There is no organized, coherent purpose other than the acquisition and maintenance of power. “A party without a governing theory, a higher purpose or a clear moral direction is nothing more than a cartel, a syndicate that exists only to advance itself. Yes, it’s President Trump’s party now, but it stands only for what he has just tweeted.” “Republicans are now officially the character doesn’t count party, the personal responsibility just proves you have failed to blame the other guy party, the deficit doesn’t matter party, the Russia is our ally party, and the I’m-right-and-you-are-human-scum party. Today it’s not that the Republican Party has forgotten these issues and values instead, it actively opposes all of them.” Though there was disagreement over specific issues, most Republicans would have said the party stood for some basic principles: fiscal sanity, free trade, strong on Russia, and that character and personal responsibility count. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.Stuart Stevens: “In a long-forgotten era - say, four years ago - such a question would have elicited a very different answer. is a Miami Herald columnist. ©2022 Miami Herald. How much of this can a democracy absorb and continue to function? We careen toward a moment of truth.Īnd America better have a red line of its own. Hence, Trump.Īnd hence, existential threat. As a party, we support policies that seek to achieve those goals. To the contrary, the GOP has pioneered a dangerous conceit: that high office, once held to be the proper province of the serious, the learned and the prepared, has now been democratized till it can be fulfilled by any unremarkable twit with the gumption to seek it and the ability to convince the average Joe or Jane that ignorance, immaturity, hostility toward liberal values and lack of impulse control constitute authenticity. train vote support connect Our Platform Republicans believe in liberty, economic prosperity, preserving American values and traditions, and restoring the American dream for every citizen of this great nation. He is hardly the only loose cannon in their arsenal. This omission has led some to conclude that the GOP lacks ideas, that it stands for nothing, that it has. In ridding itself of Cawthorn, however, that party provides itself, at best, temporary relief. R epublicans have decided not to publish a party platform for 2020. The Republican Party stands for the Republican Party. That this turned out to be the red line tells us all we need to know about GOP values. But apparently, it threatened the brand, so something had to be done. After all, no one will die because of Cawthorn’s accusation. Not to minimize how stupid it was for Cawthorn to make such an incendiary claim with zero evidence to back it up, but it says something about GOP priorities that this is what it took to get them to make a stand, as opposed to, you know, issues with actual impact on people’s lives. ?’” Even at that, Tuesday’s rejection by voters was narrow he lost by just 1,300 votes out of 88,000 cast. It was when one member of the House Freedom Caucus told Politico anonymously about reactions “across the political spectrum. That, said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, was when Cawthorn “lost my trust.” It was also when Thom Tillis, a senator from his state, endorsed his primary challenger. Not so a March podcast wherein he inexplicably claimed to have been invited to cocaine-fueled orgies by his colleagues. His controversies ranged from kink to outright sedition, touching several bases in between, yet none of it raised more than mild intraparty reproof. Consider Cawthorn’s catalog of impolitic behavior: He twice brought loaded guns to the airport he was shown on one video thrusting his naked genitals in another man’s face and on another partying in lingerie he was accused of sexual harassment he issued an apparent call for the violent overthrow of the U.S.
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