A Better Republican Party
It's broken and time for a new vision
I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.
-Ronald Reagan
I am a proud conservative and a proud patriot. Not in the new meaning of the word that has come to mean aggressively Republican, but in the original meaning of the word: I love America and think it’s the greatest nation on earth. But it’s been a long time since I felt comfortable calling myself a Republican. I tried for a couple years into the Trump presidency, but then all the adults in the room retired. And so, I’m left here, politically homeless.
The unfortunate thing is, because the right has given up on any semblance of humanity, decency, or thought; we’re losing people who expect that from their leaders and are instead left with idiots like Matt Gaetz who think they were elected to cause chaos. And because of that, despite the radicalism of the left, everything they do looks quite banal. The left doesn’t have to win arguments because they’re the only ones making any. And I’m not okay with that. The right has a lot to offer; and in my opinion, is correct in most things. So below I have outlined what a positive Republican vision for the future might look like instead of the reactionary dumpster fire the party has become.
I do believe in a strong Republican party, it's good for Democracy
- Nancy Pelosi
Freedom
Look, this is and should be a basic premise of the political right. Freedom of speech, freedom of and from religion, freedom of the press, and freedom to pursue happiness.
The left in the United States is certainly guilty of censorship these days, but so is the right. I’m not sure when the right became the party of book bans, but it’s a bad look. Freedom of speech means that everyone can say and publish whatever they want without government censorship. Obviously, there are limits to this, but by and large this authoritarian tendency on the right these days - I’m looking at you DeSantis - is morally repugnant. The right should understand that a marketplace of ideas is the best way to move forward and that free discourse without fear of reprisal, is how progress is made. We’re not losing arguments because we’re wrong, (well, we’re not losing all arguments because we’re wrong) we’re losing arguments because the left puts forward a solution and all we say is you’re wrong without presenting an alternative idea. It’s time the right stopped fighting speech and started harnessing it.
Religious freedom does not mean Judeo-Christian religious freedom. It means freedom for everyone to worship whatever or whomever they would like. And the freedom to not worship at all. It means religious protections, it means grants and other incentives for religious and other community organizations - because we need community now more than ever before and there’s no better place to form community than at church. The United States should be a safe place and a refuge for religious people everywhere and too many Democrats think religion = oppression for them to be the party of religious liberty.
I think the fairness doctrine should probably be reinstated. Because it turns out people in power don’t like a free press, they like a friendly press. The economic incentives really aren’t there for a free and independent, nonpartisan press. Instead, we just splinter further and further into these little echo chambers where the only people we listen to are people we agree with and most of the time, they’re not reporting: they’re propagating (as in propaganda). The distinction between news and commentary is getting blurred every day and the Republican party should stand for something better. I’m certainly not advocating for a ban on partisan media - again, free speech - but Republicans should recognize that this fracture isn’t good for the party or democracy. There have to be changes we can make to the incentive structure without infringing on people’s right to speech.
Lastly, people should be free and encouraged and incentivized to be something great or do something great. Part of what has made the idea of America so enduring is as much about exploration, conquest, and risk taking - think the wild west - as it is about the American dream - being able to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and make something of yourself. This means that the Republican party of the future should be champions of cheap, quality education. We should be pro-teacher and pro-student. We need to reform the teachers unions so that good teachers can be rewarded and bad teachers can be let go and we need to incentivize our best and brightest to go into teaching. We need to do away with this “everyone gets an A” nonsense and realize that it’s only through fair evaluations that students can learn and grow. It means that the Republican party of the future needs to be the party of children, the party of math and science, and the party of reading.
As the party of life, the Republican party should take the charge on improving the living conditions of children in this country. Childhood poverty in the United States should just not exist. Healthcare should be cheap and accessible for children - and that includes mental health. But this isn’t some namby-pamby, let’s do away with pain and responsibility - it’s a recognition that where you start should not determine where you end up and that should be truer in America than it is anywhere else in the world. If we want the American dream to be achievable for everyone and not end up stagnant like Europe, we need to invest in the future and that can be done most effectively by investing in children.
