This Just In – If you enjoy the blessing of living long enough, you get to see almost anything. In 2023, the GOP is trying to brand itself as the party that wants you to be scared of a big government while insisting that said government belongs in your life every day forcing you to bear children, repress your speech and stop teachers from teaching.
Fifty years ago the GOP drilled a particular message into every campaign – Individualism is freedom. You don’t need big government to stop you from smoking, driving an unsafe car, drinking too much. No … when Democrats want to pass laws to require seat belts, “smoking causes lung diseases” disclosures and drunk driving laws, Republicans fought those measures claiming that individuals had choices. Even choices that were arguably unhealthy ones belonged to individuals, not a “nanny state” federal government.
Yeah. Remember that? The big picture message from the GOP was all about freedom. If they could just keep the government off your back, your individual talent would take you as far as you can go. Limited government keeps all of us free.
The Democratic party largely ceded that position, focusing on social justice and equal opportunity. We need all of these things, but somehow the GOP pounded home some very consistent messaging, despite their failure to govern in a way that was consistent with any of it. The focus?
- Law & Order
- Fiscal Responsibility
- Strong Defense
The party of “Law & Order”? The GOP gave us Nixon (Watergate), Reagan (Iran/Contra), George H.W. Bush (Savings & Loan failures), George W. Bush (Iraq War, war crimes) Donald Trump (twice impeached, led a deadly insurrection, now indicted).
Is the GOP the party of fiscal responsibility? No.
Over these 50 years, the GOP has exploded the deficit (with massive unfunded tax cuts) and the Democrats have come in behind them and reduced it (by ending or mitigating those cuts).
Having a strong military is more complicated than emptying the nation’s piggy bank into the Pentagon’s budget. Strength is an exercise in smart leadership, partnership with diplomacy and restraint.
So, let’s review: Nixon lied in multiple ways about Vietnam, expanding the war instead of ending it, lying about “progress” when his administration knew full well they were going nowhere, to name a couple of high profile points. Nixon’s presidency did not make America a stronger, more secure nation. Not at all.
During Reagan’s administration, Marines were killed as they slept in the Beirut bombing. Reagan yanked American soldiers out of Lebanon as a result. His administration illegally engaged in selling arms to Iran (prohibited under U.S. law at the time) and used the money to fund the right wing Contras in Nicaragua, among other things.
The Bushes, father and son, dropped a huge amount of American blood and treasure in the Middle East and came away with little to show for it. Bush 43 did not listen to warnings from his team about the threat of al Qaeda and we all know the result of that.
Donald Trump did massive damage to our country’s security profile, nearly ending our participation in NATO, deferring to Putin at every opportunity and just being a chaotic, unstable knucklehead.
Above all else, he did the bidding of all of America’s enemies by amplifying the poison of white supremacy and bringing that particular stick of dynamite into the nation’s living room and lighting the match.
The GOP is NOT offering a message of freedom any longer. They are all about fear now. The electoral college is the only route to the presidency for the GOP, and that is going to require a strategy of voter suppression, culture war and fear wherever available.
Yes, this is partly why they’re quite willing to let the shootouts in public spaces go on. They don’t want you to gather and peacefully protest in favor of your freedom to associate with your neighbors and lobby your government for change. They don’t want you to focus on your right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They don’t want you to enjoy the peaceful security of your own home, free of stray bullets. They want you to think that armed IRS agents are minutes away from your front door.
They are leaning hard on the “be afraid of everything” message. Really, really hard. “I alone can fix it,” said Trump in his 2016 convention. The strong man. The authoritarian. He won’t need voters to claim his next win. He’ll just say he has it.
In this situation, I’m reminded of Dorothy Gale of Kansas. Cornered by the Wicked Witch of the West and her overwhelming army of loyal guards, Dorothy reacted when the witch set the scarecrow on fire.
With one nearby bucket of cold water, the fire was out and the witch dissolved. Perhaps this is why Trump won’t go out in the rain.
I’m also reminded that Franklin D. Roosevelt calmed a devastated and trembling nation in his 1933 inaugural address when he said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” (History leaves aside his apparent lift of Henry David Thoreau’s “Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.”)
We’ve been here before. The knowledge of this can help ensure that we the people will secure our liberty by trusting and protecting each other once again.
What was the first word of President Biden’s re-election campaign video? “Freedom.”
(featured image via Associated Press)
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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