own), has her exceedingly bad judgement and lack of foresight will most surely lead us down the path of ruined Europe.
3
I should have looked at the author's bio at the bottom of this piece before reading it. This long time Republican takes no responsibility for creating Donald Trump. He and the Romney, Bush,McConnell, Boehner crowd ignored the legitimate concerns of a large segment of the party by rolling over on issues such as immigration, out of control government spending and radical Islam. You are getting what you created. These cries of nativism, racism etc. are too simplistic to explain the Trump phenomenon and a convenient way for the left including Republicans to ignore the frustration and anger that exists in our country over many issues that Trump has tapped into.
3
Sorry to break it to you, but Trump has no actual policies to address the issues that concern you. You, and your fellow Trump supporters, are being played.
1
Hopefully the love for our country will trump hatred for Hillary. Leadership from the Republican Party will not be silently supporting Trump. It will be violently opposing him, even if it comes at a short term cost of losing this election and some personal, political expediencies.
1
I have appreciated the genuinely anguished, and genuinely searching, reflections of Mr. Wehner in his last several columns, though I may not fully accept all of his analysis and characterizations. And he is not alone. A Trump Tower-full of conservatives and conservative policy/advocacy groups are now gritting their teeth and owning up to (even repenting, in a shallow way) the profound degradation and dissolution of the (so-called) party of Lincoln. Still, there is something poignant--and entirely fantastic--about any responsible conservative political movement finding its way back to Lincoln after a generation of utterly divisive, utterly failed, utterly toxic rhetoric and (in)action. Rhetoric and (in)action that has been generated and patrolled by the very persons and groups that are now...oh-so-aghast and alienated. Mr. Wehner and colleagues may need to sit in dust and ashes for a while longer.
1
How about you start with a hearing for Judge Garland? You don't even have to wait for the election.
14
Abraham Lincoln provoked the Confederate States into the bloodiest war in American history. He also suspended habeus corpus, and threw newspaper editors and even elected officials in jail for the crime of publicly speaking out against his policies.
Lincoln violated the Constitution he swore to uphold. This makes him one of the worst Presidents ever.
Lincoln violated the Constitution he swore to uphold. This makes him one of the worst Presidents ever.
1
Provoked the confederates?
I guess forcing lazy confederates dandies to do an honest day's work instead of relying on slave labor is considered proactive in the confederate south.
Wow...you confederates really hate working don't y'all?
I guess forcing lazy confederates dandies to do an honest day's work instead of relying on slave labor is considered proactive in the confederate south.
Wow...you confederates really hate working don't y'all?
4
From which history book did you get your revisionist information? Falls in with creationist theories! For shame!
2
Provacative.
Sorry
Sorry
I think liberals were pretty much spot on: The GOP is "sustained by racist appeals, composed of haters and conspiracy nuts, indifferent to the plight of the poor and weak, anti-woman." After all, if one were to design policies to explicitly appeal to people that embrace these concepts, it would be indistinguishable from the Republican party platform.
While it may be more complicated than that, Occum's razor clearly indicates otherwise. After all, the surgeon Trump has wielded the scalpel masterly to slice away all pretense that the party need be anything more. He is racism, stupidity, conspiracy theory, and indifference personified. If there is more to the man he sure is hiding it well. Primaries aside, he's currently polling about the same as Mitt Romney 4 years ago... which gives lie to the idea that a small minority of Republicans embrace him. So, while McCain and Romney might have stood for more... it's pretty clear that the overwhelming majority of Republican voters don't.
There is a simple way to prove the party is dispicable theory incorrect, Hillary Clinton wins in a massive landslide... anything short of that and let's agree to let the simplest explanation that accounts for all the facts rule the day.
While it may be more complicated than that, Occum's razor clearly indicates otherwise. After all, the surgeon Trump has wielded the scalpel masterly to slice away all pretense that the party need be anything more. He is racism, stupidity, conspiracy theory, and indifference personified. If there is more to the man he sure is hiding it well. Primaries aside, he's currently polling about the same as Mitt Romney 4 years ago... which gives lie to the idea that a small minority of Republicans embrace him. So, while McCain and Romney might have stood for more... it's pretty clear that the overwhelming majority of Republican voters don't.
There is a simple way to prove the party is dispicable theory incorrect, Hillary Clinton wins in a massive landslide... anything short of that and let's agree to let the simplest explanation that accounts for all the facts rule the day.
2
It seems to have been your hero Ronald Reagan who said "government is not the solution; it's the problem," Mr. Wehner (unless it's the nilitary arm; that's always fine)..And we've bene through decades of succesfsul or attempted retribution against anyone who wants to have a useful government ever since, and triumphalist notions that the REegan dircetyion can never change--leading to the not all that ironic climax in an anti-goverment authoritarian candidate. The re-thinking needs to start there. The problem is not government; it's government run by people who mean to destroy it.
3
The author stunningly asks, "How on earth did [the Republican] party produce Mr. Trump as its nominee?" Where has he been for these past 60 years, with eyes wide shut? Shall we start with Nixon's "Southern Strategy" in 1968, or the preceding 1964 election, which saw Barry Goldwater win Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina? The "Party of Lincoln" indeed! What a cynical claim. With its modern day Southern Strategy, the Republicans have enabled the South to "Rise Again", but this time by dragging the entire nation down to its level of racism and insularism. Lincoln would weep at what has happened.
6
@ Jeffrey Levine; Clearly stated, with historical accounting, Thank you!
1
"In every important respect, Donald Trump is a repudiation of Lincoln. "
In my work as a criminal defense attorney I try to fight vigorously for all of my clients. In the meantime, the clients I have liked the least are those who committed the crime and want to find ways to wholly excuse their misconduct. This is what I hear in this essay. Real honesty would be to say I was wrong all along and I regret that and I am quitting the Republican party.
By its very nature, whether Republicans' beliefs are sincere or not (which I doubt) the Republican Party since at least the 1900's has been against what America most stands for - the equality of man. Instead the GOP has stood for some people having the right to more of the wealth of America than other men and women, even if they didn't earn it.
The Republican Party betrayed Lincoln a long time ago in the name of a false freedom of some people owning more of America than other people. Lincoln was in behalf of a rebirth of freedom, not more (wage) slavery for most of us.
In my work as a criminal defense attorney I try to fight vigorously for all of my clients. In the meantime, the clients I have liked the least are those who committed the crime and want to find ways to wholly excuse their misconduct. This is what I hear in this essay. Real honesty would be to say I was wrong all along and I regret that and I am quitting the Republican party.
By its very nature, whether Republicans' beliefs are sincere or not (which I doubt) the Republican Party since at least the 1900's has been against what America most stands for - the equality of man. Instead the GOP has stood for some people having the right to more of the wealth of America than other men and women, even if they didn't earn it.
The Republican Party betrayed Lincoln a long time ago in the name of a false freedom of some people owning more of America than other people. Lincoln was in behalf of a rebirth of freedom, not more (wage) slavery for most of us.
6
Mr. Wehner, your op-ed is a desperate attempt to run damage control -- an appeal to moderate Republicans not to abandon the fold. Moderate Republicans realize they no longer have a place in your party. Maybe you're hoping a shot of nostalgia will win back some wounded hearts and translate into a vote for the Grand Old, since no moderate could ever vote for Trump.
3
"A friend of mine pointed out to me that part of the problem is that we are drenched in distaste for the actual practice of politics, and there’s an unstated sense among conservative activists in particular that the activity of governing is somehow illegitimate."
"Government is the problem".
"Drown it in a bathtub"
Do we really need to go any further than that?
What planet are you living on?
"Government is the problem".
"Drown it in a bathtub"
Do we really need to go any further than that?
What planet are you living on?
4
In my opinion, Republicans don't have to go as far back as Lincoln to save themselves from themselves or from the Donald Trump's of the world.
For example, I recall when I used to be inspired by John McCain. I didn't care he was Republican. I cared that he was genuine, authentic, a maverick who valued truth over partisan spin. That's before he sadly became infected by a rigid arrogant anti anything that Democrats are for with no other apparent rhyme or reason. And that blind partisanship blatantly/disgustingly revealed itself when it was decided that President Obama must be humiliated (because of race???) by gross and constant obstructionism.
I personally want at least two political parties composed of rational open minded creative people with different ideas who aren't blinded by demands to adhere to prescribed party policy out of fear getting primaried or excommunicated. Like, for example, those Republicans who acknowledge that Trump is dangerous yet proclaim they will vote for him anyway. In other words party over country. That's noxious. That's insane.
However, there are those, like Peter Wehner and others, who've decided to not to support or vote for their party's unqualified nominee regardless of party adherence rules. And that gives hope that there's still a spark of openness and authenticity hanging around that the GOP can build on and finally return to it's honorable roots.
For example, I recall when I used to be inspired by John McCain. I didn't care he was Republican. I cared that he was genuine, authentic, a maverick who valued truth over partisan spin. That's before he sadly became infected by a rigid arrogant anti anything that Democrats are for with no other apparent rhyme or reason. And that blind partisanship blatantly/disgustingly revealed itself when it was decided that President Obama must be humiliated (because of race???) by gross and constant obstructionism.
I personally want at least two political parties composed of rational open minded creative people with different ideas who aren't blinded by demands to adhere to prescribed party policy out of fear getting primaried or excommunicated. Like, for example, those Republicans who acknowledge that Trump is dangerous yet proclaim they will vote for him anyway. In other words party over country. That's noxious. That's insane.
However, there are those, like Peter Wehner and others, who've decided to not to support or vote for their party's unqualified nominee regardless of party adherence rules. And that gives hope that there's still a spark of openness and authenticity hanging around that the GOP can build on and finally return to it's honorable roots.
2
Why all the berating here of Mr. Wehner for not being a liberal as the only thing to be? Though I am comfortable with my own support of policies deemed liberal or left, I recognize the need for a small government perspective in the national debate, if only to militate against governmental overreach. Besides which, some liberal programs have worked better than others, and it's hardly the case that liberal policy choices are the key to universal contentment. Why not then applaud Mr. Wehner for his honesty in recognizing the ills of Trump and his racist appeals, and wish Mr. Wehner well in his efforts to change the Republican Party to something representing decency?
3
Now who are you going to believe, Peter Wehner or your own lying eyes?
This is why there is no 'dialog'...it's not a 'discussion' when one side keeps repeating the same talking points, obtusely ignoring any discrediting of their validity.
This is why there is no 'dialog'...it's not a 'discussion' when one side keeps repeating the same talking points, obtusely ignoring any discrediting of their validity.
5
I'm sorry, but the author is kidding himself. He blames "activists" instead of his party, which has advanced an agenda of hatred and greed for decades. It worked, Peter, and you have gotten what you deserve. Now we can only pray the nation as a whole will reject the GOP agenda.
5
"There’s an unstated sense among conservative activists in particular that the activity of governing is somehow illegitimate."
This is certainly true, and it's also true that it helped pave the way for Trump. But it's hard to see how it could be otherwise; in a party committed to the belief that "government is the problem," why would there be any respect for those who lead government? This is Reagan's legacy.
As for racism, not every Republican votes on the basis of racial politics - but the party took in the Dixiecrats when they fled the Democratic Party in the '60s and '70s, and it has come to rely so heavily on their votes that it can't hope to win without them. This is Nixon's legacy.
To become what Mr. Wehner envisions, the Republican Party needs to shed both legacies. But if it does, what will it have left?
This is certainly true, and it's also true that it helped pave the way for Trump. But it's hard to see how it could be otherwise; in a party committed to the belief that "government is the problem," why would there be any respect for those who lead government? This is Reagan's legacy.
As for racism, not every Republican votes on the basis of racial politics - but the party took in the Dixiecrats when they fled the Democratic Party in the '60s and '70s, and it has come to rely so heavily on their votes that it can't hope to win without them. This is Nixon's legacy.
To become what Mr. Wehner envisions, the Republican Party needs to shed both legacies. But if it does, what will it have left?
2
One has to wonder to which voters he thought Mr. Reagan was talking when he conjured up stories of welfare queens and strong young bucks or whom he thought George H.W. Bush was trying to scare with his Willy Horton ads. The Republicans have garnered power by appealing the to basest instincts of their base. Up until now, they've avoided the consequences of their pandering, but pretending they didn't know what they were doing is disingenuous at best. With Mr. Trump the chickens have come home to roost.
11
Someone should inform Mr. Wehner that the Republican Party decided many years ago what it was. And it's not the Lincoln we know and revere. Perhaps Mr. Wehner confuses Abraham Lincoln with George Lincoln Rockwell.
As that wise character Pogo once said (with kudos to Walt Kelly) "We have met the enemy and he is us."
As that wise character Pogo once said (with kudos to Walt Kelly) "We have met the enemy and he is us."
7
In his last few paragraphs, Mr. Wehner finally comes around to the key question: "What now?" His answer omits the crucial first step: vote for Hillary Clinton. He might imply this part of the answer, but he can't bring himself to write the words.