Immigration
The quote at the beginning of this post from Ronald Reagan is probably one of the most important and inspiring things anyone has ever said about this country. We are, after all, a nation of immigrants. Many, if not most of whom were fleeing some sort of oppression; all of whom were looking for something better, something only America can provide. But nobody talks about immigration correctly, Democrats have no clear policy - just a notion that “nobody is illegal” and Republicans won’t talk about anything past securing the border. Unfortunately for both parties, the answer lies somewhere in the middle, but I think Republicans are more correct than Democrats.
As a sovereign nation, we simply have to have control of who enters the country. Period. That does not mean that we’re racist, it does not mean that we’re xenophobic (a word Democrats discovered a few years ago and love throwing out every chance they get), it means that we are a country founded on rules and laws. And rules and laws make us free. Illegal migrants do not have the protection of the law - or at least that’s the perception many of them have. Illegal migrants are often afraid to go to the police for fear of getting deported and as such they are often taken advantage of by predatory business owners and gangs. An open border also presents a national security risk. Gangs are one thing, but people cross the southern border from all over the world, if another terrorist organization pops up that’s as hostile to the US as ISIS it feels like a matter of time before someone illegally crosses into the US and commits an act of terror. What Republicans don’t want to admit is that most people who live here illegally, entered the country legally and just overstayed their visas. And the visa system needs a major overhaul, it’s insane that we’re bringing people from other countries here to get an education and then just sending them back to their countries. But beyond that, homeland security needs better enforcement for people who overstay their visas. Deportations aren’t great, but what other solution is there?
However, there has to be a plan for after we secure the border. Obviously, there are millions of illegal immigrants already here, and they need to be dealt with. I think there’s room for debate here, but if we’re going to get the majority of the country behind us, there has to be something to look forward to, not just a reaction to the images shown on Fox News. Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to immigrants and I think that’s likely the only viable path forward - again, after the border is secure - but Republicans should have a robust, ongoing debate about what we do with immigrants moving forward. Maybe it’s not full amnesty, but legal status for a year to get their house in order and apply for a visa, maybe it’s amnesty to some but not all. I don’t know, point is, Republicans have to be more forward thinking. Until the border is secure, the policy has to be to deport or else we, and our social services, will be overrun.
Beyond just illegal immigration, America needs an immigration policy. For one, Americans are not reproducing even at replacement rate, let alone higher; so if there is to be an America in the future, it’s going to be mostly people descended from people who currently don’t reside in the US (which, side note is the best thing about America. We’re not a country based on one ethnicity or culture, but an idea). So America needs to decide how many people it’s going to let in and who those people are. Personally, I think it should be about what jobs need filling and then after that it should be a lottery, but I could be persuaded otherwise. Not really sure what the policy proposal is here, except to say Republicans need to think beyond the border.
American Exceptionalism
Part of the beauty of being the city on a hill is you can act as the world’s policeman. And the world needs a policeman. Bad actors will always exist and if America focuses only on itself, then the people left holding the big sticks are China and Russia - and we’ve seen how they wield their sticks. So America needs to maintain the world’s most powerful and innovative military, America needs to invest in diplomacy and foreign investment, and America needs to fight to be the world’s biggest champion and defender of Freedom and Democracy.
This doesn’t mean starting wars to free people who are under authoritarian rule or nation building or anything of the sort. What it does mean is that America will not tolerate genocide, as is currently happening in China, or unprovoked wars of conquest, as is currently happening in Ukraine.
American diplomats should be unapologetic patriots who also love and value the people and cultures of other nations. They need to preach the gospel of American exceptionalism everywhere they go so that the people of other countries will look to us for leadership and not think of us as oppressors or colonists.
Look, you will rightly point out that America has it’s issues. Slavery here went on way longer than basically anywhere else and even after that Jim Crow and racism still existed and exist, poverty is high, healthcare is low, education is falling behind, etc. We have our issues for sure, but no other country on earth has done more to maintain international peace and order, no other country has done more to fight for freedom and democracy, and no other nation on earth has set up as prosperous and vibrant of a multicultural democracy as the United States of Freaking America. So yes, we have a lot to work towards, but we’re America, if anyone can do it, we can.
