With all of the problems facing our country, the Republican party’s ‘cause celebre’ is voter integrity. In spite of the fact that there is little, if any, evidence of voter fraud in the last election, state legislatures around the country are hell bent to pass legislation in the name of ‘voter integrity’ that are really thinly disguised efforts at voter suppression. This begs the question, “If your policies are widely popular, wouldn’t you want to encourage more people to vote?” And, therein lies the crux of the issue. The Republican party is shrinking and their policies, while very popular with their shrinking base, are widely unpopular with the majority of Americans.
Multiple polls have shown that at least two thirds of Americans do not want Roe v. Wade overturned and support continued access to abortion for women.1,2 Roughly two thirds of Americans are in favor of gay marriage.3,4 Some sixty percent of Americans believe gun laws should be more restrictive.5 Even a large percentage of NRA members are in favor of universal background checks to purchase weapons. Universal background checks are supported by 90 percent of Americans.6 More than 60% of Americans favor a tax on the very wealthy, including 54% of Republicans.7,8 Roughly 70 percent of Americans believe climate change is real and human activity is contributing to the warming of the planet.9 These are all policies that, in general, the Republican politicians are adamantly against and yet are popular with a majority of Americans. Does anyone else see a problem here?
It is quite apparent that the Republican party can try to alter some of their policies to be more in line with the majority of Americans in hopes of expanding the party, or they can try to suppress the votes in such a way that it will skew the electorate in their favor so they can win elections and push unpopular policies. The first option makes more long-term sense. The second option might seem attractive in the short term but would seem to be somewhat of a slow death spiral. The way I see it, the Republican party has really painted themselves into a corner.
They don’t feel like they can alter their stance on abortion or gay marriage because that might cost them the support of the religious right. They can’t support a tax on the wealthy because that would be like biting the hand that feeds them. (Such a stance would be extremely unpopular with people like the Koch brothers, for example, who are major Republican donors). They can’t advocate for any kind of gun control laws at all, no matter how popular, because that will cost them the financial support of the NRA. They can’t alter their stance on climate change for fear of alienating the fossil fuel industry and the money they pump into Republican elections. They are even welcoming QAnon supporting members into their party in hopes of being able to cobble together enough of these disparate voting blocs to be able to win elections.
In addition, now that they have gone down the Trumpism rabbit hole, the corner they are in is even smaller. We have all seen what happens to Republicans who dare to disagree with Trump. Once you begin to understand how all of these Republican politicians are essentially trapped into all of these positions that are not widely supported by the majority of Americans, its easy to understand why they are in this mode of trying to pass legislation that will skew voting in future elections in their favor.
The fact is, the demographics of the country are changing. That is a cold hard fact. Nothing the Republican party does will change that. The country is moving forward. There is a new reality sweeping the nation and it has nothing to do with socialism. The Republican party is still thinking America is living, or wants to live, in the era of ‘Father Knows Best’ and ‘Leave it to Beaver’ back in the 1950’s. This failure to deal with reality is not only endangering the entire Republican party but the country as well. The continued insistence to push widely unpopular policies is just contributing to and exacerbating the political divisions. And the massive, and totally uncalled for efforts at voter suppression going on now, will just pour gasoline onto that fire. Sooner or later the Republican party is going to have to deal with reality that their policies are out of date and out of step with the majority of Americans. In the words of Alex Haley, “Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure the reality is going to deal with you.”
- Poll: Majority of adults don’t support overturning Roe v. Wade (nbcnews.com)
- The majority of Americans support abortion access. (slate.com)
- 70% of Americans support same-sex marriage — a new high — a new survey finds – CNN
- U.S. Support for Same-Sex Marriage Matches Record High (gallup.com)
- Stricter gun laws have gained support in U.S. since 2017 | Pew Research Center
- Poll finds 90 percent of voters support background checks. But respondents don’t expect Congress to act – The Boston Globe
- Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: Reuters/Ipsos poll | Reuters
- Americans want the wealthy and corporations to pay more taxes, but are elected officials listening? (brookings.edu)
- Americans Underestimate How Many Others in the U.S. Think Global Warming is Happening – Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
Good Article. I believe the Republican Party before Trump was elected were planning to have Russia interfere with the 2016 election. Their goal was to destroy the Democratic Party and create an authoritative government with Trump being the dictator. All the evidence is there. They have gone so far as trying to destroy our Democracy on January 6th. It has been almost two months since the insurrection and they are still trying to cover it up. The majority of the Republican Party are accomplices to this crime. How can we hold all of them accountable when they are part of the lawmakers in Congress?