Death of a Conservative
Introduction
I didn’t pay attention to politics until I completed a quiz in my Government high school class, the quiz was supposed to tell you where you stood on the political spectrum. I took similar quizzes after and I consistently was placed on the right side of the political spectrum. I agreed with statements such as “self — reliance”, “lower taxes”, “private sector accomplishes more than the public sector”, “limited government”, “judicial restraint” and upholding federalism.
Roots
In 2012, the Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney was echoing these same principles that Ronald Reagan used to preach. At the time, the country was afraid of an imminent threat from a delusional and manipulative dictator, Kim Jong Un as well as other foreign conflicts that began to erupt. My views on United States interventions in foreign conflicts were very hawkish at the time and I’ll admit rather impractical.
Political Spectrum Appeals
While my peers and I remember seeing the news coverage of the decade long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the dwindling job security resulting from the 2008 recession, our responses varied, with half of them pushing for a smaller government hoping to provide less restrictions and the other half that believe government must do more to care equally for all citizens.
As I paid more attention to politics, I was discontent with certain policies such as the Affordable Healthcare Act imposing a mandate on states and integrating more administration in the healthcare industry. I started to agree with the Tea Party Movement in pushing their message for less government and regulation. My main concern was increased government spending, particularly when the bulk of it went to the military. The dollar amount didn’t concern me, it was the careless practice that allowed politicians to overpromise and underdeliver simply using the insufficient funding as the reason for negative results. I would reason in my position that institutions supported by the majority of people would stand organically simply because it addresses the majority interest. I think that we can achieve our potential when we choose to, voluntarily. Coercing and regulating causes resentment in people because they start to feel that they aren’t acting on their interest anymore, but that of the state instead.
Education
As I went on to study Physiology and Neuroscience at UC San Diego, I exercised my right to vote in student body elections, local city/county elections and midterms elections. Although many of the candidates I voted for tended to be Republicans or Independents, I avoided joining the College Republicans on campus because I wasn’t exactly aiming to start a political career and they didn’t seem to have any access to implementing any legislation or measures. The Republicans under Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell chose to delay, cheat, and obstruct rather than providing practical solutions to cut federal spending and limit the government. In 2015, I hoped a responsible candidate would be nominated at the Republican primary, one who would truly deliver on “limited government”, respecting “state’s rights”, protecting individual freedoms, lowering taxes for small businesses, and avoiding international intervention since it only served to breed radical extremists.
Hopefully history remembers how President Obama legislated through executive order and expanded international interventions rather than the icon for change that brought the country a new healthcare plan. President Obama pledged to end both wars overseas, Iraq and Afghanistan, but with the rise of ISIS, the proxy war in Syria, and the resurgence of the Taliban, that task proved to be more challenging. During the Obama administration, the casualty toll overseas remained high but as a result of droning attacks rather than from bombings and torture. As we saw, this power would be handed down to an unstable bigot that would choose to alienate many countries.
Although pro-democratic events in the middle east like the Arab Spring occurred during the Obama administration, the fight in these countries (Egypt, Libya, Tanzania) was organized by the citizens of these countries and less so by the United States. It is irresponsible to attribute Western values to the success of the Arab Spring. Although the succeeding governments in these countries would prove to be militaristic and more radical, the success lies in the people’s choice to demand a change in their country, that process is disturbed when coalitions and marginalized totalitarian states come in and match up weapons.
As a catholic Hispanic, I understand the bloody history of US intervention in Latin America since early 1900s. While the United States was convinced that capitalism would help more Latin American countries more than communism, they proceeded to support military dictatorships, promote censorship of the press, train death squads, and organized coups to remove legitimately elected heads of states (especially Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Chile). These people who dared defy them were the clergy who denounced a state’s rule over a human before God, the activists and reporters that demanded to be heard, intellectuals that challenged legislative legitimacy, and many more innocent beings who could not escape the state’s imposition. For this reason I have usually sided with the principle of non intervention, one could view it as neglecting to help countries abroad however it’s the good intentions that lead the United States into foreign countries and overstay their welcome. The sad reality is that war is lucrative, and Iraq became a hub when the US government and its contractors moved in.
The Trump Factor
In 2015, there was a long line of Republicans that ran for the nomination, former executives, tax advocates, politicians, and Donald Trump. The Republican party saw the increasing fervor and mania from the boisterous “America Firsters”, a group of populists (included some who voted for Obama) that demanded benefits of the country only go to them and others they deem as true “Americans” only. These people would label Republicans who supported Ted Cruz, Ben Kasich, and Jeb Bush as “Establishment Republicans” or “RINO — Republican In Name Only”.
The Make America Great Again Movement was an overreaction to globalism, higher corporate taxes, DACA, vaccinations, and a cultural shift to a diverse country. The Republican Party decided to fold to Trump after they calculated the money, the press, momentum from the far right social media movement, and the fervent support they would gain in supporting Donald Trump for President, upsetting all Republicans who supported the principles once praised by the Reagan and Bush years. Donald Trump was not at all your typical Republican, and that’s what divided the party. If you want to know my reaction to Trump being chosen as the Republican nominee, I suggest watching the Series Finale of HBO’s Veep when Selina Meyer chooses an anti vaxer bigot as her VP, pledges to kill same sex marriage rights (in front of her gay daughter and wife), and frames her best friend in a government data breach so she can win the Democratic Party nomination to go on to challenge the sitting president. This is fiction, but reality has played out in the freaky twisted scenarios that political fiction writers used to describe. After seeing the Trump term play out, would the Republican Party do it all again to get justices from the Federalist Society onto the Supreme Court? Was it all worth it?