The false equivalence persists: that a second President Clinton is just as unthinkable as a first President Trump. Get over it. You want to reclaim your party from its toxic elements? Stop whining; repudiate the poison, decisively and unambiguously, and call on like-minded Republicans to do the same.
The false equivalence persists: that a second President Clinton is just as unthinkable as a first President Trump. Get over it. You want to reclaim your party from its toxic elements? Stop whining; repudiate the poison, decisively and unambiguously, and call on like-minded Republicans to do the same.
7
The only way the GOP will recover is to abandon the spirits of two people: John Birch and Jefferson Davis. Until then, forget it.
10
It takes courage for you to write this and I admire your courage. I think that the real problem was the war in Iraq in Bush's first term and the financial melt down at the end of his second term. This greatly affected our psyche and our wallets, making most Americans feeling powerless. Hence, the urge by GOP leaders and Fox News to try to limit Obama to one term and saying, publicly, that they would work towards his failure. Now, they are doubling down with Trump. The efforts are likely to fail and then we shall see.
As a non-political appointee federal employee since the Reagan administration my view is that where Mr. Wehner is wrong is when he said “Nor can you take presidents like Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush and nominees like Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney and say that the common denominator, the core of their appeal, was racism, nativism and misogyny.” Reagan turned the GOP into the party of narcissistic self-politics. Government is bad, individual is good. Collective organization, aka unions, bad.
Who needs the government to set pollution standards, companies know best how to dispose of their waste, and everyone should be able to burn their trash in their back yard. My religion is opposed to gay marriage therefore that should be the law of the land. My company created the wealth that it produced and shouldn’t have to pay taxes on it, no thanks to government funded for education for workers, government protection for patents, and government enforced limited liability for investors.
Mr. Wehner, at their core racism, nativism and misogyny are the hallmarks of narcissism and self-interest. When the Republican Party became the party of self-interest it embraced these causes.
Who needs the government to set pollution standards, companies know best how to dispose of their waste, and everyone should be able to burn their trash in their back yard. My religion is opposed to gay marriage therefore that should be the law of the land. My company created the wealth that it produced and shouldn’t have to pay taxes on it, no thanks to government funded for education for workers, government protection for patents, and government enforced limited liability for investors.
Mr. Wehner, at their core racism, nativism and misogyny are the hallmarks of narcissism and self-interest. When the Republican Party became the party of self-interest it embraced these causes.
8
I disagree that the various characters running against Trump in the primary were talented. If there was a clear talent, Trump probably would not have won. Furthermore, while I believe the GOP's lack of evidence-based policy has led us here, at the same time the most recent match that started this inferno was the group of Tea Party congressmen who refused to compromise in recent years. These people first hijacked the GOP. Trump was just the latest terrorist to get on the plane.
4
Oh please. Many recent republican presidential candidates have engaged in race baiting, remember Romney's "self-deportation", Bush's "Willie Horton". Bush, Romney, McCain forcefully implied, but did not quite officially say, terrible unamerican things. To pretend otherwise is just silly.
If Lincoln were alive today, he would be a Democrat.
If Lincoln were alive today, he would be a Democrat.
10
Sorry, friend, but you were happy to ride the gravy train for decades while the GOP was appealing to our lesser angels, and now that the devil has fully taken over, you don't get to pretend you never saw it coming.
"Nor can you take presidents like Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush and nominees like Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney and say that the common denominator, the core of their appeal, was racism, nativism and misogyny."
Shows how self-aware you aren't. With the exception of Dole perhaps, you CAN say that a very important part of their appeal was racism and nativism. Reagan's "strapping young bucks" and "welfare queens" is not even code for racism; HW's Willie Horton reveals the man behind the curtain in that race; Mitt Romney's "47 percent are moochers" couldn't have been more disrespectful to all of us; John McCain brought in Sarah Palin to do his dirty work for him. As for W, he didn't appear to be personally inclined toward racism but happily promoted GOP ideology that strives to steer resources to the white elite, away from the ethnically complicated middle class and poor.
You've been part of the problem for so long, it looks like normal to you.
"Nor can you take presidents like Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush and nominees like Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney and say that the common denominator, the core of their appeal, was racism, nativism and misogyny."
Shows how self-aware you aren't. With the exception of Dole perhaps, you CAN say that a very important part of their appeal was racism and nativism. Reagan's "strapping young bucks" and "welfare queens" is not even code for racism; HW's Willie Horton reveals the man behind the curtain in that race; Mitt Romney's "47 percent are moochers" couldn't have been more disrespectful to all of us; John McCain brought in Sarah Palin to do his dirty work for him. As for W, he didn't appear to be personally inclined toward racism but happily promoted GOP ideology that strives to steer resources to the white elite, away from the ethnically complicated middle class and poor.
You've been part of the problem for so long, it looks like normal to you.
14
"Nor can you take presidents like Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush and nominees like Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney and say that the common denominator, the core of their appeal, was racism, nativism and misogyny." True, but they used, subliminally, racism, nativism, misogyny, and additionally the abject evil of all government to garner votes.
Your principled establishment GOPers (talk to David Brooks, he's likely interested) need to make peace with the left, summarily reject the wackos on the right, and form a more perfect union of the center and left that will suffocate the devolved tea party (who spawned this recent madness) while providing a true, rational, government that does something for the whole country. Leave the Trump'anistas on their own - they can't stand up to the sum total of reasonable Americans.
Your principled establishment GOPers (talk to David Brooks, he's likely interested) need to make peace with the left, summarily reject the wackos on the right, and form a more perfect union of the center and left that will suffocate the devolved tea party (who spawned this recent madness) while providing a true, rational, government that does something for the whole country. Leave the Trump'anistas on their own - they can't stand up to the sum total of reasonable Americans.
5
In his last few paragraphs, Mr. Wehner finally comes around to the key question: "What now?" His answer omits the crucial first step: vote for Hillary Clinton. He might imply this part of the answer, but he can't bring himself to write the words.
The false equivalence persists: that a second President Clinton is just as unthinkable as a first President Trump. Get over it. You want to reclaim your party from its toxic elements? Some whining; repudiate the poison, decisively, unambiguously and call on like-minded Republicans to do the same.
The false equivalence persists: that a second President Clinton is just as unthinkable as a first President Trump. Get over it. You want to reclaim your party from its toxic elements? Some whining; repudiate the poison, decisively, unambiguously and call on like-minded Republicans to do the same.
2
this is a very great read. thought provoking and true. i only hope people can see past their hate long enough to see what the writer is saying and how this is going to effect not only this country but the world also.
Enough of this myth that the Republican Party is any longer "the party of Lincoln." Abraham Lincoln had a firm belief that "elected representatives are bound to carry out the known wishes of their constituents" (Gordon Leidner, "Abraham Lincoln," Cumberland House:Nashville, 2000, p. 93). A majority of Americans want action on climate change. A majority of Americans want action on gun control. Republicans in the U.S. Congress are running a private club that wants action on neither. On a host of issues, Republicans in the U.S. Congress are putting an ideology that serves the rich ahead of the country. "Party Before Constituents, and Party Before Country" describes them very well, and would never have described Abraham Lincoln.
"We proposed to give all a chance; and we expect the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant, wiser, and all better, and happier together." - Abraham Lincoln (Leidner p. 126). The ignorant, wiser? The modern Republican party wants to abolish the Department of Education, believes colleges are indoctrination mills, and routinely denies the evidence of science on a host of issues. The modern Republican Party relies heavily on the ignorance of voters and works hard to keep them that way.
Republicans are the party of Lincoln? Please don't insult the man.
"We proposed to give all a chance; and we expect the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant, wiser, and all better, and happier together." - Abraham Lincoln (Leidner p. 126). The ignorant, wiser? The modern Republican party wants to abolish the Department of Education, believes colleges are indoctrination mills, and routinely denies the evidence of science on a host of issues. The modern Republican Party relies heavily on the ignorance of voters and works hard to keep them that way.
Republicans are the party of Lincoln? Please don't insult the man.
10
Ah! Mr. Wehner, your better spiritual reflection does not come by way of conjuring up Abraham Lincoln. It is available to you in the historic figure of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Many Republicans are now General Robert E. Lee riding upright away from Appomattox wondering, "How can we not be us?"
Yes, your imagined genteel and civilized identity (family values) is having its dark underbelly exposed as villainous. And as General Lee surely understood, history will see this with great clarity.
Many Republicans are now General Robert E. Lee riding upright away from Appomattox wondering, "How can we not be us?"
Yes, your imagined genteel and civilized identity (family values) is having its dark underbelly exposed as villainous. And as General Lee surely understood, history will see this with great clarity.
6
You really need to consider that Mr. Trumps supporters really are the majority of the party. This is not a fringe element that took over, nor was Mr. Trumps nomination a fortuitous mix of luck and math. It appears more likely that moderate, well meaning republicans are the minority who will never see a return to Lincoln any more than the promises to make America great again. The party's years long campaign against government has resulted is politics being no longer about governing, but about ever increasing showmanship. Enter The Donald. This is the new era ... sad to say.
97
While I appreciate the heartfelt angst expressed in your jeremiad, Mr. Wehner, it is equally obvious that you continue to be willfully blind to your party's refusal to confront the vitriol, racial animus, nativist and disturbingly jingoist rhetoric flaring from every possible portal on the right, your party's extremist religious crowd which continues to peddle full-on Christian theocratic doctrine in this nation, total denial of scientific facts, and reduction of women and the poor to 4th class chattel. No, Mr. Wehner: Donald Trump is the living embodiment of your party, which has dedicated over 50 years to its relentless quest for permanent power, at the expense of the rights of Democratic voters, women, the LGBT community, the poor, the elderly on fixed incomes, students, science, and of functional government. Your party has pursued tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, ravaged public schools (see Kansas), slashed our tattered safety net for the poorest among us, destroyed unions such as that of the US Postal Service by imposing deliberately ruinous, absurd financial mandates upon it such as you would NEVER impose on any other corporation anywhere, gutted the rights of Democrats to vote in every single Republican-led state, destroyed women's healthcare primacy and invaded our privacy with your misogynist, Taliban-like regulations, etc. You have done your best to nullify our first black President. Try opening your eyes, Mr. Wehner. Your wreckage is omnipresent.
13
The Republican party of today was never the party of Lincoln. Lincoln was humane.
5
I just don't see where there are sufficient numbers of committed Republicans who share the values you claim and have the energy to retake the party. It is simply no longer yours. If Trump does lose, perhaps it will be Cruz's party, and will hardly be more a force for good, justice, hope, and humaneness than it is right now.
And, yes, to pile on: your party repudiated Lincoln and ceased to appeal to the better angels of our nature a very long time ago. Both parties have feckless elites, but yours have relentlessly fanned the flames of hatred and ignorance for short-term benefit. You did it, but we are all paying for it.
And, yes, to pile on: your party repudiated Lincoln and ceased to appeal to the better angels of our nature a very long time ago. Both parties have feckless elites, but yours have relentlessly fanned the flames of hatred and ignorance for short-term benefit. You did it, but we are all paying for it.
8
It seems to me Trump really is the true Republican. He simply doesn't used code words, but is blunt and open about being racist, misogynist, and anti-science, although he seems to have slightly less contempt for the poor, referring with pride to his uneducated voters. And by the way, Mr. Wehner, the modern Republican party is not the party of Lincoln, and you know that. Yes, Lincoln's party may have been called the Republicans, but the two parties shifted and essentially switched places int he mid-20th century because the traditional southern Democrats were so resistant to Civil Rights. So please, the modern Republican Party is the party of Jim Crow, and Donald Trump is simply accentuating it.
7
Very true. The Southern Dems did indeed give assistance and maybe were the Petri dish of the right-wing idiocy we see now. The GOP has truly become the party of Jim Crow by constantly pushing backwards and they do "autopsies" when they fail and learn nothing from it. Just keep re-fighting the Civil War.
1
Must be a real bummer to be an establishment Republican these days. To discover, as Mr. Wehner apparently has, that not only does the political opposition reject your views and interests and aspirations, so does most of your nominal base... well, that could ruin anyone's day.
Maybe I should be awash in sympathy. Maybe I'll get there after establishment-conservative Reganism is well and truly relegated to the toxic-waste dump of history. Or maybe not.
Maybe I should be awash in sympathy. Maybe I'll get there after establishment-conservative Reganism is well and truly relegated to the toxic-waste dump of history. Or maybe not.
5
With all due respect, you've been in political life off and on for the past 35 years or so. Your party has grown whiter, less diverse and more Christianist for decades.
Alarmist public statements about government overreach, and dogwhistle racist and sexist policy proposals wrapped in a veneer of Christianity, those have been a significant part of the Republican norm for the entire time you have served--from Reagan's fictional welfare queen to the current war against same-sex marriage. They have been calculated to outrage and pander.
You kept denying to your friends that this was the soul of the GOP, that it was still about governance and conservatism. Now you have been caught flat-footed.
The three crucial words missing from your column were, "I was wrong."
