A closing argument against Republican power

I’m five-issue voter: I care about democracy and voter access, protection of civil rights and civil liberties, a durable social safety net, guaranteed issue health care, and an internationalist foreign policy. If a candidate aligns with my views (or close to) my views on those five things, they are going to get my vote.

Which is why I almost exclusively vote for Democrats.

But I am not going to talk to you as a staunch Democratic voter. I’m going to talk to you as an American.

Through the luck of the draw of our existence, we live here in the world’s most powerful nation with living standards that are among the world’s best. The United States is the most successful multiethnic, multi-faith, pluralist democracy in world history, granted we have only begun to reach our full potential in the past half century.

Power in this country is divided between two political parties — the Democratic Party, the world’s oldest extant political party, and the Republican Party that’s nearly three decades its junior. While the character and ideology of both parties have wavered over the past century and a half, their duopoly on electoral power has not. These are, realistically, the choices that we have as Americans.

Since the New Deal era, the key difference between the two parties has been their respective interpretation of liberalism. Liberalism is a political, social, and moral philosophy that is not as rigid as some adherents or detractors claim. You have centrist liberals, left-wing liberals, and right-wing liberals. Modern liberals and classical liberals. Inclusive liberals and exclusionary liberals. Progressive liberals. Conservative liberals. Libertarian liberals. Socialist liberals. It goes on.

While liberalism, regardless of interpretation has a set of cores values — limited government, individual rights, and personal liberty — the American debate has centered upon how those values are best applied in our society. Should we have an expanded view of liberalism? Should be it be narrow? It has shaped discussions on policy, domestic and foreign.

As you can guess from my five issues, I err on the side of an expanded view of liberalism. But if conservatives want to argue from a much more constrained view, then I respect that difference of opinion. An often forgotten part of liberalism is the acceptance that there are differences of opinion.

However, the 2022 midterms are not just about a difference in opinion, let alone policy differences between two parties. The Democratic Party, with flaws like any human enterprise, are vying for power to continue to craft policy. The Republican Party, on the other hand, are vying for power to…basically have power.

This is not a case of “both sides”. Extremism is bad, regardless of what end of the spectrum it is, but if we are being honest here, there is one side that is clearly worse than the other.

Since the 1960s, the Republican Party has been sickened by a carcinogenic strain of right-wing extremism that has only metastasized over time. Since the 1980s, Republicans have been comfortable with lying to their own voters, crafting so-called left-wing boogeymen that still have no basis in reality, fashioning them as threats to “freedom” and “liberty” and accusing them of being enemies of “patriots”. These have become utterly meaningless in their original definition: these are now nothing more than code words and punch lines to elicit campaign dollars and toxic support.

A culture of selfishness and an insatiable lust for power has fueled the Republican Party, culminating in its embrace of a type of right-wing populism that rewards lies, disinformation, and delusions and punishes facts, truth, and introspection. According to various news outlets, nearly a third of Republican candidates running for offices across the country have made on-the-record statements denying the outcome of the 2020 election. A quarter of them are currently favored to win their elections. Some of these candidates are running for Secretary of State in their respective states, a political office that often has control of how elections are conducted and how votes are counted. Parroting lies about a fictitious election conspiracy against right-wingers is not only a litmus test in Republican politics; it is almost the only way a Republican has a shot at getting elected.

However, economic issues have moved front and center in the minds of many voters. Understandably, there are voters that are going to want to send a message to Democrats by voting for the Republican that is running in their respective congressional or legislative district. That might be you that’s reading this.

But if you are running to punish Democrats by throwing your support to the Republican, I want you to understand the big picture here: inflation is not permanent. Economic anxiety is not permanent. The United States economy is arguably the most resilient in the world, and even the fears of a recession have abated in the markets. On the other hand, voting for a Republican is not going to lower your grocery bills or your heating/cooling bills. If they get lower, it is not because Republicans are in control of Congress — they would never be able to pass any legislation into law.

But here’s what will happen if you cast your vote for a Republican:

Forget about having free and fair elections.

Forget about having a government that can respond to crises.

Forget about being able to have stable access to health care

Forget about being able to make decisions about your own body.

Forget about living in a less divisive country.

Forget about having Social Security and Medicare.

Forget about having a strong, effective safety net.

Forget about having the freedom to worship on your own terms.

Forget about meaningfully addressing the pressing problems facing many of our communities.

Forget about having an effective internationalist foreign policy.

The modern Republican candidate does not care about being good at governing. They do care about having power. And as we have seen in years past, the post-Eisenhower Republican Party cannot be trusted with power.

There was a time when where you could sit down with a Republican to have meaningful conversations about policy. Once upon a time, there was ideological diversity in the party. There was a time where it was about crafting effective, humane policy instead of putting forth ideas that were about being punitive and cruel and only designed to “own the fucking libs”. The thoughtful, reasonable Republican is almost extinct in American politics.

Democrats have not been perfect. Some Democrats are probably a little bit too in love with their ideological goals. However, I find Democrats to be the more reasonable of the two parties. That’s why I consider myself a Democratic voter.

But before I am a Democrat, I am an American. And as an American, I am pleading with my fellow Americans to do the right thing: do not hand over the keys of power to Republicans.