Markets
This is similar to the freedom bullet, but the Republican party should be the party of markets, the party of free enterprise. Nothing has done more to lift people out of poverty than capitalism and it needs to be defended. Republicans need to be champions of free enterprise and free markets, we should be anti-regulation and anti-zoning, we should be the party of innovation and progress, and most of all, we should be unapologetic YIMBYs.
However, Republicans should also be the party that recognizes market failures and proactively looks to fix them. This includes things like healthcare and education which should function outside of a normal market, because the profit incentives may be antithetical to the functioning of these sectors. (Sidenote, the Department of Education is unconstitutional, but Republicans should fight for a constitutional amendment, not to get rid of the Department of Education.) It also means that the Republican party should be the party of monopoly busting, whether it be by deregulating a space so that barriers to entry are lower, blocking acquisitions or actually breaking up companies, the Republican party needs to be pro-consumer/pro-citizen and pro-competition. Because being pro-business means being pro-healthy markets, not pro-Amazon.
Republicans need to get over this protectionist tendency that’s taken over all of politics. Yes, American workers got passed over in the drive for globalization, but tariffs and trade wars are not the solution. We should be looking out for folks who are in unskilled jobs, but that’s not by driving up prices for them and everyone else, it’s by innovating and finding our competitive advantage. Republican solutions could be tax incentives to companies who move headquarters outside of major metro areas, abolishing taxes on corporations, government backed small business loans, free community college for those whose jobs are lost to innovation or globaliztion. There are many market solutions to the issue of job loss. There’s also certainly room for national security in this, we absolutely should have robust supply chains within the US for things like energy, raw materials, and food and government has a role in ensuring those supply chains stay intact; but everyone is better off when international commerce is unmarred by tariffs and other trade barriers.
Life
It’s not enough to be vaguely “Pro-Life” anymore. Roe is dead, it’s time the Republican policy was clear on abortion. The Republican party should be the party of life and protecting it as much as possible from the time of conception on, but that doesn’t mean being the party of zero tolerance for abortions. For electoral reasons as well as practical reasons, Republicans should not adopt policies of abortion bans before15-20 weeks. And after that, there should always be exceptions for things like rape, incest, and especially the life of the mother.
But beyond just specific abortion policies, Republicans should do more to support single and poor mothers/parents to raise their kids if they want to and provide pre- and postnatal care if they don’t want to and decide to give their kids up for adoption. Republicans also need to teach comprehensive sex education everywhere. I get that people believe premarital sex is bad, I certainly do, but abortion is worse and we live in the real world, not Zion, so sex is going to happen and people should be taught how to have sex without getting pregnant to reduce the number of abortions. When it comes to the future of abortion for Republicans, we need to adopt the slogan of Democrats of yesteryear “safe, legal, and rare” and I would add early.
Republicans should be an unabashedly pro-natalist party. Democrats are in this doom loop where they think that the world is going to end, so we have to save the world by not having kids or they think the world is going to be so bad it’s somehow “unethical” to have children. What? First of all, life is only going to get better. Even if the world heats up by 1.5 degrees or more, humans are creative and adaptable. And second of all, if we’re not saving the world for our children, what are we saving it for? Just as it doesn’t make you “more enlightened” to not be patriotic, it also doesn't make you more enlightened to think that we as a species need to sacrifice ourselves for the good of the planet. I’ll get more into the global warming stuff later, but Republicans need to encourage marriage/long-term partnerships and rearing children.