I do wish you good luck in attempting to rebuild the party. Your intentions are noble to try to bring it back to Lincoln. However, I feel that this will be the equivalent of trying to restore a once-renowned school that has changed into a casino back to being a renowned school.
Without skill and finesse, you cannot restore a building while maintaining its skeleton, and the modern Republican Party eschews finesse.
Alarmist public statements about government overreach, and dogwhistle racist and sexist policy proposals wrapped in a veneer of Christianity, those have been a significant part of the Republican norm for the entire time you have served--from Reagan's fictional welfare queen to the current war against same-sex marriage. They have been calculated to outrage and pander.
You kept denying to your friends that this was the soul of the GOP, that it was still about governance and conservatism. Now you have been caught flat-footed.
The three crucial words missing from your column were, "I was wrong."
I do wish you good luck in attempting to rebuild the party. Your intentions are noble to try to bring it back to Lincoln. However, I feel that this will be the equivalent of trying to restore a once-renowned school that has changed into a casino back to being a renowned school.
Without skill and finesse, you cannot restore a building while maintaining its skeleton, and the modern Republican Party eschews finesse.
11
The Party of Lincoln? The current Republican Party is the rebirth of the Confederacy con job, where poor white ("love the uneducated") dirt farmers where whipped into such an anti-government, racial frenzy that they fought and died for the slave owning Plantation Aristocracy. Rationalized by THE PRINCIPLE of "States' Rights", "private property" (owning people), and the right to Bible thumping,gun toting violence under the auspices of what lost them the war: "Small Government".
13
What's almost laughable is that the GOP has been trying this same brand of anti-everything for years, very few are going with it, and those that do (see OK, KS, LA, etc) wind up in the hole. They don't seem to have noticed.
"The party many of us will fight for is a conservative one that appeals to rather than alienates nonwhites . . . . "
Then you're not fighting for the Republican party, since nonwhites know perfectly well your party has nothing that appeals to them.
Then you're not fighting for the Republican party, since nonwhites know perfectly well your party has nothing that appeals to them.
9
The author is correct in many things except timing. The time for introspection was decades ago when Republicanism began down its journey down a dark path. I am always befuddled to hear the "Party of Lincoln" slogan when it is universally accepted that the GOP made its turn against Lincolnesque principles long ago. This has only been amplified to the point of exhaustion in the current political cycle.
No sir, your problems began when the party accepted the likes of Tom Delay and Newt Gingrich as "leaders". Your kindling was when you began the "Conservative Revolution", and the "Contract with America", the fire was sustained with the gerrymandering of Congressional districts ensuring that no one but the most extreme could win, and then you poured gasoline on it by embracing the "Tea Party" because they gave you the ability to hold onto power. You stoked the fire by stymying any action in Congress, lead by Mitch McConnell's sole mission to block anything with the President offered. Regardless of its intent, it was well received by those who believed a black man could not be President; and the fire raged.
The rise of Donald J. Trump is not a surprise, it is the natural progression of a evolutionary path begun long ago. The very genetic code of Republicanism has self selected for just this moment.
Tracing its origins, the GOP will find little DNA in its current stock that has been passed down from Lincoln. You are a different species.
No sir, your problems began when the party accepted the likes of Tom Delay and Newt Gingrich as "leaders". Your kindling was when you began the "Conservative Revolution", and the "Contract with America", the fire was sustained with the gerrymandering of Congressional districts ensuring that no one but the most extreme could win, and then you poured gasoline on it by embracing the "Tea Party" because they gave you the ability to hold onto power. You stoked the fire by stymying any action in Congress, lead by Mitch McConnell's sole mission to block anything with the President offered. Regardless of its intent, it was well received by those who believed a black man could not be President; and the fire raged.
The rise of Donald J. Trump is not a surprise, it is the natural progression of a evolutionary path begun long ago. The very genetic code of Republicanism has self selected for just this moment.
Tracing its origins, the GOP will find little DNA in its current stock that has been passed down from Lincoln. You are a different species.
19
"Can We Find Our Way Back to Lincoln?"
The Republican Party under Lincoln welcomed abolitionists, suffragists, liberals, et al wholly unpalatable to today's anarchists, teaparty-ites, conservatives, and many Republicans of the multi-ideological GOP; besides which, the GOP irreparably severed their pathway to Lincoln in the early 1960's when the Southern Democrats, "Dixiecrats," got over their aversion to be associated with the names "Republican" and "Lincoln" by their bigger aversion to being associated with civil and voting rights for minorities, which Democrat LBJ, as POTUS, signed into law, chasing them, and their ideological philosophies, into the Republican Party...slow cooked for half a century and out pops Donald J. Trump in all his politically un-correct splendor.
Find your way back to Lincoln? It would take a bloody miracle of the highest order...
The Republican Party under Lincoln welcomed abolitionists, suffragists, liberals, et al wholly unpalatable to today's anarchists, teaparty-ites, conservatives, and many Republicans of the multi-ideological GOP; besides which, the GOP irreparably severed their pathway to Lincoln in the early 1960's when the Southern Democrats, "Dixiecrats," got over their aversion to be associated with the names "Republican" and "Lincoln" by their bigger aversion to being associated with civil and voting rights for minorities, which Democrat LBJ, as POTUS, signed into law, chasing them, and their ideological philosophies, into the Republican Party...slow cooked for half a century and out pops Donald J. Trump in all his politically un-correct splendor.
Find your way back to Lincoln? It would take a bloody miracle of the highest order...
17
"Nor can you take presidents like Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush and nominees like Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney and say that the common denominator, the core of their appeal, was racism, nativism and misogyny."
Yes, you can. When Reagan launched his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi he wasn't there to talk about farm policy. He was there to claim solidarity with the murderers of the civil rights workers. Period. Ever since Nixon and Atwater started the "Southern Strategy" that has been the definition of the Republican Party. Go ahead and deny it all you want, but facts are facts. The ONLY change represented by Trump is that he is taking off the mask and no longer pretending to be part of the civilized human race. The policies and beliefs that he represents are exactly what you have spent your "entire adult life" supporting.
And merely choosing not to attend the convention does nothing to redeem yourself. Yes, we understand that you are embarrassed to be seen supporting Trump. But the bottom line is that you will still be supporting him come November.
Yes, you can. When Reagan launched his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi he wasn't there to talk about farm policy. He was there to claim solidarity with the murderers of the civil rights workers. Period. Ever since Nixon and Atwater started the "Southern Strategy" that has been the definition of the Republican Party. Go ahead and deny it all you want, but facts are facts. The ONLY change represented by Trump is that he is taking off the mask and no longer pretending to be part of the civilized human race. The policies and beliefs that he represents are exactly what you have spent your "entire adult life" supporting.
And merely choosing not to attend the convention does nothing to redeem yourself. Yes, we understand that you are embarrassed to be seen supporting Trump. But the bottom line is that you will still be supporting him come November.
25
Well said. Moreover, the self-centeredness of this op ed piece is breathtaking. Mr Wehner claims that "the guests have taken over the party." What this election cycle is convincingly demonstrating is that the governing elite of the GOP are themselves the guests. The mass revolt in favor of Trump isn't some sudden lurch towards nativism; its the realization on the part of conservative voters that their leaders have a very different idea of what "conservatism" entails than they do.
1
For fifty years, the GOP has embraced the "southern strategy" of appealing to what Nixon strategist Kevin Phillips in 1970 called "negrophobe whites." Playing to racial divisions and ethnic tensions, the GOP has spent half a century fearmongering and portraying their political opponents as wanting to help Those People (black, Latino, gay, Muslim, you name it) at the expense of real (wink wink) Americans. An outright demagogue and proto-fascist strongman like Trump is merely the logical end result of all that.
And now you think all you have to do is get rid of Trump and Trumpismo will magically go with him? Yeah, good luck with that, Peter.
And now you think all you have to do is get rid of Trump and Trumpismo will magically go with him? Yeah, good luck with that, Peter.
25
The Republicans didn't just hand the keys of the party over to Trump. They handed the fiddle to Nero.
The flame is the perfect graphic to go with this article, and this moment in time.
The flame is the perfect graphic to go with this article, and this moment in time.
14
This didn't start with Trump, and the Republican Party has been actively stoking outright lies and obstruction concerning every single thing Obama has tried to do, including even the health care act, which was mostly Republican policies. You didn't want him to succeed. At anything. You helped stoke the belief among the general public that he was dangerous for the country and was making them all less safe (and now we have this fear-driven mob on our hands -- big surprise), was really a Muslim, wanted to kill their grandmothers, wasn't really an American. When the crazies have been gaining an audience (and Fox News is part of your pandering), you've encouraged it. The current Republican Party has no real ideological point (note that Donald's not pushing a social conservative agenda), but is rather a collection of angry people. All angry for different and competing reasons (if the reasons were to be actually addressed in policy). So the only thing unifying your party is rage against something. That and not wanting government to do anything, at all, ever. You're really in a bind!
29
This force is evil. Recommend to all Dr. Andrew Schmookler's, 'What we are up against,' for a truly potent explanation, and examination of what this destructive, morally despicable, and dangerous movement involves. This is not new: its current roots are in the Civil War, re-ignited by Reagan's attack on the government, after the 60's and 70's actions by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations work to provide equal rights and treatment for minority populations.
The Republican establishment has been "looking" to find its way back to some form of rationality, since running up huge deficits in the 1980s, since shutting down the government in 1995 for no reason, since Youthfully Indiscreet Henry Hyde and All Monica All The Time, since the abysmal failures of Cheney and Bush to heed warnings prior to 9-11, since the deceitful folly of breaking pottery in Iraq (helping spawn ISIS), since the endless asinine lies about basic science, since the wholesale enslavement to the gun-murder industry, since the subprime mortgage debacle, since the world class embarrassment of Sarah Palin. The hypocrites formerly known Republicans, with some side help from the never-try-anything-real cowards formerly known as Democrats, have created Clown Candidate Trump.
This has basically nothing to do with endless and ever-more dumbed-down media reruns of "left" versus "right," and very much to do with hopeless incompetency and a wanton, reckless disregard for public interest and public service.
There has been a monopoly (or duopoly) game card face up on the board for many years, and it is time to pick it up and stop trying to cheat your way out of it: "Go to directly to the scrap heap of history. Do not pass the Koch Brothers feeding trough, do not collect the traditional graft and kickbacks. And take the spineless and worthless Democratic Party establishment with you, as you finally retire from jointly wrecking America's future."
This has basically nothing to do with endless and ever-more dumbed-down media reruns of "left" versus "right," and very much to do with hopeless incompetency and a wanton, reckless disregard for public interest and public service.
There has been a monopoly (or duopoly) game card face up on the board for many years, and it is time to pick it up and stop trying to cheat your way out of it: "Go to directly to the scrap heap of history. Do not pass the Koch Brothers feeding trough, do not collect the traditional graft and kickbacks. And take the spineless and worthless Democratic Party establishment with you, as you finally retire from jointly wrecking America's future."
12
As a lifelong Irritable Democrat, I nonetheless disagree with your characterization of that party. It's a false equivalency--while Democrats have at times been guilty of rank cowardice (eg Iraq, weak support for Obamacare), they have not actively pursued policies that harm US citizens. Saying "They're just as bad" lets the GOP off the hook for pursuing policies that demonstrably harm the country.
However, I do think your list of grievances is well worth repeating:
"The Republican establishment has been 'looking' to find its way back to some form of rationality, since running up huge deficits in the 1980s, since shutting down the government in 1995 for no reason, since Youthfully Indiscreet Henry Hyde and All Monica All The Time, since the abysmal failures of Cheney and Bush to heed warnings prior to 9-11, since the deceitful folly of breaking pottery in Iraq (helping spawn ISIS), since the endless asinine lies about basic science, since the wholesale enslavement to the gun-murder industry, since the subprime mortgage debacle, since the world class embarrassment of Sarah Palin."
But I have to say, I don't think they have been looking very hard.
However, I do think your list of grievances is well worth repeating:
"The Republican establishment has been 'looking' to find its way back to some form of rationality, since running up huge deficits in the 1980s, since shutting down the government in 1995 for no reason, since Youthfully Indiscreet Henry Hyde and All Monica All The Time, since the abysmal failures of Cheney and Bush to heed warnings prior to 9-11, since the deceitful folly of breaking pottery in Iraq (helping spawn ISIS), since the endless asinine lies about basic science, since the wholesale enslavement to the gun-murder industry, since the subprime mortgage debacle, since the world class embarrassment of Sarah Palin."
But I have to say, I don't think they have been looking very hard.
My goodness, you sound almost like Bernie Sanders. Wake up (former) Republicans and smell the roses.
6
Mr. Trump has proved beyon any doubt that has little or no respect for anyone outside of his immediate family and himself and that includes no respect for any kind of law. He's bigoted and racist and misogynistic and will tell whatever lie that suits him at the moment.
No matter what he may say or professes to believe in the future simply cannot be trusted or accepted and anyone that does is a fool.
