By Edwin Cooney
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, the Republican Party was sold to me as “the party of Abraham Lincoln.” It was the party that “freed the slaves because all men were created equal and slavery, with all of its implications, was immoral.” Additionally, I was assured, that if the Republican Party was anything, it was above all things, moral. By the time I was 30, I’d learned otherwise. Specifically, I’d learned that the Republican Party was equally as moral and immoral as the Democratic Party! Wow! What a lesson that was.
I’ve generally suspected that since shortly after he became president, Donald Trump has not shared the positive elements of traditional GOP Conservatism. Prominent columnists George Will and David Brooks have insisted from the outset that President Trump is no Conservative. However, up until President Trump’s cozy dinner with Chuck Schumer and (even more treacherously) with Nancy Pelosi during which he appeared ready to modify his objections to Barack Obama’s Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals order (an Executive Order known as DACA which modified immigration laws), GOP support for its non-Conservative leader seemed pretty solid.
Suddenly, GOP talk show hosts such as Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and even Rush Limbaugh all appear to have their undies in one hell of a bunch. Even such GOP stalwarts as Iowa Congressman Steve King, Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks, and — low and behold — arch conservative Ann Coulter are talking impeachment.
What’s even more amazing, they’re shocked! Somehow they’ve believed all along, or acted as though they believed, that President Donald John Trump was a Conservative — which only demonstrates how obsessed the party is with its own parochialism. Although President Trump is not giving up on his insistence on building his wall, he’s open to dealing with Democratic Party leaders primarily, as he sees it, because his own congressional leaders lack the capacity to make Republican majorities work on behalf of a national constituency. His willingness to drop his immediate demand for his proposed border wall in exchange for Democratic support for enhanced southwest border security makes sense. As for his support for DACA, as harmless as it is, it is more than GOP leaders can swallow. Thus, the party that assured America that it could repeal Obamacare, slash taxes, secure our borders and renegotiate NAFTA appears to be on the verge of civil war. Steve Bannon (who has returned to Breitbart News) is convinced of that likelihood.
As I see it, the dilemma is twofold. First, there is our almost inherent dislike of foreigners. Second, there is the assumption of party unity when struggling with party policy changes. One of the most persistent threads running through our history is nativism. At the core of our American being is distrust of “foreigners.” We dislike their slowness to drop their native languages, cultures, and especially their religious beliefs. We, who beg God to bless America, can barely abide the rest of God’s peoples! For some reason, we regard ourselves as exempt, even from Biblical instruction, to love our worldly neighbors as ourselves. Although moneyed elitists have no monopoly on this prejudice, it seems the richer we get, the more insistent we become in proclaiming our superiority to others. Britain, especially during the Victorian Era, was guilty of this cultural arrogance which was so proudly trumpeted by three of my British Prime Ministerial heroes, Lord Henry Palmerston, Benjamin Disraeli and, above all, Winston Churchill. The fact is that the mighty among us too often pass these prejudices to the populous. They ultimately provide the voting power that sustains these institutions of intolerance which, in return, limits the whole society’s capacity to grow.
The fact is, immigrants aren’t taking jobs away from Americans who want those jobs. The reality is that immigrants accept jobs at a lower pay rate because they desperately need the money. Hence, we depend upon “cheap” immigrant labor even as we show our traditional contempt for immigrants. Additionally, too many Americans won’t take the jobs that immigrants must take in order to build families, educate their children and purchase land and, over time, merge their cultures with ours, so that in the not too distant future, unfortunately, they will be American enough to dislike a newer generation of social outcasts just as we do today. Bigotry against immigrants is as American as apple pie, cherry pie, and George Washington.
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, Roman Catholics, blacks and Jews bore the brunt of everyday ridicule and contempt for who they were. in 2017, it’s Mexicans and Muslims who scare the “bejesus” out of John and Susie Q. Citizen who are encouraged to believe that from within their midst lurks America’s destruction. Not until I reached adulthood did I come to grips with this repulsive reality which is especially prominent in political ideological Conservatism.
The most powerful truths of late 2017 political and cultural reality are:
(1.) President Donald John Trump isn’t now, nor has he ever been, a Conservative.
(2.) While Conservatism has no monopoly on either prejudice or selfishness, the right of the people not to conform to a mainstream of human tolerance is more precious to too many Conservatives than the scriptural obligation for tolerance.
(3.) President Trump values personal loyalty above principle and it’s that reality that may well bring about his downfall.
(4.) The mainspring of Conservatism isn’t liberty, it’s money.
(5.) President Trump, who has reached the top of the greasy political pole bragging that he’s no politician, is a square peg in a round hole. He won’t succeed in a world of politicians both at home and abroad without becoming a politician.
Yes, indeed, I once loved the Republican Party. I even love and still maintain respect for its first modern Conservative leader Barry Goldwater. What drove me out of the party was the realization that contempt and ridicule of others is the driving force behind the modern GOP. Up until his recent Chinese dinner with Senator Chuck Schumer and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, two despised Democratic Party leaders, the president overwhelmingly appeared to share that political Conservative tendency. Suddenly, the president’s willingness to modify his immediate requirements for security along our southern boarder and his willingness to secure the futures of some 800,000 immigrants (specifically by accepting former President Barack Obama’s DACA program) has put in doubt his leadership of the party.
On a number of occasions this year, I’ve suggested in these pages that as reprehensible and crude, squalid, and galling as President Trump too often is, America could be worse off!
Suppose Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan were all contentedly united behind President Michael Richard Pence! Therein, if you ask me, lies the real nightmare. That prospect is almost as scary as Kim-Jong Un!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY