LA Progressive

Smart Content for Smart People

  • Home
  • About Us
    • About Us / Copyright Info
    • Privacy Policy
  • Topics
    • Animal Rights
    • Climate Change
    • Economic Justice
    • Education Reform
    • Elections and Campaigns
    • Environment
    • Community Calendar
    • Healthcare Reform
    • Immigration Reform
    • Labor
    • Law and Justice
    • LGBTQ
    • Progressive Issues
    • Social Justice / Racism
    • The Media
    • The Middle East
    • War and Peace
  • Authors
    • All Authors
    • Steve Hochstadt
    • Charles D. Hayes
    • David A. Love
    • Diane Lefer
    • Dick Price
    • Jerry Drucker
    • John Peeler
    • Joseph Palermo
    • Tom Hall
    • Sharon Kyle
    • Sikivu Hutchinson
  • Scorecards
    • California Assembly Criminal Justice Scorecard
    • California State Senate Criminal Justice Scorecard
  • Events
    • Left Coast Forum
    • Event Calendar
  • Subscribe

The Death of the Republican Party

republican party diedI’m writing to you today to announce the death of the Republican Party. It is no longer a living, vital, animate organization.

It died in 2016. RIP.

I, for one, regret its passing. Our nation needs political parties to connect up different groups of Americans, sift through prospective candidates, deliberate over priorities, identify common principles, and forge a platform.

It has been replaced by warring tribes:

  • Evangelicals opposed to abortion, gay marriage, and science.
  • Libertarians opposed to any government constraint on private behavior.
  • Market fundamentalists convinced the “free market” can do no wrong.
  • Corporate and Wall Street titans seeking bailouts, subsidies, special tax loopholes, and other forms of crony capitalism.
  • Billionaires craving even more of the nation’s wealth than they already own.
  • And white working-class Trumpoids who love Donald. and are becoming convinced the greatest threats to their well being are Muslims, blacks, and Mexicans.

Each of these tribes has its own separate political organization, its own distinct sources of campaign funding, its own unique ideology – and its own candidate.

What’s left is a lifeless shell called the Republican Party. But the Grand Old Party inside the shell is no more.

I, for one, regret its passing. Our nation needs political parties to connect up different groups of Americans, sift through prospective candidates, deliberate over priorities, identify common principles, and forge a platform.

The Republican Party used to do these things. Sometimes it did them easily, as when it came together behind William McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt in 1900, Calvin Coolidge in 1924, and Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Sometimes it did them with difficulty, as when it strained to choose Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Barry Goldwater in 1964, and Mitt Romney in 2012.

But there was always enough of a Republican Party to do these important tasks – to span the divides, give force and expression to a set of core beliefs, and come up with a candidate around whom Party regulars could enthusiastically rally.

No longer. And that’s a huge problem for the rest of us.

Without a Republican Party, nothing stands between us and a veritable Star Wars barroom of self-proclaimed wanna-be’s.

Robert ReichWithout a Party, anyone runs who’s able to raise (or already possesses) the requisite money – even if he happens to be a pathological narcissist who has never before held public office, even if he’s a knave detested by all his Republican colleagues.

Without a Republican Party, it’s just us and them. And one of them could even become the next President of the United States.

Robert Reich

Republished with permission from Robert Reich’s Blog.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

By Robert Reich posted on February 16, 2016

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed here are those of the individual contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the LA Progressive, its publisher, editor or any of its other contributors.

About Robert Reich

Robert B. Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written eleven books, including The Work of Nations, which has been translated into 22 languages; the best-sellers The Future of Success and Locked in the Cabinet, and his most recent book, Supercapitalism. His articles have appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Mr. Reich is co-founding editor of The American Prospect magazine.

Reich has been a member of the faculties of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and of Brandeis University. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, his M.A. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

Comments

  1. Tom Smith says

    February 19, 2016 at 9:22 pm

    what can i do if my own government is being stupid
    Bork got a hearing and he got a vote
    the politicians can all argue what should be done and when it should be done but at the end of it all I expect there to be 9 justices

    if you hold my government hostage i feel like i don’t have to follow your laws

    i always wondered how I’d react when let down when i felt like i was living in a Camus novel

    if there isn’t a supreme court vote before July 4th I’m going to start throwing nails out on the highway

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

big bad bernie

Stow Your Wives! Hide Your Children! Big Bad Bernie Is Back!

Bernie Is Back

Bernie Is Back


The LA Progressive cannot publish without your support. Please donate. Thank you.
harris wofford

My Friend Harris Wofford Jr., 1926-2019: Prophet of a United States of the World

Tad Daley: During the darkest days of the Second World War, teenage Harris Wofford founded a nationwide youth movement which proclaimed that after the end of that war the human race could abolish war, by creating a “United States of the World.”





Book-A-Bus



Please CLICK this donate button - we need your support. Thank you, LA Progressive

Article Categories

Africa | Animal Rights | California
Climate Change | Defense | Economic Justice
Education Reform | Elections | Environment
Events | Foreign Policy | Gay Rights
Healthcare Reform | Immigration Reform
Juvenile Justice | Labor | Latin America
Law and Justice | Los Angeles | Prison Reform
Progressive Issues | Science & Religion
Sexism | Social Justice | Terminal Velocity | The Body Politic
| The Media | The Middle East | Veterans
War and Peace | Wellness

The LA Progressive cannot publish without your support. Please donate. Thank you.

Los Angeles

LA County Construction Vote

L.A. Jail Vote: Wrong Side of History

Peter Laarman: Everyone in the auditorium on today could smell the bad faith in the comments of supervisors Barger, Hahn, and Ridley Thomas.

More Posts from Los Angeles

The Middle East

Anti-Semitism Claims

Don’t Let Bogus Claims of “Anti-Semitism” Derail the Pro-Palestinian Movement

Jim Lafferty: The pro-Israeli lobby is rapidly losing its propaganda campaign aimed at silencing those who dare to criticize the bad behavior of the Israel government.

More Posts from The Middle East

Economic Issues

Forex Market

How to Get Started in Forex Market

Daffa Zaky: Probably the number 1 thing you need to understand is to learn the basics first. Forex markets can grow complex as you invest more in the market.

More Posts from Economic Justice

Copyright © 2019 · Dick Price and Sharon Kyle · Log in