It is truly sad and disheartening to realize that there are so many in this country who lack the intelligence to see this.
God help us all.
No matter what he may say or professes to believe in the future simply cannot be trusted or accepted and anyone that does is a fool.
It is truly sad and disheartening to realize that there are so many in this country who lack the intelligence to see this.
God help us all.
16
Trump represents the basic instinct of the republicans--hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. Then obstruct, obstruct, obstruct and then cry foul. Mr. Wehner---remember those 16 primary presidential candidate? Did anyone say anything good about nonwhite immigrants, did they say anything good about Obama, did the say anything good about our doctors, scientist, about our economy, or anything bad about our corporate greed and sending the manufacturing abroad. Republicans have become the laughing stocks of the modern day America----at least in my household.
16
Dear Mr. Wehner - As a life long “New York Liberal” I felt your pain when reading your opinion piece - Can We Find Our Way Back to Lincoln. However the comment I found most frustrating was "Instead of arguing for the dignity and necessity of politics — instead of making the case for why the give and take, the debate and compromise, are both necessary and appropriate — activists and their counterparts in government disparaged it.”.
I believe that we need a strong Center Left Party and a Strong Center Right Party to work together and compromise in the best interests of our nation. Instead, we witnessed a party that announced that their biggest goal would be to turn President Obama into a one term President and who for the last 7 + years have worked to prevent anything from moving forward. Not improvements to “Obamacare”, not funding for needed programs, not closing tax loopholes that have exacerbated the expanding divisions of wealth in our country and not even having the decency to hold hearings on the nomination of Justice Garland for the Supreme Court. No wonder that our nation has lost faith in Government.
Secondly - I do not want to live in a Christian nation. I want to live in a secular nation where everyone can chose to practice or not practice the religion of their choice. When did the Republican Party fail to understand that far more important than the right to blow each other up with weapons of war...is our founding principal of Separation of Church and State?
I believe that we need a strong Center Left Party and a Strong Center Right Party to work together and compromise in the best interests of our nation. Instead, we witnessed a party that announced that their biggest goal would be to turn President Obama into a one term President and who for the last 7 + years have worked to prevent anything from moving forward. Not improvements to “Obamacare”, not funding for needed programs, not closing tax loopholes that have exacerbated the expanding divisions of wealth in our country and not even having the decency to hold hearings on the nomination of Justice Garland for the Supreme Court. No wonder that our nation has lost faith in Government.
Secondly - I do not want to live in a Christian nation. I want to live in a secular nation where everyone can chose to practice or not practice the religion of their choice. When did the Republican Party fail to understand that far more important than the right to blow each other up with weapons of war...is our founding principal of Separation of Church and State?
24
I'm sorry, Mr. Wehner, but the party I used to support created Trump all by itself and has been at it for decades.
Looking back to Nixon and his Southern Strategy ... to Reagan and his disdain of government, his "welfare queen" remarks and his campaign launch in Mississippi with talk of "states' rights" (code words if ever there ones in 1980) ... to H.W and the Willie Horton ad ... to the efforts to delegitimize Bill Clinton as less of a president because he only received a plurality of the popular vote ... to the outright racism that greeted the nomination of Barack Obama and the visceral hatred that the GOP and its leadership had for Obama from the day of his inauguration -- Mitch McConnell and his "campaign of no" from Day One, Rep. Joe "You Lie!" Wilson, the racist dog whistles of the tea party.
No, Mr. Wehner, in retrospect, I now know that my former party created this monster all by itself and over the course of decades. I'm at peace with that now, after happily casting a ballot for Obama in 2012 and looking forward to voting for Hillary Clinton in November. Once you reach the final stage of grief, as I did in the first year of the Obama administration, you'll be at peace with your new philosophical home, too.
Looking back to Nixon and his Southern Strategy ... to Reagan and his disdain of government, his "welfare queen" remarks and his campaign launch in Mississippi with talk of "states' rights" (code words if ever there ones in 1980) ... to H.W and the Willie Horton ad ... to the efforts to delegitimize Bill Clinton as less of a president because he only received a plurality of the popular vote ... to the outright racism that greeted the nomination of Barack Obama and the visceral hatred that the GOP and its leadership had for Obama from the day of his inauguration -- Mitch McConnell and his "campaign of no" from Day One, Rep. Joe "You Lie!" Wilson, the racist dog whistles of the tea party.
No, Mr. Wehner, in retrospect, I now know that my former party created this monster all by itself and over the course of decades. I'm at peace with that now, after happily casting a ballot for Obama in 2012 and looking forward to voting for Hillary Clinton in November. Once you reach the final stage of grief, as I did in the first year of the Obama administration, you'll be at peace with your new philosophical home, too.
38
As far as I am concerned the GOP is a collection of kooks, con men, and ignoramuses who spread the worst lies they can about people they don't like. They are in league with the NRA to the detriment of law enforcement everywhere in America. They pander to the worst in people. They refuse to acknowledge the fact that government run properly can be a good thing and do what families and individuals cannot. The Grandiose Obstructionist Popinjays have lost all credibility with their support for Trump. As far as I'm concerned the GOP should self destruct, the sooner the better.
24
It used to be that the Democrats were slightly left of center while the Republicans were slightly right of center with reasonable GOP'ers like Dole, Ford, Javits, Rockefeller, Eisenhower, Levin, even Arnold and Nixon. . Now, however, the GOP has been co-opted by the Tea Partiers to the extent that they are so far to the right that they've fallen off the cliff, especially when it comes to abortion. Roe v. Wade is and has been the law of the land since 1973. Live with it. You're anti-abortion? Don't have one.
16
"Find our way BACK to Lincoln"? Sorry folks but we've NEVER been there EVER. The Civil War was a just and necessary war, fought to snuff out the blight of slavery. Just as World War II snuffed out the evil of Fascism, unfortunately we had and STILL have far too much racist behavior in this land. I've always felt the terms for peace that the North imposed on the South were far too lenient The hated symbol of the Confederacy, that heinous flag., still flies without a hint of shame in MANY places in the South. The idea that it's a sign of "Southern pride" is an insult to all decent people and let me ask this: have ANY white people in places where that wretched flag flies ever thought how black people feel seeing it flying over the institutions of government in the states in which they live? OUTRAGEOUS. This historic election cycle has, very sadly, shattered any remaining pretense that America is a democracy as the Founding Fathers intended it to be. I was brought up to believe in the concept of civic duty and that the government was the FRIEND of the people and not the enemy. The notion that a vermin like Donald Trump could not only run but win the nomination of one of the two political parties in this country signifies the death knell for America as a world leader. That role has always been dubious but now it's truly shattered. Lincoln represents the best type of person this country has produced. How heartsick he'd be to witness life in America today.
14
How convenient to blame racism, xenophobia etc. and not face the fact the ideology of free trade and open markets, amplified by globalization has failed the American middle class. Yes cheaper goods, but at the price of US job destruction. Yes, globalization has raised the standard of living in the world's poorest countries, but the price is alienation and decimation of our own working class. Neither party has addressed this critical issue other than to tell us that education is the answer, as if learning calculus is going to help men and women who work with their hands competitive with third-world labor.
6
Yadda, yadda, yadda ... Yet another learned, thoughtful, insightful parsing of the Republican dilemma from a respected source representative of the supposedly foundational best and most worthy in true conservative, Republican ideals. Yet whether such a spokesman is Douthat, Brooks (David or Arthur) et. al. or, as in this case, Whener, each in his own way decries the candidacy of Donald Trump and offers some version of the latter’s parting challenge - "Republicans will have to choose whose vision of the party they want to follow.” Yet when the chips are down, none can muster the simple, honest courage to come out and directly say that they will - and by that example, that we all should - vote for Hillary Clinton. Then, having dutifully swallowed that bitter medicine, that the Grand Old Party should go on not to undermine and obstruct another distasteful presidency but to selectively and constructively build a renewed party upon the admittedly flawed but still vastly preferable foundation she offers.
15
We need statesmen, not politicians. We need single terms limited to 6 (?) years, not career "politicians" who are beholden to to money that got them elected. Bribery-in the form of moneyed interests- does not produce honest champions for the electorate. We need compassion. We do not need huge influxes of money from anyone, or any group. (Bernie had that right). Gee, what if politics could become something the average Joe felt he had a say in?
6
We can look at Kansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and all across the old Confederacy where Republicans govern to know what "conservative" government would be like if Trump is elected President with Ryan as speaker and McConnell as Senate majority leader. It will be great if you are a conservative, rich, white, male businessman. If you are a minority, a woman, or just an average worker, not so much. Remember the smell of that pollution is the smell of money.
16
Dear Peter Wehner, As other commenters have noted, you seem to be an honorable fellow. But I can't imagine someone being more blindingly naive. You worked for Reagan, Bush Sr., and W, but because racism, nativism, and misogyny were not the "core" of their message, you somehow imagined that it was unimportant to their electoral success, or the appeal of the Republican party more broadly. Let me draw an analogy for you: You are a committed Bolshevik who fights in the October Revolution. You believe that the abolition of private property will lead to a better Russia, and ultimately, to a global transformation in which all property is shared and all humans love one another. You lament Lenin's early death but you continue to believe in his vision and you embrace the new party leader Joseph Stalin. Skip ahead to 1938. Stalin's been in power for a long time and you've continued to work for him. Indeed, you have a lot of evidence regarding how Stalin actually governs, but because you and your best friends in government who aren't dead or in Siberia still believe in a communist utopia, and Stalin says that's his goal too, you see the show trials and purges as fundamentally unimportant to his governing style and grip on power. End of analogy. So tell me, what would you say if you had met such a person in Moscow back in 1938?
142
He's not naïve. He's "bought".
Ask him where the funding for this bogus and tax exempt 501(c)3 corporation gets it's money.
Ask him where the funding for this bogus and tax exempt 501(c)3 corporation gets it's money.
I'd say, ride with horse thieves, get hung as a horse thief.
Ironic: as I read the analogy I continually substituted "DNC" for Lennon and Stalin? And being from a former "communist bloc" nation I speak from personal perspective.
As to the closing, I can only surmise that TODAY's answer would be vote for HRC.
As to the closing, I can only surmise that TODAY's answer would be vote for HRC.
I'm sorry Mr. Wehner. The GOP abandoned Lincoln a half-century ago, choosing to woo the southern segregationists. Since then, the GOP platform has been a laundry list of segregationist appeals to states' rights, small government, school choice, law and order, voter suppression, welfare reform, war on drugs, and tax cuts for the wealthy. The party has sought for 50 years to divide and conquer, pitting Americans against each other at every opportunity.
Even the debate over 2nd amendment rights is segregationist at its core. The NRA image of the "good guy with a gun" is never black. Ronald Reagan first supported gun control when Black Panthers showed up in Sacramento, resulting in the Mulford Act. Now a black guy in Baton Rouge walking down the street openly carrying his AR-15 look-alike in accordance with the state's open carry law elicits a 911 call and police response.
Bill Clinton, dubbed the nation's first "black" President because of his good relationship with the African-American community, faced impeachment, and Barack Obama continues to face the birthers, one of whom is now the candidate for the once proud party of Lincoln.
Even the debate over 2nd amendment rights is segregationist at its core. The NRA image of the "good guy with a gun" is never black. Ronald Reagan first supported gun control when Black Panthers showed up in Sacramento, resulting in the Mulford Act. Now a black guy in Baton Rouge walking down the street openly carrying his AR-15 look-alike in accordance with the state's open carry law elicits a 911 call and police response.
Bill Clinton, dubbed the nation's first "black" President because of his good relationship with the African-American community, faced impeachment, and Barack Obama continues to face the birthers, one of whom is now the candidate for the once proud party of Lincoln.
9
I wonder how Trump supporters became "people who disdain government and the activity of governing"?
Sorry, Mr. Wehner. Thirty-five years of anti-government rhetoric from national GOP politicians, starting with Dear Ol' Ronnie Reagan ("Government is not the solution, government is the problem"), has convinced a big chunk of your base that politics is by its nature corrupt and government is nothing but an impediment to their freedom. The contempt Republican leaders have shown President Obama from the day he first won the White House has fanned their racist inclinations--kept at a simmer by the GOP since the 1960s--into flames. To stand before us now, on the eve of Donald Trump's coronation, and blame it on party crashers is disingenuous.
Sorry, Mr. Wehner. Thirty-five years of anti-government rhetoric from national GOP politicians, starting with Dear Ol' Ronnie Reagan ("Government is not the solution, government is the problem"), has convinced a big chunk of your base that politics is by its nature corrupt and government is nothing but an impediment to their freedom. The contempt Republican leaders have shown President Obama from the day he first won the White House has fanned their racist inclinations--kept at a simmer by the GOP since the 1960s--into flames. To stand before us now, on the eve of Donald Trump's coronation, and blame it on party crashers is disingenuous.
15
Mr. Wehner....please.... you are either terribly naive or looking for absolution. The GOP has had racist and hateful policies since Goldwater in 1964...though there were many GOP moderates yet in those days.
