The End of the Republican Party
The GOP is terminally ill. It's time to discuss how we might move beyond this poisonous era and reclaim something resembling sanity
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The Stakes series continues. Part I covered the authoritarian agenda and its specifics, detailing what a future under it might look like. Part II discussed the particulars of the 2024 Presidential Election. And Part III dissected the disconnect from reality we’re seeing in our news media and political class. Part IV will dive into what we can do as citizens to fight this fight.
On Monday night Democrat Tom Suozzi defeated Republican Mazi Pilip by roughly 8 points in a special election to fill the New York 3rd District’s House seat. That seat was last held by George Santos, one of the most laughably corrupt representatives in U.S. history. Which is saying something.
There’s no telling if Suozzi will manage to get the stink out of Santos’s seat, but it’s hard not to see the special election’s result as something of a bellwether. Suozzi returns to his former seat - which he previously defended against Santos with a 56% to 43% margin in 2020 - and we can certainly take this pick up by a Democrat as something of a message. But it isn’t quite what is already being peddled in our media.
Suozzi is exactly the type of Democrat who gets a lion’s share of praise in the media and politicos. Already pundits are making the argument that his win was predicated on tough talk regarding immigration, crime, and an emphasis on abortion. This, as we’re always told, is what the Dems should default to. In other words, Republican Light. The same song and dance we’ve heard time and time again. Even Senator Chris Murphy is demanding the party out-Republican the Republicans on the border now, and apparently President Joe Biden is listening loud and clear.
For those making that argument, it’s either a failure of imagination, despicable moral cowardice, or out-and-out duplicity. Some within the Democratic Party believe they are incapable of attracting voters by advocating beliefs they supposedly hold. Others hold those ideas, but are terrified to actually express or act on them. And then, worst of all, there are many who secretly hold conservative notions they dress up in liberal disguises. And that is the state of much of the party at this point.
But enough about that status quo for now. Because we need to discuss the Grand Old Party. Presently the Republicans are in the midst of tumult that would be enjoyable if it weren’t so terrifying. Donald Trump’s renewed push for the nomination has already shown incredible fissures that have been growing in recent years. In both Iowa and New Hampshire Trump won the contests with over 50% of the vote and was aggressively attacking the popular GOP governors of both states. Soon, chairperson Ronna McDaniel was pushed out and the party was left cannibalizing itself over the proposed border bill.
Let me say it plainly enough: the GOP is caught in a terminal trajectory of ruin. It is historically unpopular. It is ravaged by the disease of Trumpism and authoritarianism. We have seen major parties wither and fall away. It is time to watch the Republican Party fade away to history and give way to something different and less destructive.
The Suozzi victory is not some kind of harbinger of GOP collapse. In fact, Suozzi’s margin of victory against Pilip wasn’t that impressive when compared to past showings. You could make the argument, and I will, that this moderate-Republican Light messaging hurt Suozzi as opposed to help him. But good luck telling that to moderate Democrats who have spent the last three decades looking at all of their many defeats and continuing to advocate the same exact strategy: moving further to the Right.
And I want to be clear. Defeating Donald Trump and the GOP in November 2024 will not solve the problem. It might delay its worsening or at least keep Project 2025 - the donor created masterplan - from rolling out, but it won’t end this problem once and for all.
We could, however, take advantage of this very important moment. And we should, because the historically unpopular GOP, which is very, very vulnerable right now, is looking to take advantage of the minoritarian institutions enshrined in our system to seize the reins of power and change them in order to quell the “threat” of democracy. What we do, how we fight, and ultimately what happens in our future, depends on what we do now.
And so, we must understand what it is that we must do.