Right now I feel challenged as never before. I came of age in the 1970's and cast my first presidential ballot for Ronald Reagan in 1980. I observed as a teen the Iran Hostage Crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. I remembered the nuclear war drills in elementary school. We were in the midst of an intractable Cold War, had fought a long war in Vietnam, and the country was reeling economically. Ronald Reagan promised to bring back our pride, restore the economy, and win the Cold War. That sounded good to me and I voted for him. I graduated with a degree in political science and began my teaching career.
Since those heady days of the early 80's I have been a mostly reliable Republican voter, especially for federal offices. Until 2016 I voted for every Republican candidate for president and the same in my local senate and congressional races. I did vote for Democrats on state and county ballots as those tend to be less ideological and more focused on a smaller set of issues. In those races I looked closely at the candidate's positions on education, an obviously important issue to me.
I watched William F. Buckley on Firing Lane as he jousted good-naturedly with Michael Kinsley. I read National Review, The New Republic and sometimes The Nation as I enjoyed reading well written articles from different viewpoints. I watched Pat Buchanan debate Tom Braden on CNN's "Crossfire". I read columnists as diverse as George Will and Anthony Lewis. I regarded myself all of these years as a right-of-center voter, persuadable on some issues, with a moralistic and libertarian bent. I generally steered clear of getting directly involved in politics but was a reliable voter. I was always avidly interested in the direction of our country.
From that basis I believe in:
- Small government in theory, if not always in practice. The federal, state, and local governments have defined roles and responsibilities.
- The 1st amendment where I am close to an absolutist. Free speech, free press,freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, etc.....to me this is the heart of the American experiment.
- Free trade and free markets as they offer the greatest path to prosperity for all. Protectionism has never yielded good results. Why would it be different now?
- A basic social safety net to take care of those of us who are in need. It should not be so generous as to create permanent dependency and should offer tools and services that enable people to escape from poverty. Not Sweden but not a laissez faire free-for-all either. For the grace of God go I.
- The equality of all people to pursue their dreams. The 200+ years of history is a slow, painful, sometimes unsteady and violent, but dogged march toward equality. As Martin Luther King said, "the arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice".
- A civil society where ideas and policies are vigorously debated, democratically decided on, and adjudicated as necessary to protect the minority. A great nation nurtures these kinds of debates in our institutions and celebrates them.
- A foreign policy rooted in realism but with a strong bent of nurturing democracy and human rights however we can. A belief that the alliances and institutions created from the ashes of World War II have led western nations to the greatest prosperity mankind has ever known.
- The responsibility of the world's greatest power to partner with other nations to alleviate suffering. See Bono and George W. Bush for an example of people of different ideologies can work together to save countless lives.
- A belief that the United States plays a unique role in the world and that with that comes a special responsibility to lead by example.
- That character and values matter when it comes to our elected officials. In fact, they matter as much or more than ideology. You can always overturn bad legislation. It is much more difficult to wash the stench of venal leadership from the body fabric of a nation.
Now I find myself with a president of my own party who believes or embodies few of these things. He has a 50 year history in public life that demonstrates a fundamental lack of wisdom, generosity, kindness, or virtue. He continues that pattern unabated to this very day. While I might find myself agreeing with a policy here or there, what I see is an erratic, unprincipled, untruthful, arrogant, leader whose focus is on "winning", however that manifests itself in his mind. He is ferociously intolerant of criticism, responding to critiques of policy with personal attacks that resemble schoolyard taunts.
I watch and wait to see if the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Reagan becomes the party of Trump. If it does, I am out for good, as I want no part of a white nationalist, anti-free trade, nativist party that appeals to the worst in us instead of to the "better angels of our nature". The party formed to stop the spread of slavery and that fought a civil war to end it is now led by someone who demonizes immigrants as "rapists and murderers". I am stunned that so many of my party are willing to set aside their long-professed values to support someone so antithetical to those values.
Please spare me talk of "draining the swamp"(I guess by filling it with lobbyists and Wall Street appointees?), stopping the "globalists"(anyone that is not a globalist now is stuck in the 1800's), "fake news" or any of the other catch phrases that are trotted out. This is not a conservative administration. It may be an "anti liberal" administration but that is not the same thing. A conservative administration does not launch trade wars, hint darkly at the possibility of withdrawing from NATO or the World Trade Organization (both of which our nation helped found), make common cause with autocrats (see Putin, Duterte, Erdogan, etc.), while at the same time attacking our most reliable allies. It does not separate families just to send a message south of the border. It does not refuse to criticize the vile alt-right.
I am in a small minority of my party at this point. A recent poll showed close to 90% of Republicans approve of the president's job performance. Most members of Congress seem terrified of him, afraid that he will destroy their careers with a tweet. A few brave souls have shown leadership in reminding us what conservative values actually mean, but most are marching right along. Conservative "Never Trumpers" (I don't like the label but I guess that is what I am) are the outliers now. The funny thing is I am exactly where I have always been. I'm just not getting with the program!
All is not lost. Our country, its institutions, and the system of checks and balances, is strong enough to survive this administration. I can only hope that it doesn't permanently plant the seeds for the destruction of the conservative movement in the meantime.
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