I have been predicting a demagogue such as Trump for years. My wife and I have had to endure what seemed to be endless hours of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh to please my in-laws. Anyone who spent even a short amount of time watching or listening to right-wing media knows of the racist and hate undertones which are broadcast daily.
So Mr. Wehner....why did you wait so long to worry about your party? The best thing which could happen for America is not only the defeat of Trump but the utter dissolution of the Republican Party. Let it be replaced by a centrist-right party which could everyone an deceit choice.
I have been predicting a demagogue such as Trump for years. My wife and I have had to endure what seemed to be endless hours of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh to please my in-laws. Anyone who spent even a short amount of time watching or listening to right-wing media knows of the racist and hate undertones which are broadcast daily.
So Mr. Wehner....why did you wait so long to worry about your party? The best thing which could happen for America is not only the defeat of Trump but the utter dissolution of the Republican Party. Let it be replaced by a centrist-right party which could everyone an deceit choice.
7
Wehner: "In every important respect, Donald Trump is a repudiation of Lincoln."
The so-called Party of Lincoln is now the Party of Trump; and Donald Trump, a man who has no reputation for telling the truth, is the face of the Republican Party, not "Honest Abe" Lincoln.
Of course, Lincoln has not been the face of the Republican Party for decades. The last time the Republican Party could claim with some honesty to be the Party of Lincoln was when Dwight Eisenhower was our president in the 1950s.
The 1956 Republican Platform included such things as protecting Social Security, providing asylum for refugees, extending minimum wage, providing federal assistance to low-income communities, equal pay for equal work,strengthening labor laws to protect workers' rights, etc.
Those days as the Party of Lincoln are long gone, and Republicans have chosen "whose vision of the party they want to follow." However, the Party of Lincoln repudiated Lincoln long before Trump.
The "time of serious self-reflection" being called for by Mr. Wehner should have happened years ago. The Republican Party are where they are now because they welcomed "people who were attracted to racial and ethnic politics and moved by resentment and intolerance rather than a vision of the good."
The so-called Party of Lincoln is now the Party of Trump; and Donald Trump, a man who has no reputation for telling the truth, is the face of the Republican Party, not "Honest Abe" Lincoln.
Of course, Lincoln has not been the face of the Republican Party for decades. The last time the Republican Party could claim with some honesty to be the Party of Lincoln was when Dwight Eisenhower was our president in the 1950s.
The 1956 Republican Platform included such things as protecting Social Security, providing asylum for refugees, extending minimum wage, providing federal assistance to low-income communities, equal pay for equal work,strengthening labor laws to protect workers' rights, etc.
Those days as the Party of Lincoln are long gone, and Republicans have chosen "whose vision of the party they want to follow." However, the Party of Lincoln repudiated Lincoln long before Trump.
The "time of serious self-reflection" being called for by Mr. Wehner should have happened years ago. The Republican Party are where they are now because they welcomed "people who were attracted to racial and ethnic politics and moved by resentment and intolerance rather than a vision of the good."
8
The "Party of Lincoln" still exists, but under a different name. It is the party of social tolerance and fiscal responsibility. Its Presidential ticket consists of a pair of former two term Republican Governors, Gary Johnson (oMexico) and Bill Weld (Massachusetts) , each of which prevailed in largely Democratic states. The name of the party under whose banner they are running is the Libertarian Party.
1
OOPS, I meant (New Mexico) where Gary Johnson served two terms as Governor!
Sorry the the typo.
Sorry the the typo.
1
Mike there's one nation on Earth currently operating on Libertarian ideals.
Can you name it?
You are correct sir, Somalia.
Somalia, that sun drenched Shangra La on the African Coast whose sole export, other than dispair, is piracy.
Libertarism is a childish fairytale dreamt up by anti-tax anti-government rightists that has no basis in reality.
Can you name it?
You are correct sir, Somalia.
Somalia, that sun drenched Shangra La on the African Coast whose sole export, other than dispair, is piracy.
Libertarism is a childish fairytale dreamt up by anti-tax anti-government rightists that has no basis in reality.
3
Why was Richard Nixon and his politics of his Southern Strategy completely left out of the autopsy? Hmmmm
Nixon perfected appeals to racial and ethnic politics moved by resentment and intolerance rather than a vision of the good. AND it worked, he was elected TWICE! He was brought down by his own hubris, rather than comeuppance on his Southern Strategy. Trump has updated Nixon, focused on undocumented illegals who do the dirty work for Americans like picking crops and slaughtering chickens which is paid for by US Citizens.
Nixon perfected appeals to racial and ethnic politics moved by resentment and intolerance rather than a vision of the good. AND it worked, he was elected TWICE! He was brought down by his own hubris, rather than comeuppance on his Southern Strategy. Trump has updated Nixon, focused on undocumented illegals who do the dirty work for Americans like picking crops and slaughtering chickens which is paid for by US Citizens.
10
Lincoln was a man of profound integrity, a public servant deeply committed to doing good in the world. Gee, like Obama. As long as the party is lead by cynical politicians whose main objective is to thwart elected Democrats, there is no path back to Lincoln's Republican party.
20
Is this a joke? The "Party of Lincoln" was the Republican Party that moved against his ideas only 50 years after Lincoln and within the next 50 years, from FDR's era to Goldwater to Reagan had completely switched itself into the old Democratic Party that Lincoln's era Republicans fought against.
What does Bush or Reagan have in common with Teddy Roosevelt or Lincoln??
What?
What does Bush or Reagan have in common with Teddy Roosevelt or Lincoln??
What?
16
The republican party has had nothing to do with Lincoln style values -- has not demonstrated being the party of Lincoln except with claims to be so but with no actions that support those values since shortly after the turn of the 20th Century.
12
You can twist your pretzel as you wish, the fact remains that the party of the intolerant is as it always has been.
It nominates illionaire "regular people" - it's a laugh. It is truly sad that the ignorant buy the snake oil, but that is how it is.
2 reasons why the R's are even relevant: young people don't vote and the ignorant always vote against their best interests.
It nominates illionaire "regular people" - it's a laugh. It is truly sad that the ignorant buy the snake oil, but that is how it is.
2 reasons why the R's are even relevant: young people don't vote and the ignorant always vote against their best interests.
9
I use respect as a guide. There are many situations in life where I may adamantly disagree with a persons opinion or actions, but that person would earn my respect if said opinions/actions were honest and believed to be best for others or for the country. It's been many years since there has been a Republican that has earned my respect. The media is full of folks like Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Fox News that feed the hate and divisiveness. Reagan, the hero of the Republican Party talked about the scary government officials looking to help and shrinking the size of the Government so it can be drowned in a bathtub. The Republican Party has devolved into the Party of No where the only solution is to cut taxes and regulations.
The country needs a vital two party system to keep a balance and to provide a forum for debate, but that hasn't been the model for many years. I truly hope that moderate Republicans, such as yourself, will help crush Trump in the elections and then work to re-establish a balanced and vital two party political system. I won't hold my breath.
The country needs a vital two party system to keep a balance and to provide a forum for debate, but that hasn't been the model for many years. I truly hope that moderate Republicans, such as yourself, will help crush Trump in the elections and then work to re-establish a balanced and vital two party political system. I won't hold my breath.
18
Suggestion for Mr. Wehner, assuming he is reading these comments: Head on over to the other NYT editorial online today, the one on the Kansas Secretary of State Kobach trying to disenfranchise 17,000 Kansas citizens.
There's your problem.
There's your problem.
24
I don't see that much of a surprise that Republicans have devolved to Trump. It has been against positive governance and anti-everything that isn't white and wealthy for decades, with these forces growing stronger over time.
How much of a leap is it from Mitch McConnell's gleeful grasping of the position of senate majority leader to put in place his plans to make the senate do nothing but attack and frustrate the president? From his early determination to make Obama a one-term president to dozens of attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act to his declaration that there would be no consideration of any Supreme Court nomination for almost a year - and at this point the federal court has about 10% of its seats empty - McConnell declared that government will not work under his governance.
We have a senate majority leader who seeks to cripple the executive and judicial branches of government out of hatred, spite, and racism. Now the same forces have snowballed into a presidential candidate who thrives on these things. But now the Republican Dr Frankensteins have lost control of the monster they created and are cowering or simpering in its path.
The Republicans started from a belief that government doesn't work. Give them some power and they'll prove it through incredible levels of obstructionism, insane tax policies, and slashing funding and personnel of regulatory agencies to make enforcement or performance impossible.
How much of a leap is it from Mitch McConnell's gleeful grasping of the position of senate majority leader to put in place his plans to make the senate do nothing but attack and frustrate the president? From his early determination to make Obama a one-term president to dozens of attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act to his declaration that there would be no consideration of any Supreme Court nomination for almost a year - and at this point the federal court has about 10% of its seats empty - McConnell declared that government will not work under his governance.
We have a senate majority leader who seeks to cripple the executive and judicial branches of government out of hatred, spite, and racism. Now the same forces have snowballed into a presidential candidate who thrives on these things. But now the Republican Dr Frankensteins have lost control of the monster they created and are cowering or simpering in its path.
The Republicans started from a belief that government doesn't work. Give them some power and they'll prove it through incredible levels of obstructionism, insane tax policies, and slashing funding and personnel of regulatory agencies to make enforcement or performance impossible.
310
Yes - take a look at Kansas - that's what crazy policies get you. Then look at Massachusetts. Same country?
I have been binge-watching "the Americans" on Amazon Prime. It occurs too me that maybe McConnell is actually a KGB illegal, sent here to get elected to office and undermine the US Government. If so, based on his conduct, he could return home as "Hero of the Soviet Union." Problem is, he missed that whole end of the USSR thing that happened in the 1990s. Or maybe he's just waiting for it re-emerge. Putin sure seems to be trying to do just that.
This wringing of hands is pathetic. The real Republican base is big corporations and big money. Of course this is not an electoral base so the Republican Party latched onto racial and religious bigots, and the "moral majority". The former has managed to con the latter into believing it represents their economic interests, which it doesn't. Now Trump has taken over that role - the billionaire bigot populist. This is your doing so spare us the soul searching.
14
If you're anti abortion, you're anti woman; if you're indifferent to the need for government safety nets, you're indifferent to the plight of the poor and weak; you're composed of haters and conspiracy nuts when you believe the President is an Anti American Muslim sent to the destroy the country; you're sustained by racist appeals when you don't forcefully renounce the support of white supremists
20
"For many on the left, explaining what happened is simple: The Republican Party has always been this way, and Mr. Trump is the logical and inevitable culmination of what the Republican Party has represented for decades. He is the ugly face of an ugly party."
If the shoe fits. As Bill Baher always say (paraphrasing), "I'm not saying all republicans are racists, but show me a racist and he's more than likely a republican."
The sad truth is that for decades, establishment republicans have been more concerned about winning elections and serving the interests of the rich and powerful than "containing and moderating" the repulsive elements within the party, as Mr. Wehner asserts. Yes, there is passing interest in containing these elements, but certainly none in moderating them - how else would the party win if it does not appeal to the group that it needs to win?
I'm afraid the GOP establishment is still not ready to reckon with the ugly truth of how it got here. Just the other day, Jeb Bush blamed Obama for "making us seem anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-science, anti-gay, anti-worker and anti-common-sense." This piece is just another example. Only difference is that it does not blame Obama.
If the shoe fits. As Bill Baher always say (paraphrasing), "I'm not saying all republicans are racists, but show me a racist and he's more than likely a republican."
The sad truth is that for decades, establishment republicans have been more concerned about winning elections and serving the interests of the rich and powerful than "containing and moderating" the repulsive elements within the party, as Mr. Wehner asserts. Yes, there is passing interest in containing these elements, but certainly none in moderating them - how else would the party win if it does not appeal to the group that it needs to win?
I'm afraid the GOP establishment is still not ready to reckon with the ugly truth of how it got here. Just the other day, Jeb Bush blamed Obama for "making us seem anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-science, anti-gay, anti-worker and anti-common-sense." This piece is just another example. Only difference is that it does not blame Obama.
20
Trump is ridiculous, almost a joke (a bad one), but don't kid yourself about the Republican party. It's central "philosophy" for the last 35 years has been "lower taxes, less regulation, less government, more religion."
This is a prescription for aid to the 1% and harm to the working and middle classes. It is a wish-fulfillment for ecomic inequality. It is a call to regress as a society, to ignore ecological and climate change concerns, to deny science, and to reduce civil rights while enhancing the rights of certain small, insular groups.
Want to return the GOP to "glory" after Trump? Start rethinking some of your "philosophies."
This is a prescription for aid to the 1% and harm to the working and middle classes. It is a wish-fulfillment for ecomic inequality. It is a call to regress as a society, to ignore ecological and climate change concerns, to deny science, and to reduce civil rights while enhancing the rights of certain small, insular groups.
Want to return the GOP to "glory" after Trump? Start rethinking some of your "philosophies."