Guns
This policy of unrestricted guns, ammo, accessories, and the like is so incredibly stupid. Republicans should be pro-gun and pro-gun safety. Look, I like shooting guns as much as the next guy and anyone I know who is a gun enthusiast also has a great respect for them. When you grow up in gun culture, you learn gun safety from an early age. Thus, the misuse of guns seems asinine. But, unfortunately, most people in America don’t grow up with guns and even if they do and they have a mental breakdown they tend to shoot others and themselves. Republicans can’t keep just chalking everything up to mental health, we have to have regulations on guns to keep people safe. Whether those be red flag laws, background checks, mental health checks, locks and/or safe requirements, I’m not sure. But we need to lead on this and not be scared of the NRA.
The Environment and Global Warming
Look, global warming is real, and it’s manmade, or at least heavily man-exasperated. Republicans need to stop pretending like the science isn’t settled or that nobody can prove it and start fighting for market-friendly solutions. Otherwise, we’ll cede all environmental law to Democrats who are much less business friendly and much more regulation happy. Things like pricing carbon and protecting wild spaces, creating more national parks, investing in nuclear. These are all things that Republicans can and should lead on. Especially nuclear. For whatever reasons, it’s blasphemy to talk about nuclear these days, especially on the left. And it’s a space that’s innovative, green, and freaking cool.
It’s crazy to me that Republicans aren’t leading here. Democrats don’t hunt, Democrats don’t fish, Democrats only know how to go camping in a campsite they can pull up to in their Subaru. They don’t farm, they don’t float rivers, sure they hike, but that’s just walking. Republicans use the environment and understand the importance of wildlife management, so why aren’t we leading in conservation and environmental stewardship?
Government
Look, this whole deep state, Q-Anon crap is not only deeply stupid and incredibly fake; it’s also very destructive. Reagan used to say, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.” Unfortunately, Republicans have taken that to mean we must dismantle and defund the government. (I know that right now Republicans spend and fund and what not, but these are really Republicans, it’s like a loose gathering of clowns who put an R next to their name on the ballot) That’s the wrong approach. Republicans should be the party of good governance, moderate spending, and government efficiency. Our mantra shouldn’t be, “Let’s tear down the government,” it should be “Let’s make the government work.”
This means tearing down the insane rules and regulations that make it impossible to fire bad employees. It means the President and the Cabinet should be focused on ensuring that the laws congress passes are enforced efficiently and that US Citizens are served, not burdened, by government. Basically, the Republican line should be, why are we creating new programs instead of making sure the ones we have are working. Before you create an addition to your house, you fix the leaky roof.
We also need to get over our obsession with a zero deficit budget. It’s just not realistic. Businesses run on debt, humans run on debt, debt is good when it’s controlled. Zero deficit spending is unreasonable, but we should be the party of good governance so we should fight for maybe an amendment to keep spending within a certain percentage of GDP (though that could get tricky if we hit another depression and need the government to step in and spend). By spending so recklessly during the Trump years, we’ve stopped putting forth the argument that spending needs to be controlled and that’s stupid. Spending does need to be controlled and government does need to be reigned in and it just makes sense for that to be done by Republicans.
It’s also time for reforms. We’ve had the same government structure for 250ish years so we’ve had time to test this stuff; we know what works and we especially know what doesn’t. I’m not advocating for a Constitutional Convention, but I am arguing that the Constitution needs some amendments and all of our institutions need to take a look at their rules. Representative’s terms are probably too short, there should probably be term limits, I would advocate that the Vice President should be elected independent of the President. We can honor and venerate the founders while recognizing that they weren’t gods. I mean they even corrected themselves, the Articles of Confederation were a disaster and they fixed it. There’s a reason the constitution was made to be amended: the founders knew they weren’t perfect and we need to recognize that too.
Conclusion
In the interest of keeping this readable and the practical matter that there’s no end to the number of political issues, I’ll stop here. Most of the things I propose here are things I actually believe, some are pared down to be more politically viable; my larger point is that I just want a Republican party that has principles and policy positions. The current Republican party doesn’t even have a platform beyond “supporting Trump.” It’s truly embarrassing.
So, if you’re like me and conservative, what did I get wrong? If you’re a liberal, what am I wrong about? I look forward to hearing from you in the comments so we can make the GOP Great Again.