By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK
Before going further, let me make clear that I concede that there is an ugly extremist element on the American right, our version of the left’s Occupy Wall Street and the Black Muslims, if you will. There were mornings when I couldn’t believe the dishonest stories about Hillary and the Obamas that were posted on the Internet.
Even if some of these stories, such as those about Obama’s ties to Arab extremists and Bill Clinton’s involvement with sexual activity with underage girls, turn out to be true, the point is that we have no proof at this point. It discredits the American right to be associated with those making the charges. There were some on the right during the last election campaign whose public statements were indistinguishable from what we see on the front page of the tabloids at the supermarket checkouts.
That said, where do we turn now? What will be the next step for the Never Trumpers? The election is over. The Donald won, surprising many, including me. I had predicted that he would drop out of his run for the Republican nomination after a few months on the campaign trail. The Never Trumpers predicted a civil war in the Republican Party, centering on a push by mainstream Republicans to weed out the “extremist elements” on the right who were the driving force behind Trump’s candidacy.
Trump’s victory is not going to change the goal of the Never Trumpers. I predict that they will make the case that Trump’s victory should be seen as an outlier, impossible to replicate. They are going to continue to call for a weeding out of extremists on the right.
The question is: Who are those extremists? Washington Post columnist and frequent talk-show commentator George Will has a suggestion. Appearing the week before the election with ABC’s Jonathan Karl and Rick Klein on their podcast Powerhouse Politics, Will said his hope was for a “landslide win for Clinton that would help Republicans by giving the party room to distance itself from divisive candidates and from the indignation industry of talk radio and cable personalities. Until the Republican Party gets right with minorities in this country, it’s never going to win another presidential election.”
Who are the talk-show hosts Will wants Republicans to distance themselves from? He can’t mean only the bizarre “alt-right” fringe on the right. They are not numerous enough to be worth the effort. Does he mean Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Laura Ingraham? What ideas do they promote that are so abhorrent?
Catherine Rampell, also a Washington Post columnist, gave us her answer. On October 25 she wrote of a “sickness in today’s Republican Party” that is not confined to “its soon-to-be defeated nominee.” She argued there is only one remedy: “If Republicans truly want to save the Republican Party, they need to go to war with right-wing media.”
She blames the right-wing media for convincing “seven in ten Republicans” that President Obama was “not born in the United States” and that “he’s a secret Muslim. Half believe that global warming is possibly or definitely a myth concocted by scientists.” They “don’t trust that votes will be counted accurately in the November election” and believe the government “fabricates economic data,” with the willing collaboration of the “left-wing media.”
She writes of “never-ending witch-hunts — against Planned Parenthood, climate scientists, and Hillary Clinton” drummed up by conservative media.
Should we listen to Will and Rampell? It strikes me that what Will and Rampell and those who agree with them are calling upon the Republican Party to do is save itself by adopting the agenda of the secular left; to do little more than sit on the sidelines and make polite suggestions for the Democrats as they carry out their agenda. Consider the implications.
What can George Will be saying about immigration? That the Republican Party must go along with calls for amnesty for illegal immigrants and the lax border controls advocated by Latino advocacy groups such as La Raza? What would that accomplish? The Republicans cannot outdo the Democrats in pandering to the Hispanic vote. The Democrats will one-up them at every step in the debate. There are many Democrat activists already calling for open borders.
You say what? That the Democratic Party as a whole would never go that far? I say, think again. Consider how liberal Democrats in the government and the media played us on the question of taxpayer support for abortions, up to and including partial-birth abortions. We were assured for decades that all the left wanted was to protect a woman’s right to choose. Now they want us to pay for her choice.
The Democrats know how to play this game; how to keep the fullness of their agenda hidden until they find the right moment to push for it in the open. That moment will be when our current lax border policies result in a bloc of Hispanic voters sufficiently powerful to carry the day.
And what of Catherine Rampell’s proposals?
It strikes me that if the survival of the Republican Party requires that conservatives no longer point out the many incidents of Democratic Party activists looking for ways to rig local elections, that Planned Parenthood is little more than an abortion mill operated with taxpayer support, that there are scientists who have been found cooking the books to make climate change seem more severe than it actually is, that the Obama administration has consistently misrepresented the unemployment rate by not taking into account those who have given up the search for work, that WikiLeaks demonstrated convincingly the complicity between major media figures and the Clinton campaign — then what Will and Rampell are asking conservative Republicans to do is tip our hats and step aside while the secular left reshapes the country.
Perhaps there are some people on the payroll of the Republican Party who would welcome a Republican Party redefined along the lines Rampell prefers. They may be thinking it is better to work for a Republican Party that has lost its conservative identity, than to be out of work. But it is hard to see how Republicans of long standing can welcome the prospect of a Republican Party that advocates the positions they have opposed their entire adult lives. Why would they want to back such a political party? How else can you define that than as acquiescence, a surrender?
Besides, the results of the recent election gave us clear proof that a Republican Party that represents Ronald Reagan’s views can still win national elections. There is no reason to think that Trump’s victory was a one-and-out.
The future looks promising. Latinos already in the country do not want to see their job prospects eroded by an endless flow of illegal immigrants. Working Americans do not want to see their employment prospects diminished by the kinds of controls over mining and industrial activity that the green activists want. Advanced MRIs have made more and more Americans aware of the nature of the life that is snuffed out in an abortion. We could go on.
The bottom line: It is not time to desert the conservative agenda. It is time to push forward. We still have the issues on our side.
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