21
Or perhaps, just perhaps, that liberal invective was based on readily observed characteristics of the republican party. But maybe that's too straightforward a proposition to entertain...
55
The author was and is ignoring the facts that the majority of party members voted in favor of racism, nativism and misogyny and has been doing so since the 1980's at the local and state level and it has now reached fruition on the national stage. Starting with Reagan, it has been a near continuous inexorable result. The author needs to get away from Washington to see how far the Republican party has fallen.
63
It goes back further than the 1980s. Take a look at Nixon's Southern Strategy.
1
Another hilarious oped by long time Republican shill Wehner. Has he never heard of the Southern strategy? The Republican party ceased to be the party of Lincoln long ago. It's now very much the party of Dixie. Does Wehner know where the Republican heartlands lie? The old confederate states. Does he know where the Republican party stands on the Confederate flag? The hypocrisy of this man is off the charts.
106
And, lest we forget, there was Ronald Reagan. Remember "welfare queens" driving Cadillacs, "young bucks" not working, and announcing his run for president from Philadelphia, Mississippi, the place Schwerner, Goodman, and Cheney were murdered.
As for the Republican party again becoming the party of Lincoln, what happened to the "autopsy" that was supposed to have been performed after Romney's defeat? NOTHING!
As for the Republican party again becoming the party of Lincoln, what happened to the "autopsy" that was supposed to have been performed after Romney's defeat? NOTHING!
3
"The hypocrisy of this man is off the charts."
But it's the very thing that qualifies him to collect a generous salary from the right wing theocrats at the ironically-named Ethics and Public Policy Center.
But it's the very thing that qualifies him to collect a generous salary from the right wing theocrats at the ironically-named Ethics and Public Policy Center.
1
If I recall race baiting, in the form of the Willie Horton ads was a big part of George H.W.'s campaign while his son's reelection in 2004 was in large part based on demonizing gay people.
While the author chooses to bury his head in the sand and deny the truth, the reason why Trump won the nomination is that he reflects the racism, misogyny, homophobia and xenophobia that the GOP has embraced and fostered since the days of Nixon's Southern Strategy. Unless you're rich or a white Evangelical or a a white Southerner, the GOP has no use for you.
While the author chooses to bury his head in the sand and deny the truth, the reason why Trump won the nomination is that he reflects the racism, misogyny, homophobia and xenophobia that the GOP has embraced and fostered since the days of Nixon's Southern Strategy. Unless you're rich or a white Evangelical or a a white Southerner, the GOP has no use for you.
109
There are only two viable Presidential candidates. Neither is ideal but one is an abomination. Republicans such as the author of this piece should advocate for Clinton as she is as close to an old school moderate Republican as they will see any time soon. All of this had wringing and denial from Republican politicians, pundits, and think tanks is becoming tiresome. They created this monster and now it has escaped its bonds.
Southern Strategy, Moral Majority, "government is the problem", trickle down economic nonsense, gun worship, capitalism as religion, etc.
You wanted the votes, now those voters want what you implicitly promised them. "Make America White Again" and "vote for me, I hate the same people you do".
Southern Strategy, Moral Majority, "government is the problem", trickle down economic nonsense, gun worship, capitalism as religion, etc.
You wanted the votes, now those voters want what you implicitly promised them. "Make America White Again" and "vote for me, I hate the same people you do".
128
The writer says that, if Trump loses, there will be a pitched battle for the heart and soul of the GOP.
I doubt that that will happen because that noble effort will be overwhelmed by incredible fear and loathing of Hillary Clinton. With Clinton in the Oval Office all of GOPland will be insanely angry. All of the GOP's energy will be channeled at destroying Clinton. There will be precious little energy left for reform.
I doubt that that will happen because that noble effort will be overwhelmed by incredible fear and loathing of Hillary Clinton. With Clinton in the Oval Office all of GOPland will be insanely angry. All of the GOP's energy will be channeled at destroying Clinton. There will be precious little energy left for reform.
64
Exactly so, even though she is at heart a Goldwater girl, moderate Republican and friend to all the donor class.
Mmr. Wehner fervently denies that the Republican party is the charicature portrayed by liberals.
This is laughable given the policies of GOP politicians. Denying poor women healthcare by defunding Planned Parenthood. Putting legislation in place to disinfranchise voters by the tens of thousands, which is exclusively a GOP policy. Trying to cut funds to help the poor and unemployed at the height of the Great Recession. Denying scientific facts like evolution and anthropogenic climate chane. Heck, look at the just completed GOP platform, which Trump had no hand in.
The list goes on and on and the Presidents Mr. Wwhner served had a strong influence on them. Even the "deep bench" of experienced politicians who Trump soundly defeated espoused the same policies in no uncertain terms.
Mr. Wehner broadly denies those charges, but that doesn't make them any less true. As a member of the last three Republican administrations, he had a hand in creating the rightwing mindset that Trump so nakedly displays.
Paraphrasing that great philosopher, Pogo, "You have met the enemy, and he is you."
This is laughable given the policies of GOP politicians. Denying poor women healthcare by defunding Planned Parenthood. Putting legislation in place to disinfranchise voters by the tens of thousands, which is exclusively a GOP policy. Trying to cut funds to help the poor and unemployed at the height of the Great Recession. Denying scientific facts like evolution and anthropogenic climate chane. Heck, look at the just completed GOP platform, which Trump had no hand in.
The list goes on and on and the Presidents Mr. Wwhner served had a strong influence on them. Even the "deep bench" of experienced politicians who Trump soundly defeated espoused the same policies in no uncertain terms.
Mr. Wehner broadly denies those charges, but that doesn't make them any less true. As a member of the last three Republican administrations, he had a hand in creating the rightwing mindset that Trump so nakedly displays.
Paraphrasing that great philosopher, Pogo, "You have met the enemy, and he is you."
92
Again, a good point on the voter disenfranchisement. Close DMV in black neighborhoods - a stated, targeted goal. Call it what you will - it's Anti-American.
Then along came Donald J. Trump, who seemed to embody every awful charge made against the Republican Party.
As if Ronald Reagan didn't. Can you not see the destruction your fiscal policies have wrought? Do you not know whom those policies hurt the most? Surely, you must have noticed that the very people Lincoln worked to save from slavery, then died because he'd succeeded, are the same people the Republican Party has had in its cross-hairs since Reconstruction ended.
As if Ronald Reagan didn't. Can you not see the destruction your fiscal policies have wrought? Do you not know whom those policies hurt the most? Surely, you must have noticed that the very people Lincoln worked to save from slavery, then died because he'd succeeded, are the same people the Republican Party has had in its cross-hairs since Reconstruction ended.
58
Reconstruction ended?
Says who?
Says who?
1
Though Lincoln hated slavery and wanted it abolished, his primary goal was to save the Union; he said that if he could have saved the Union without freeing a single slave, he would have done it. (John Wilkes Booth did deeper and more lasting damage to the former Confederacy with one bullet than all the armies of the North did in the entire course of the war.) The economic interdependence of South and North played a significant role. (A complex digression that won't fit here.) Post-bellum, while racism and Jim Crow helped soothe the wounded pride of Southern whites, Northern liberals were hardly the black man's friend, but sought to exploit and manipulate the newly freed slaves through carpetbagging politicians. Though the Civil War is often boiled down to a Manichean dialectic, its causes and consequences have filled libraries.
In 150 years, if we are still here, historians will find similar complexities in the politics of 2016. It doesn't all boil down to black and white, however reassuringly simple that formulation makes it seem.
In 150 years, if we are still here, historians will find similar complexities in the politics of 2016. It doesn't all boil down to black and white, however reassuringly simple that formulation makes it seem.
So, how did that 'autopsy report' work out for you guys 8 years ago? You know, the report that said Republicans needed to be more inclusive, attract minority voters, be more accepting of the LGBT community and their desire to be treated as equals, do away with corporate welfare, help immigrants in their path to citizenship, etc, etc, etc.
The party has turned into a very ugly joke. It's why I left it years ago.
The party has turned into a very ugly joke. It's why I left it years ago.
52
Let me count the ways: ".. racist appeals.." supported by the GOP voter suppression, gerrymandering, and anti-immigration positions; "..indifferent to the plight of the poor and the weak.." proven by Ryan's proposed yearly pig budgets; "...anti-woman.." unprecedented number of anti-abortion laws and defunding Planned Parenthood passed in the last couple of years. Sorry, Lincoln will not emancipate the GOP from the Donald.
27
Good question. Can we find we find our way back to Lincoln? Especially African Americans, who were staunch Republicans following the Civil War. Americans, educated under the current politically correct "education" system don't know that most African Americans adhered to the Republican Party until the 1960s, when they turned to promises of the Democratic Party's welfare state, to which they are now enslaved. Thank you.
3
Nice revisionist history there. Are you really claiming to know nothing of Nixon and his Southern Strategy?
2
Ah yes you yearn for the good old days when African-Americans knew their place as slaves.
3
Considering that Tennessee is fifth on a list of states most dependent on Federal assistance ( http://www.cheatsheet.com/business/states-dependent-on-federal-governmen... )
your confederate cockiness seems as out of place as this silly Op Ed.
your confederate cockiness seems as out of place as this silly Op Ed.
3
"For many on the left, explaining what happened is simple: The Republican Party has always been this way, and Mr. Trump is the logical and inevitable culmination of what the Republican Party has represented for decades. He is the ugly face of an ugly party."........uh....no it's not much more complicated than this. When moderates of any group fail to manage their extremes the extremes receive implicit permission to keep going. Worse, when moderates say or do nothing so they can hold onto power - such as when moderates abetted Sarah Palin - the ends becomes the new center. Hence Trump. It's really this that begets extremism whether in religious or political groups.
24
If the GOP is to be reclaimed Republicans politicians must start understanding that the only ideals that are real are personal ones. The whole 'running as a outsider against Washington' is a dead end and blatantly dishonest when you run against Washington year after year. Instead of being 'for small government' be for good government. Do not pretend to be anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-immigrant, pro-gun rights no matter how extreme, pro-continuous war in the Middle East and anti-equal-rights for women just to get elected when you do not actually believe in these causes personally. GOP politicians have been pretending to be passionate committed to those issue for decades in order to split special interests groups away from the Democrats. Most of these 'ideal' issues are uncontroversial to 60-70% of the Americans and they disagree with the GOP position. Besides, did you pay any attention to the other Republicans running for the nomination? Pandering to the 30% of Americans that are passionate about special interests comes at a great cost. Stop pandering and campaign on what you really believe in. It was clear that _they_ did not actually believe what they were saying.
Find you way back by finding yourselves.
Find you way back by finding yourselves.
5
Mr. Wehner's piece goes astray in its initial premise. Any "demonization" of the Republican Party is due to the actual policies it has advocated. It has truly become a party serving the interest of the moneyed elites at the expense of the poor and middle class. Opposition to the Republicans doesn't represent an adolescent rebellion, as Wehner suggests, but a considered rejection of what the Party has actually come to represent.
24
Two words, Tea Party.
13
If Clinton should be elected the 45th POTUS and the GOP should hold on to their majorities in the Congress, will bet folding money to wishes the 115th and 116th U.S. Congresses will be as "Do Nothing," if not less productive, than the 111th thru 114th "obstructionists" Congresses were...
12
So let's cleanse the Congress of its do-nothing members
"Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear"
- Jeremiah 5:21
The folks in the GOP should read The Bible instead of thumping it.
- Jeremiah 5:21
The folks in the GOP should read The Bible instead of thumping it.
25
Not if you're today's GOP, you can't. If you want to find your way back to Lincoln, the answer is right in front of your nose, accessible right now for your inspiration, available without even an iota of effort, with the caveat that you are intellectually honest, intellectually open to rational dialogue and persuasion. His name is Barack Obama...
28
For me not voting GOP has really nothing to do with Trump. I made this pledge to myself right after Bush left office. Now after seven years I feel even stronger about this. Its because of their refusal to govern. All they have done is try to neutralize President Obama while the American people seem to be the last thing on their minds. For the sake of their platform and far right base they have come out against large groups of our population. Trump is just a big mouth baffon speaking what the rest think.
35
Isn't it ironic that the Republicans claim that all the misgoverning and obstructionism on their part is for the good of "the American People"?
This is just another hypocritical article by another Republican who refuses to accept responsibility for how low his party no longer serves America's best interests.
This is just another hypocritical article by another Republican who refuses to accept responsibility for how low his party no longer serves America's best interests.
The Party, be it Democrat or Republican, is obsolete, a changing beast.
History shows The Party morphing again and again throughout history.
More and more people are turning to who and what the candidate is instead of being given 2 option by those who have the ability to pull the strings.
The vitriol from both sides is abhorrent, the accusations that fly back and forth, generally, apply to both sides and the unwillingness to even see it is ignorance at its finest.
Yes, The Party (insert your favorite here) is dying. What will replace it/them will remain to be seen.
Welcome to history in the making.
History shows The Party morphing again and again throughout history.
More and more people are turning to who and what the candidate is instead of being given 2 option by those who have the ability to pull the strings.