While the populist mob of Trump supporters overtook the Grand Old Party, the “establishment” in the Democratic Party was busy muzzling the Bernie supporters in favor of continuing the Clinton dynasty with the first Female Democratic Party candidate for President — Hillary Clinton. Seeing the results of the 2016 election was difficult to process, but I was numbed to this shock from when the Republicans chose Donald Trump to be the nominee, bringing him one step closer to the White House. The Republicans condoned the fighting in the streets, in the rallies, in Charlottesville, and now the occupying of Capitol Hill.
It was tough for most moderate or conservative Republicans after that to explain why they would stay in a party that was sold off to the poor working class who thought they deserved all the benefits over immigrants, minorities, women, liberals, and those who didn’t identify as Evangelical Christians. In the aftermath of Trump’s occupation of the GOP, I read more about political philosophies, historical biographies and Austrian economics to find which to political philosophy I aligned with. Between Keynes and Hayek, I favored reading about Hayek and the principle of government being separate from private matters, reproductive rights, religion, business, education, employment, and community institutions. In the question about abortion, my answer is Pro — Choice, doesn’t matter if I think it’s right, it’s because I believe it is a personal health or emergency services matter, not a state matter. I’m in favor of tax cuts because I think hardworking people should be able to keep more of their money as long as the rate is proportionate to class. I think we should be able to practice our religions as long as it does not coerce others to abide by another religion which is usually facilitated in the our country’s government. This mix of ideas led me to a different political philosophy outlined by socially liberal and fiscally conservative ideals — libertarianism. I’m not sure there’s a term for this but its definitely common for Republicans to defect over to Libertarianism mainly because they’re put off by the social conservatism.
Trump Administration
Donald Trump took office of the Presidency in 2017 with a Republican majority in the House of Representatives led by Paul Ryan, the Senate majority led by Mitch McConnell, and the Supreme Court pick reserved for him. Now in 2020, Donald Trump ends four years with two impeachments, two government shutdowns, two economic downturns (2018 and 2020), one significant peace agreement ending the Afghanistan war, higher federal spending (even before stimulus payments), minimal regulation cut, temporary tax cuts that have now been depleted due to a trade war with China, protectionist policies providing subsidies for struggling American corporations, banning transgender individuals from the military, ramping up deportations and droning operations around the world, sporatic construction of a wall along the Southern Border, push for states to regulate and restrict women’s abortions, and a mismanaged immigration policy that has irrevocably separated many families. None of those policies were ever the agenda the Republicans pushed for when they were complaining of President Obama’s constant overreach and legislation through executive order which has been outmatched with President Trump’s record. As if that weren’t bad enought, Donald Trump will leave office ending with a widely mismanaged and incompetent federal response to the COVID pandemic and a shattered faith in the credibility of this country’s election system.
The nature of the game at the end of the day was branding. Much like how the Republicans used the libertarians in the 1980s and 2010, the Republicans marketed the red hats and the MAGA brand without considering the repercussions. With less government in private life being the optimal goal of libertarianism, there is overlap with the Republican party, usually with those who are fiscally conservative but are more liberal on social issues. After I learned about this, I fell down a rabbit hole of reading books by Ayn Rand and F.A. Hayek, enriching my knowledge of a movement that was more in line with my thinking.
Even still, the libertarian party is a large audience with many characters that I don’t agree with any more than the other two parties, so I steer clear of joining a party, instead choosing to remain independent. It’s better voting for a measure because we think it’s right rather than being obligated by a party. I believe that fostering a discussion between two individuals can foster more compromise and civility than when two groups attempt to settle an issue. There’s a tribalist effect that we feel when a group we favor is denounced by another party.
To this day, farmers, coal miners, truckers, small business owners, and unions who suffered the most from Trump’s tax policies still cannot admit they made a mistake in support Trump. The rich charismatic narcissists succeeded in tricking the poor to vote against their own interests, and those of their children.
The Death of the Republican Party
In regards to liberty and principles, the Republican party has abandoned both. Every president since Reagan has increased the power of the executive branch and their role in the average American’s life, with Donald Trump building a precedent of an active POTUS twitter presence. The Republican party wanted to dominate all areas of government and concentrated on the most popular issue to most Republicans — a Conservative majority in the Supreme Court as a check on both branches to further the legacy of the right wing. In their desperation, they made a deal with the mob of disgruntled working class and xenophobic voters who viewed the Democratic party as elitist and grew tired of the civil and traditional rhetoric the Republican party used for year. The Capitol Hill police that stood aside for Trump supporters to enter and riot in the building are as complicit in harming the future of this country as the Republicans were when they let those people dictate the face the of the party.
If one thinks they can change a broken system from the inside, 2020 serves as a sufficient example in disproving that. Like when the Republican party was poisoned by Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal, this Republican party will reform pushing some characters out and bringing others in. To all those who are drawn to the ideals of conservatism in the fundamental ideal of freedom, limited government, and private innovation, you will not find it in this Republican Party — Trump was not an infection but a disease that festered within the party. The future must be in individual and independent parties to compete against the established parties.
I think back to the quote from Ronald Reagan when asked about his switch from Democrat to Republican, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me.” Such a state perfectly illustrates how the parties have changed over the years and reach a point where the demographics largely shift. I would modify the former Californian Governor and President of the United States Ronald Reagan’s quote to this: I didn’t leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me. I fear that even with Trump now gone, that statement will remain true.
