November 10, 2012
William V. DePaulo: GOP doomed by its
hateful message
But if you think a vibrant Republican
Party is an important national asset, keep reading, even if with one eye
sharply focused on the author's point of view. Because this epistle is written
by an unrepentant liberal, yeah, that dirtiest of all political words for the
last decade or so. But note, being a self-described liberal is not the same as
being a Democrat. If perpetuating Democratic occupation of the White House were
the only objective, the prescription for the Republican Party is simple: don't
change nuttin.
To be sure, your scrivener has
acknowledged to friends that the greatest acts of political courage in his
lifetime were performed by Republicans: Nelson Rockefeller at the 1964
Republican convention firmly refusing to be shouted down by the extremists on
the convention floor; Elliot Richardson declining on principle to fire the
Watergate special prosecutor, resigning as attorney general, and thereby ending
his career as a Republican politician, and -- most surprising -- Bush Attorney
General John Ashcroft, literally rising from his deathbed to resist a
dark-of-night White House effort to extend authorization for a program of
unconstitutional spying on U.S. citizens.
So this writer values a principled
Republican Party. For one simple reason -- a vibrant GOP is critical to keeping
the whole system honest. But fixing the current Republican Party requires first
that one honestly diagnose the problem, for which history has some value. A
candid review of the last 50 years of our political history requires a would-be
fixer to face one overriding reality: the modern Republican Party is a product
of political reaction against change, the biggest of which was the civil rights
movement of the 1960s. Regardless of his positive qualities, Barry Goldwater ran in 1964 (in a campaign marked by Ronald Reagan's introduction to national politics) on a platform committed to repealing the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which LBJ realized was giving the South to the Republican Party for a generation. Nixon picked up the theme in 1968 with a thinly-veiled call for "law and order" which no one confused with a simple concern for enhanced law enforcement; it was all about keeping "them" down.
More recently, purported efforts to
ensure the "integrity" of the election process were transparent
attempts to disenfranchise historically excluded African-American citizens, an
effort that backfired enormously in the Tea Party governor of Florida's
restriction of early voting days, by galvanizing black churches into a
get-out-the-vote effort that surprisingly delivered 29 electoral votes to the
Democratic candidate.
Over time, Republican political
operatives added to the list of those whom it was OK to hate:
"treehugger" environmentalists (including locals who oppose
destroying 480-million-year-old mountains for the temporary expedient of
boiling water to turn turbines in coal-fired electric generation plants),
illegal aliens (the first of whom was some guy named Columbus), gay men and women
(particularly those seeking the most conservative institution on the planet --
marriage), "liberal" intellectuals generally (Democratic Sen. John
Kerry shockingly spoke French!) and climate scientists in particular (creators
of that biggest of all scientific hoaxes, "climate change" -- the
reality of which has already reduced west Texas to a desert) and religious
minorities like Muslims (who now outnumber Episcopalians in the United States).
Critically, it was not enough to
simply disagree with these "others" -- it was necessary to hate them.
Over time, the collective electoral effect of the Republican Party's expanding
appetite for hate has been to make the GOP the new minority, easily the
simplest explanation for the ability of a Democrat to win election in an era of
persistently high unemployment and exploding debt.
So that's it, really. The Republican
Party cannot build a future based on expanding the list of Americans whom it is
OK to hate. The totally foreseeable and only logical result of that endeavor is
that, in time, the purveyor of hate is reduced in direct proportion to the
increase of those hated. So it behooves Republicans to seriously examine their
affinity for marketers of hate, whether on hate radio, in high-sounding but
bogus philanthropic groups, or in their individual hearts.
There is, after all, an alternative
model for Republicans to follow; a man named Lincoln who issued the
Emancipation Proclamation ending three centuries of slavery for millions of
Africans brought to this country against their will in chains. Yes, Lincoln,
the first Republican, whose stature in American life grows exponentially with
every book written and every movie made about him. Think about him as an alternative
to the recent hatemongers. We will welcome you back to the contest for
America's soul!
DePaulo is a
Charleston lawyer.