The vitriol from both sides is abhorrent, the accusations that fly back and forth, generally, apply to both sides and the unwillingness to even see it is ignorance at its finest.
Yes, The Party (insert your favorite here) is dying. What will replace it/them will remain to be seen.
Welcome to history in the making.
Wishful thinking son.
The Democratic party has won every single popular Presidential vote since 1988.
The American people are fine with the Democrats.
The confederate people, not so much.
But since 80% of the confederate states are debtor states who really cares what they think?
And until the GOP address these hypocrisies and shortcomings in their narrative they will continue to be the "Also Ran" party.
The Democratic party has won every single popular Presidential vote since 1988.
The American people are fine with the Democrats.
The confederate people, not so much.
But since 80% of the confederate states are debtor states who really cares what they think?
And until the GOP address these hypocrisies and shortcomings in their narrative they will continue to be the "Also Ran" party.
2
"The party many of us will fight for is a conservative one that appeals to rather than alienates nonwhites, that doesn’t view decency as a sign of weakness or confuse bullying and bluster with strength, and that aims to channel aspirations rather than stoke resentments and organize hatreds." The party so described by Mr. Wehner is not one I recognize as being in existence since I first voted in 1968. As an independent voter, I have not been able to vote Republican because since Nixon, continuing through Reagan, Bush I and II, and now Trump, the Republican party has consistently done two unacceptable things: (1) demonize segments of the population as the source of all our troubles (eg, welfare mothers, non-white people, immigrants, labor union members), and actively encourage animosity among the population; (2) produce wildly unbalanced policies that offer little to the average person, but benefit the Mitt Romneys of the USA. These two unacceptable tactics are closely linked. When you have (as Republicans do) nothing to offer the average voter, you can still use divisive issues to stir people up to vote for you. These tactics by the Republicans (pioneered by Nixon) have led directly to Trump. I have not even got to the arrogance and incompetence of the most recent Republican president, and the way his misadventures in the Middle East were strongly & blindly supported by the Republican party.
36
Peter Wehner on "The Reckless Rhetoric of Palin and Cain"
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas/conservatives-republic...
IMO, he is much better than our resident David Brooks.
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas/conservatives-republic...
IMO, he is much better than our resident David Brooks.
1
And on the other hand, this: Martin Longman's
" Peter Wehner is Part of the Problem"
http://washingtonmonthly.com/2013/10/13/peter-wehner-is-part-of-the-prob...
Wehner has promoted the conspiracy theory about Obama's "effort to erect barricades to keep wheelchair-bound World War II veterans away from the World War II Memorial-an open-air public monument"
" Peter Wehner is Part of the Problem"
http://washingtonmonthly.com/2013/10/13/peter-wehner-is-part-of-the-prob...
Wehner has promoted the conspiracy theory about Obama's "effort to erect barricades to keep wheelchair-bound World War II veterans away from the World War II Memorial-an open-air public monument"
12
For as long as I can vote (I'm in my early 50s), the Republican Party has stood for all the ugly qualities that you, Mr. Wehner, are refuting. Your party has done atrocious deeds through many presidencies, candidates, legislatures, congressmen, senators, governors and the Supreme Court. You, sir, must be in denial.
37
"Both parties are made up of imperfect people who have very different worldviews yet who by and large are acting in what they believe is the public interest."
Nonsense.
Both parties are primarily interested in benefiting big money and not the public interest, but not equally.
The Democratic Party has some concern for the public interest whereas the Republican Party has none whatsoever.
Nonsense.
Both parties are primarily interested in benefiting big money and not the public interest, but not equally.
The Democratic Party has some concern for the public interest whereas the Republican Party has none whatsoever.
15
When I grow up, the Republican Party included people like Chris Shays. Today, he would not even be considered a RINO.
The moderate wing of the Republican Party has either moved independent, reluctantly gone to the Democrats, or completely bailed on politics. Someone needs to stand up and speak for the moderates in America forcefully. Unfortunately, there is no one I see on the horizon capable of doing this. Michael Bloomberg was the best shot.
The moderate wing of the Republican Party has either moved independent, reluctantly gone to the Democrats, or completely bailed on politics. Someone needs to stand up and speak for the moderates in America forcefully. Unfortunately, there is no one I see on the horizon capable of doing this. Michael Bloomberg was the best shot.
4
There is no forward. The GOP core value is backward.
Seriously, the party of "nothing works" is motivated for the good of the nation? Everything that "made America great" has been undercut by denied funding and GOP congressional obstacles. Broken roads, bridges, aging electrical grid, scientific research, educational systems, available medical care, courts with judges, financial industry controls, everything. And then we are told lies about how this is for "our good as a nation" based on Ayn Rand and some anal retentive Wall Street oriented think tanks. Denial Mr Wehner.
Seriously, the party of "nothing works" is motivated for the good of the nation? Everything that "made America great" has been undercut by denied funding and GOP congressional obstacles. Broken roads, bridges, aging electrical grid, scientific research, educational systems, available medical care, courts with judges, financial industry controls, everything. And then we are told lies about how this is for "our good as a nation" based on Ayn Rand and some anal retentive Wall Street oriented think tanks. Denial Mr Wehner.
19
I have never voted Republican or barely considered it. Because, after all, if he/she was a good person, why would they be a Republican in the first place? In more than 60 years, this has been true, and real leaders have gradually abandoned the party over that entire time. Now, you are left with what you have--nothing but a doorstop to progress-- with merely fumes like this article to remind anyone that the Republican Party ever thought of themselves as anything to emulate. Lack of leadership, and lack of training in leadership in the schools. There is your answer. Educated people are not Republicans, and you are left with the ignorant and the vicious.
9
Despite the clear sincerely of Mr. Wehner's faith in the history of the Republican Party's to be the honest and fair broker of American conservatism, does he really believe that the GOP would dominate the southern states without its covert appeal to the racism prevalent in that region? "As ye sow so shall ye reap" is what got them the horror of Trump and now it could be everyone's problem after November.
9
Thanks for sharing, Peter, that Donald Trump is a repudiation of Lincoln. If he were only the first I would understand your anguish, but you yourself served under earlier repudiations of the Great Emancipator.
Re Reagan's racist choices, here's a 2007 Krugman blog: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/innocent-mistakes/.
When in 1980 he went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, a town where civil rights workers had been murdered not twenty years before, and let it be known that “I believe in states’ rights,” he welcomed those whose children would vote stoutly for your 2016 nominee.
When the elder Bush ran for President, did he ask your opinion of the Willie Horton ad? Was there anything in that ad but a threat that a Democratic victory would lead to large black men rampaging through American neighborhoods? H.W. himself may not have been racist, but he knew electoral politics well enough to understand that one does not rack up nearly enough GOP votes without feigning racism.
Peter, the people who support Donald Trump this year supported Sarah Palin for Vice President in 2008. Are you concerned that Trump doesn't read?
Actually, your objection is not to the blood-lust and the racism but to the blatancy of it all. How on Earth can you go to the country club and pretend that you really do care about all the little people as your legislators lighten the burden on the well-off and intensify the suffering of the poor?
Trump as Toto pulling back the curtain ...
Re Reagan's racist choices, here's a 2007 Krugman blog: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/innocent-mistakes/.
When in 1980 he went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, a town where civil rights workers had been murdered not twenty years before, and let it be known that “I believe in states’ rights,” he welcomed those whose children would vote stoutly for your 2016 nominee.
When the elder Bush ran for President, did he ask your opinion of the Willie Horton ad? Was there anything in that ad but a threat that a Democratic victory would lead to large black men rampaging through American neighborhoods? H.W. himself may not have been racist, but he knew electoral politics well enough to understand that one does not rack up nearly enough GOP votes without feigning racism.
Peter, the people who support Donald Trump this year supported Sarah Palin for Vice President in 2008. Are you concerned that Trump doesn't read?
Actually, your objection is not to the blood-lust and the racism but to the blatancy of it all. How on Earth can you go to the country club and pretend that you really do care about all the little people as your legislators lighten the burden on the well-off and intensify the suffering of the poor?
Trump as Toto pulling back the curtain ...
16
Peter Wehner did speak up in 2011 against birtherism:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703551304576260773968228358
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703551304576260773968228358
Here's an alternate theory. In December 2015, right before the primaries started, a budget deal solidified what a lot of what voters were against. The Republican part of the deal? Oil exports. And the Republican establishment celebrated. He's not perfect, but Donald Trump is not the establishment. If the game wasn't fixed, Bernie would have done the same on the other side. Sorry to break it to you, but in the information age, this is politics going forward.
No offense to the writer, but didn't Lincoln start (or fail to prevent) a war that cost 600,000 U.S. lives?
1
Not really. The die was cast by Buchanan's incompetence. Lincoln was inaugurated on Mar 12, 1861. The Battle of Ft. Sumter was on April 12, 1861. There is no one could have stopped that slide.
1
Thanks for the revisionist history, Jabo. If you believe that, I'm sure you're just eating up the nonsense and vitriol that Trump is spewing.
1
Can you find your way back? No. The only solution is to split up. Those that truly believe that it's time for change must step away and begin again. There are aren't that many of them, so it most surely will take some time. First step? Get rid of those that have been there for decades, that have reached retirement time, 75 years old, 80' 90. This is imperative if your'e sincerely looking to turn things around, to move forward and not continue your manic run backwards in time. The same is also true for the Democrats also. Leave the "centrist" to themselves, get those out that have also been around for decades and have been bought and sold. If they can't or refuse to do that, for real, then there are other parties to join. And, I think it's time to do so. I became an independent during the Clinton years and his selling out to Wall Street. I am now looking into the Green Party. Both parties don't seem to get how angry and depressed so many Americans are right now. We don't want to "go back". We want to move forward. Now. For the future of our children and grandchildren.
Then alone came Donald J. Trump and all that was tacit and covert..."a party sustained by racist appeals, composed of haters and conspiracy nuts, indifferent to the plight of the poor and the weak, anti-woman"...became explicit and overt with Donald J. Trump giving an unabashed public voice to what had been only spoken in whispers, party agenda and legislative initiatives...
As a lifelong independent moderate, have been pinning for a second viable political party for all of this century. It is long past time for the Republicans to call an end to this...this...alliance of convenience, shall we say...with the unruly and unwashed conservatives who are damaging, perhaps irredeemably, the party brand.
As went the Whigs in 1856, so should the Republicans go in 2017.
As a lifelong independent moderate, have been pinning for a second viable political party for all of this century. It is long past time for the Republicans to call an end to this...this...alliance of convenience, shall we say...with the unruly and unwashed conservatives who are damaging, perhaps irredeemably, the party brand.
As went the Whigs in 1856, so should the Republicans go in 2017.
22
The transcontinental railroad was a thoroughly Whig idea: the mother of all "internal improvements," as infrastructure was called then.
Lincoln knew a good idea when he saw one, even when it wasn't his.
Are today's Republicans capable of looking beyond their reptilian talking points and their so-called think tanks?
Lincoln knew a good idea when he saw one, even when it wasn't his.
Are today's Republicans capable of looking beyond their reptilian talking points and their so-called think tanks?
1
Wehner writes, "...the rise of Mr. Trump doesn’t invalidate my own experiences of life in a party comprising mostly honorable individuals working to advance an agenda they believed was in the national interest."
Oh really?
The agenda supported by the GOP for the past seven and a half years has been to obstruct President Obama at every turn trying to make him a "failed president". Time and taxpayer money wasted on a government shutdown, and 60-some attempts to repeal the ACA with no replacement proposal, has been the GOP agenda. Tax cuts for the rich, and destabilizing wars in the Middle East has been the GOP agenda. Lax regulations and defunding of watchdog regulatory agencies has been the GOP agenda. And so much more.
How, Mr. Wehner, are these agenda items in the national interest?
The GOP was in trouble, in decline, long before Trump came on the scene.
Oh really?
The agenda supported by the GOP for the past seven and a half years has been to obstruct President Obama at every turn trying to make him a "failed president". Time and taxpayer money wasted on a government shutdown, and 60-some attempts to repeal the ACA with no replacement proposal, has been the GOP agenda. Tax cuts for the rich, and destabilizing wars in the Middle East has been the GOP agenda. Lax regulations and defunding of watchdog regulatory agencies has been the GOP agenda. And so much more.
How, Mr. Wehner, are these agenda items in the national interest?
The GOP was in trouble, in decline, long before Trump came on the scene.
88
We'll know they're in trouble when their opponents quit perfuming them.
"GOP"? Tell me what's G about it. And be specific.
"GOP"? Tell me what's G about it. And be specific.
What's wrong with a government shutdown? We had one in the 90s, and we got a balanced budget, welfare reform and the longest economic boom in history.
Obamacare should be repealed, we can replace it with what we had up until 2010, it was better for most people,
The wealthy pay far more than their share of the tax burden, they shouldn't have to pay so much. Instead the 47% who pay NOTHING should start to pay their fair share. At the very least, only tax payers should be allowed to vote.
