Viewpoint: Reject the party of ‘no’
Sneed Collard
As a young voter, I was surrounded by both the Democratic and Republican influences. One party trended more progressive and the other more conservative, but they shared one thing in common: they both recognized that the future of our country depended on a functioning government actively working to solve problems. Unfortunately, this awareness no longer holds true.
Democratic leaders, for all their flaws, recognize that Americans—and the world—face real problems that are not going to vanish simply by muttering “It’s all going to be great again.” These problems range from maintaining our national security, ensuring universal affordable health care, guaranteeing control over our own bodies, and making sure our economy continues to thrive without dooming the planet to climate catastrophe. To find solutions to these problems, Democrats often flail around. The process is inefficient and frustrating, but they manage to keep moving forward. Steadily, we are making progress.
In contrast, Republican leaders have abandoned any pretense at solving the problems that the vast majority of us face. The GOP has made it clear that its goals are to a) maintain power and b) keep putting more and more wealth into the hands of the very few. This has created a terrible dilemma for Republican leaders. After all, how do you keep getting votes when you aren’t doing anything to make people’s lives safer, healthier, and more prosperous?
Easy. You tell lies and yell a lot. In fact, conservatives have spent decades perfecting a disinformation apparatus that misleads voters on almost every front. They tell their audience that climate change is a hoax—never mind the alarming rise in natural disasters hitting us every year. They portray brutal dictators as friends of the United States. They keep pushing the failed idea that giving the wealthy even more money will somehow make the middle and poorer classes better off, all while giving corporations almost unlimited power to do what they want. Most effectively, they starve and undermine public education to make sure our children remain too ignorant to challenge their outrageous actions and policies.
What’s missing in all of this? Solutions. Take last spring’s carefully crafted bipartisan border bill that would have addressed a host of immigration issues. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers were on board with the plan—until the current czar of the party, a guy named Donald, whispered into the ears of GOP senators that passing the plan would give a win to Democrats. How did the Republicans vote? NO.
“No,” in fact, is the only word Republican leaders seem to be able to speak these days.
No to a fair economic playing field.
No to personal freedom.
No to defense against foreign aggressors.
No to safety nets for seniors and other Americans.
No to slowing climate change.
No to almost any solution of any kind.
But here’s the thing. If you are a Republican and Trump again loses the election, that does not mean that you lose the election. The opposite is true. Republicans, Democrats, and everyone in between are already in a vastly better position with Democrats in the White House, and that will continue to hold true.
I often hear MAGA believers talk about “Taking Back America”—but it’s not Democrats or liberals they need to take America back from. It is the self-serving dishonesty of Fox News, Breitbart, and more than anything, the GOP’s would-be king. Only then, will Republicans be able to join Democrats in a meaningful search for solutions to the problems we all face.