Looking For The Republican Party
“ . . . the national party is
made up of all registered Republicans in all 50 states. They are the heart and
soul of the party. Republicans have a long and rich history with basic
principles: Individuals, not government, can make the best decisions; all
people are entitled to equal rights; and decisions are best made close to home.”
23 words out of 705 words are used on their Facebook page to describe their
values: 3.26 %.
Over the last several months, I
have been searching for what makes the Republican Party worthwhile. This is an
ongoing and honest and open-minded search for values. The word “values” sounds
corny but it is a good place to start if candidates from either party can be
judged at all. I understand the word “values” to mean the principles by which
we make decisions. (If you have a different definition then we can deal with
that at another time.) Granted, most of us do our best. We make decisions based
on the available information and proceed accordingly with the help of our
“values”. In other words, judge me by my actions, not my words.
“The national structure of our
party starts with the Republican National Committee.”
The excerpt displayed above is
from the Republican National Committees’s Facebook page, under ‘about’. I
thought this was a good place to start no matter how naïve I was purposefully
approaching it. Anyone can view this. All you have to do is get through the
five or six paragraphs of historical summary. Then, you come to the only
declaration of “values” the party seems concerned about offering.
Total number of words used in
About for the Republican National Committee:
705
Total number of words used to
describe values: 23 (3.26%)
Total number of words used to
describe their history: 461 (65.4%)
Staying with the open-minded
approach, I was impressed with their declaration of acceptance of people’s
choices on Election Day; that is, this site said it was expected that people
might choose to vote either Republican or Democrat, depending on the candidate
or issue. However, there is an implied conclusion that if you are a real
Republican, you will vote Republican no matter what. This implied message
doesn’t sit well with me.
“Voters don't have to do so, but registration lists let the
parties know exactly which voters they want to be sure vote on Election Day.
Just because voters register as a Republican, they don't need to vote that way
- many voters split their tickets, voting for candidates in both parties. But (italics mine) the national party is
made up of all registered Republicans in all 50 states.
The other thing that impressed
me was the declaration that “all people are entitled to equal rights.” Sounds
good. I agree with that, for the most part. However, what those rights are, and
where they come from, remains vague. That’s ok. This is not the indication of
some fault in the Republican Party. It is just the conditions of the limited
space available to describe something ‘about’ them. After all, they needed to
spend nearly 66% percent of the available space describing what the Republican
Party was, once, long ago.
In the end of my brief search
for something concrete from the Republican Party on the Republican National
Committee’s Facebook page, I have not found much. This is a disappointment for
me. I am truly in search of something I can use to determine who these people
are, what they stand for, and be open to the idea of voting Republican. It is
the Party of my father. I believed in my father while he was alive. I still do.
I wonder what he might make of the Republican Party today, however. I do
believe that he would agree that “all people are entitled to equal rights.” I
also believe that he would find it vague and open to interpretation, as I do.
My father was not a fool. He was a very intelligent man who did a great job
raising his children, providing for them, and being a very good husband to my
mother - all Republican ‘values’ or so I was led to believe as a young man. My
father could also spot bullshit as well as anyone I ever met.
Let’s take this one step at a
time and, as always, with an open-mind. Let’s start with the word ‘entitled.’
Yes, all people are entitled to equal rights, but more specifically, people
HAVE equal rights and those rights are not the choice anyone has to bestow or
withhold. Somehow, the word ‘entitled’ implies that the Republican Party is
bestowing those rights on all people; something given if the citizen so chooses
to accept them. And bestowed on an ‘entitled’ citizenry as long as
circumstances warrant.
The Oxford American
Dictionary lists the word ‘entitle’ with the following definition: “1. Give
(someone) a legal right or a just claim to receive or do something: employees are normally entitled to severance
pay. 2. Give (something, esp. a text or work of art) a particular title: an article entitled “The Harried Society.”
Since when does the Republican
Party give rights to anyone? Well, maybe I’m just going off on a tangent or a
knee-jerk rant. Perhaps, here the use of the word ‘entitled’ means that rights
of equality are bestowed on the individual by
the Constitution, not anyone in particular or any political affiliation in
particular, which is something we can all agree on, right? So, why not say
that? Why not say, instead, “all people are entitled to equal rights by the Constitution.” I’m sure there was
enough space available in the ‘about’ section of their page in include three
more words: 0.43%.
“Individuals, not government,
can make the best decisions.” Ok, on the surface, this sounds appealing. I don’t
want the government to make every decision for me; decisions, such as, whether
or not I can get an abortion, whether or not I need help to feed my family, nor
whether or not we should go to war over an oil resource. Keeping an open-mind,
I also don’t want the government to decide for me whether they stay open or
not. I want the government to do their job as long as I am paying their
salaries with my tax dollars. It is not OK with me for the government to shut
down if the representatives causing that shutdown are still getting paid. I don’t
want the government to decide that the Environmental Protection Agency should
be disbanded. The list goes on.
I do want the government to
protect me and this where I openly diverge from Republican ‘values.’ I depend
on the government to make decisions for me. I voted for representatives to
enact laws, conduct investigations, maintain bureaucracies, etc. in my name. This
is what a ‘Republican’ form of government means. A Democratic form of
government means I, as a citizen, vote on everything, all the time. Neither
ideal exists in America. We have a blend and a blend includes ‘values’ of
different varieties.
From The Oxford American
Dictionary:
Republican: adj. (of a
form of government, constitution, etc.) belonging to, or characteristic of a
republic.
Republic: n. a state in
which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives,
and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.
Ok. So, does the Republican Party
believe they are there, in Congress, or the Oval Office, to represent the
people? I would have to say no. They don’t really believe this, but not because
of current propaganda, or what someone said during a speech, or anything of the
kind. They don’t believe this because they have stated that “Individuals, not
governments, can make the best decisions.” Their “values” dictate that they cannot
make the best decisions even though that is what we pay them for. And that,
hopefully, is the end of my hubris. Perhaps, what they mean is that individuals
have the right to dictate the course of their own lives; that government is
there to serve the people, not the other way around. I am giving them a great
deal of consideration here and helping them to flesh out their own definition.
I’m still curious why they didn’t spend more time on their Facebook page
describing more of their values in detail. It would have made it easier for me
to understand.
“and decisions are best made
close to home.” I have no idea what this really means. If, by saying this, they
mean that I should make decisions for myself, then I agree. If they mean that
foreign policy decisions, or decisions addressing social issues, or choices of
candidates should be made by me, then I have to say no. I am not paid to make
these decisions, nor am I equipped with enough vital information to make these
decisions. That’s why I hire politicians to do it. That is what a Republican
form of government is, by definition. Perhaps, they mean something else. Again,
I would have expected more narrative here from a national political committee.
If I follow through with the value-based logic here, I have to conclude that
the Republican Party wants me to go home and leave them in Washington to do
whatever they want. In essence, leave them alone.
So far, in my search for
something concrete about the Republican Party, I haven’t come across anything
of value except one thing: I do agree with them that I should leave them alone.
I will continue my search, however, and not exclude The Democratic Party either.
I believe in the two-party system of political process. I just don’t believe
one of those parties should be The Republican Party anymore. I am going to
leave them alone.