There were 4 good reasons to support the Iraq war, 1 Italy. 2. Germany 3. Japan 4. South Korea. Unfortunately there was 1 really big reason why we couldn't get such a desirable outcome, and that is Islam.
Obamacare should be repealed, we can replace it with what we had up until 2010, it was better for most people,
The wealthy pay far more than their share of the tax burden, they shouldn't have to pay so much. Instead the 47% who pay NOTHING should start to pay their fair share. At the very least, only tax payers should be allowed to vote.
There were 4 good reasons to support the Iraq war, 1 Italy. 2. Germany 3. Japan 4. South Korea. Unfortunately there was 1 really big reason why we couldn't get such a desirable outcome, and that is Islam.
Apparently, Wehner believes that the honorable "Republican agenda" has been in the "national interest." That's certainly a standard without a standard, and that's certainly not the Republican agenda I've seen over the past 30+ years. That's an argument without any substance whatsoever. All rhetoric, no meat.
1
My father, a power company lineman and union member, defined the difference between the GOP and Democratic parties in this way: Republicans tend to favor big business while Democrats favor the working class. This was around 1960, and that did seem to be the major difference. Things seemed to change, slowly at first, when the Civil Rights bill was passed by Congress. This much needed legislation lost the "Solid South" for the Dems and created new Republicans who realized that they could win elections by playing to racial tensions. Then came Nixon's "Southern Strategy" and Ronald Reagan opening his run for the White House in Philadelphia Mississippi. All this seemed to work for the GOP electorally, and then they decided to court Evangelicals and that worked too. Then they wooed the NRA and the anti-choicers. These groups proved to be a reliable voting bloc for them. They never seemed to realize that these elements would become their primary voting base and would, sooner or later, expect payback for their support. And now the Republican Party has the nominee who is the end result of years of pandering:Trump. Mr Wehner, you and other "reasonable" Republicans should have looked deep into your souls years ago and realized that there are some votes not worth getting because sooner or later you will have to pay for them. Well looks like the bill has come due.
603
And guess what party is responsible for your dad losing his Labor Union protections?
Yup.
The union busting republicans of course.
The GOP: The party that keeps taking from the poor and giving to the rich.
Yup.
The union busting republicans of course.
The GOP: The party that keeps taking from the poor and giving to the rich.
5
It is good to see events as hinged on Democratic championing of civil rights and Republican wooing of those disenchanted by it. The tall tale that is too often parroted by the deserters and their progeny is that the Democratic Party does nothing for them. When we look at votes on jobs, worker rights, Wall Street reform, tax fairness it is clear they were sold a bill of goods. And they are right to be angry. But what they only want they cannot have- Ozzie and Harriet America and all it implies and entails. They do not see themselves as privileged because they blinker out the violence done to others to maintain the status quo they wish to maintain.
2
The dems had the South only as long as they put up with blatant racism. After LBJ and the passage of the civil rights bill, the entire South went to the other party that was more then willing to take their votes and let them continue their status quo.
In todays terms Lincoln would, of course, be a Democrat. Or, to put it another way, Lincoln would have never been part of the Republican Party as per it's values today.
In todays terms Lincoln would, of course, be a Democrat. Or, to put it another way, Lincoln would have never been part of the Republican Party as per it's values today.
3
The people who voted for Trump have been in your party for a long time. You can keep trying all you want to deny that Republican leaders have tried to appeal to them as well as to low-tax, anti-regulation, pro-business types. That won't make it so.
24
The Republican Party was high jacked by corporate plutocrats that wanted to limit interference with their commercial interests. They wanted a small, weak federal government and Republicans still preach that government is the problem. They took advantage of anger over school integration mandated by the Supreme Court to savage the loyalty of citizens to our federal government.
Federal civil rights laws threatened the local hegemony of whites in the old Confederacy and they flocked to the Republican party for relief.
Republicans today try to limit voting by minorities.
I would like to know what parts of "conservatism" hold Mr. Wehner's allegiance even though election of Trump will harm America.
Federal civil rights laws threatened the local hegemony of whites in the old Confederacy and they flocked to the Republican party for relief.
Republicans today try to limit voting by minorities.
I would like to know what parts of "conservatism" hold Mr. Wehner's allegiance even though election of Trump will harm America.
21
"Can we find our way back..." To what? To being virulently anti-LGBT, anti-science, anti-women, and anti-environment? This idea that the Republican Party was somehow this great place before Trump is so incredible laughable.
48
"The broad indictment, the unfair generalizations, were caricature and calumny."
Sorry, but the data do not support you in the least. You Republicans like religious references, right? How 'bout: "By their fruit you will know them."
Look at the fruits of your Reagan and Bushes and legislators: the very idea of government torn to shreds and the wholesale abandonment of the need to share the cost of maintaining our society.
Why did you even bother writing your own response? Why didn't you outsource it to Halliburton or, better yet, some cheap overseas shop in the name of unfettered capitalism?
Your plea is a lie, and you have no business invoking the name of a genuinely great American president.
Sorry, but the data do not support you in the least. You Republicans like religious references, right? How 'bout: "By their fruit you will know them."
Look at the fruits of your Reagan and Bushes and legislators: the very idea of government torn to shreds and the wholesale abandonment of the need to share the cost of maintaining our society.
Why did you even bother writing your own response? Why didn't you outsource it to Halliburton or, better yet, some cheap overseas shop in the name of unfettered capitalism?
Your plea is a lie, and you have no business invoking the name of a genuinely great American president.
47
Very sorry, Mr. Wehner. But the Republican Party has reaped what it sowed. Beginning with Goldwater, they created Trump. They could not win with economic issues (eliminating the social safety net put in place by the New Deal) so they turned to social issues. They "just said no" to the evolution of society. There is no turning back the clock. They winked at kooks like Timothy McVeigh, nuts who attacked abortion clinics and sold themselves to the NRA. So now we all have to deal with the delinquents who are using the legitimate claims of Black Lives Matter to kill cops. None of these criminals, black or white constitute "a well regulated Militia." They are the antithesis of what is "necessary to the security of a free State;" they expropriate everyone else's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And so their right "to keep and bear Arms" must "be infringed." Ohio is an "open-carry" state. How many guns will there be on the convention floor?
35
I prefer to remember Jacob Javits. There was room for, "cloth coat" Republicans then.
10
But Wehner - and the first 13 commenters -- have ignored the many decades-old two shifts in the Republican Party that were perhaps most important in giving corporate powers the opportunity to hijack the Republican Party: 1) proclaiming government the incompetent, and, eventually, The Enemy ; and, 2) making religion a major part of 'conservatism'.
28
This is a feeble attempt at speaking half-truths and offering half-apologies. For instance, he lists past Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush and Republican nominees Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney, and states that their appeal to the American public was not based on "racism, nativism, and misogyny."
In the very next sentence, he goes on to note that "there existed in the Republican Party repulsive elements, people who were attracted to racial and ethnic politics and moved by resentment and intolerance rather than a vision of the good."
It is to these elements that the past Presidents and nominees pitched their appeals, often in coded language. Whenever Reagan spoke of states rights he could be interpreted as saying that the southern states had a right to determine their policies on slavery, gun control, abortion, birth control, gay rights, rather than giving in to a federal law. When Romney spoke of the "47% who pay no income taxes" he was appealing to the rich Republicans.
So, there are no more than half-truths and half-apologies in Wehner's analysis. Only when he and others in his party openly disavow these people and their beliefs without using coded language will the Republicans find their way back to Lincoln.
In the very next sentence, he goes on to note that "there existed in the Republican Party repulsive elements, people who were attracted to racial and ethnic politics and moved by resentment and intolerance rather than a vision of the good."
It is to these elements that the past Presidents and nominees pitched their appeals, often in coded language. Whenever Reagan spoke of states rights he could be interpreted as saying that the southern states had a right to determine their policies on slavery, gun control, abortion, birth control, gay rights, rather than giving in to a federal law. When Romney spoke of the "47% who pay no income taxes" he was appealing to the rich Republicans.
So, there are no more than half-truths and half-apologies in Wehner's analysis. Only when he and others in his party openly disavow these people and their beliefs without using coded language will the Republicans find their way back to Lincoln.
291
The author conveniently forgets Reagan's welfare Cadillacs, and George H.W. Bush's Willie Horton.
4
Yes, ye,s yes, thank you. Ronald Reagan -- the GOP hero and icon -- chose the tiny town of Philadelphia Mississippi to announce his campaign for president in 1980. For those too young to remember, watch the movie "Mississippi Burning" to see the reality of what took place there in 1964.
The choice Reagan made in the location was no "dog whistle" at all. That was full blown racism on display.
The choice Reagan made in the location was no "dog whistle" at all. That was full blown racism on display.
2
"This is a feeble attempt at speaking half-truths and offering half-apologies."
Obviously, at the Ethics and Public Policy Center Mr. Wehner is the executive in charge of ethics.
Obviously, at the Ethics and Public Policy Center Mr. Wehner is the executive in charge of ethics.
1
Y'all decided who you are. The Republican Party is the party of Reagan now. And as y'all are fond of saying (with utter unselfconsciousness): "You can't fix stupid."
19
Mr. Wehner, even if there is a small core of decent, well intentioned individuals who think of themselves as the true owners of american conservatism, there is a problem that cannot be overlooked: none of the actual policy positions that Republicans say they stand for make any sense whatsoever.
Always vote to lower taxes on the wealthy? Nonsense. Always vote to increase military spending? Also nonsense. Unrestricted access to military grade assault weapons? This will destroy our country. Abandon any sensible national healthcare policy? This will also destroy our country. Restrict women's access to medical services of their choosing? Medieval. The list goes on and on and on.
It is almost a viral-like condition that afflicts conservative thinkers: if there is a policy position that emanates from anywhere slightly left of center right, oppose it. This mental constipation, this moral disorientation is ruining our country.
Always vote to lower taxes on the wealthy? Nonsense. Always vote to increase military spending? Also nonsense. Unrestricted access to military grade assault weapons? This will destroy our country. Abandon any sensible national healthcare policy? This will also destroy our country. Restrict women's access to medical services of their choosing? Medieval. The list goes on and on and on.
It is almost a viral-like condition that afflicts conservative thinkers: if there is a policy position that emanates from anywhere slightly left of center right, oppose it. This mental constipation, this moral disorientation is ruining our country.
634
Or we can look at the opposite side of that coin: 1) always vote to raise taxes on pretty much anyone who can pay them 2) Downsize the military, let equipment shortages and poor pay impact our ability to maintain an effective force 3)Please, please, please at least learn the facts behind the issues. There is not, anywhere in the country "unrestricted access to military grade assault weapons. Period. Can you even define the terms "military grade" or "assault weapon"? 4) Look for a single payer system so the ENTIRE country can have healthcare on par with that supplied by the VA. Trust me, no one want that. But you probably don't realize that as I doubt you are a veteran. 5) Actually I am ok with abortion, but let's call it what it is, legalized murder of the unborn, and move on. I can go on too 6) Restrict or strangle charter schools so we actually condemn generations of underprivileged kids to the poverty plantation (please see #1 above). 7) Permit unregulated borders and allow illegal aliens the same rights as US citizens 8) Watch as the President neatly circumvents the Constitution etc.
Your last paragraph, with a few modifications (substitute right of center left for left of center right), neatly sums up the way I think about Democrats and liberals. So thanks for that clarity at least.
Your last paragraph, with a few modifications (substitute right of center left for left of center right), neatly sums up the way I think about Democrats and liberals. So thanks for that clarity at least.
... and if liberals propose implementing a conservative plan, repudiate it.
... in fact, if liberals propose ANYTHING, exaggerate what they are asking for until it is barely recognizable (cf chris oc, above) and resembles an ill-informed conservative's worst nightmares.
I can help you - tell your party to get rid of all hyperbole.
8
Thank you, dear fellow readers, for countering the falsehoods in Wehner's commentary. I hope he reads them and takes the time to fully appreciate them. However, in light of his self-admitted out-of-touch understanding of American politics, I doubt he'll take them to heart.
23
You argue passionately that there are many good Republicans who either oppose Trump or are queasy about supporting him.
These Republicans, you suggest, are respectable people who are not responsible for Trump's ascendancy. They're innocents, dragged along for the ride against their wishes.
What is Kansas Sec'y of State Kris Kobach?
An article elsewhere in today's NYT calls him a "zealous" enforcer "of a notorious law he urged Kansas Republicans to pass that requires new voters to prove their citizenship with a passport, birth certificate or naturalization papers."
Is he an "honorable individuals working to advance an agenda they believed was in the national interest"?
Or is he a racist, hating, conspiracy nut, a living "repudiation of Lincoln"?
So far the federal courts have invalidated voter ID requirements like those advocated by Mr. Kobach on the grounds that they have a disproportionate impact on minorities.
In other words, they're racist.
So again, my question: what is Mr. Kobach? You can't claim innocence until you answer the question.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/18/opinion/kansas-zealot-helps-shape-the-...®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article