I grew up in a mixed household. My mother and her family were staunch Republicans. My dad was in the military and was scrupulous about not talking politics, although at election time she would bemoan the fact that he would be cancelling out her vote, again. They came from different backgrounds. I like to say I came from banking families; my mother’s father owned two banks in Boston and my father’s father was a teller in Detroit.
I’m old. I remember seeing President Eisenhower at the American Embassy in Karachi when my dad was stationed in Pakistan in 1959. My sister and I were Nixonettes in the 1964 presidential primary. My mother’s family expected us to understand that FDR had wrecked the country.
As a kid, watching the Republican and Democratic Party conventions was a tedious summertime activity, especially the endless platform debates, whatever they were.
Remember platforms? I think the GOP had its last one in 2016 but that debate was drowned out by the first iteration of stop the steal.
By 2020, the GOP had no platform at all. It was just the man, who he is, not a consensus of what the party stands for. Autocracy has always been just about the man. It is reminiscent of 1922, when Benito Mussolini, underappreciated hero of autocracy destroyed Italy’s democratic institutions with an unholy alliance with the church that sustained him through 1943. Sound familiar? The hail caesar salute he demanded was copied by his younger protegee.
To understand how we got here, you might watch the Netflix documentary Get Me Roger Stone. It traces what has been accomplished by those who believe morality is for weaklings and losers, money and power are the only goals, and stoking fear and anger are the only ways to drive donations and voting behavior.
The current strategy of the Far Right is to keep the electorate and its supporters in a constant state of fear and outrage, a constant drama of apocalyptic proportions. In Maryland, Larry Hogan and Addie Eckhardt are regarded as traitorous RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), and the candidates, Cox for Governor, Petruska for Attorney General, Andy Harris for Congress and Johnny Mautz for State Senate have all jumped on the stop the steal bandwagon giving energy to the destruction of our election process and respect for democratic institutions.
I’m a Democrat. But I think there are a lot of Republicans who, like me, would like to get back to fighting over marginal tax rates.
Holly Wright
Talbot County
Margot Miller says
Thank you!
Bill Keppen says
When you bend a knee to one unscrupulous individual, DJT, for whatever reason, rather that standing up for long held party principles, you are no longer members of that party, you are a member of a personality cult. Let me repeat. You are a member of a personality cult.
Richard Skinner says
Thank you. Well, we know there are at least two of us who are Democrats.
THOMAS FANNON says
Unfortunately both parties are now mining for votes among those who previously felt disenfranchised, who are easily swayed by the anger-stoking rhetoric from the wings. Yes there are white supremacists and election deniers, yes there are those demanding that the government be a nanny state with open borders…all unwilling to listen to the just concerns of the other side. They get too much media attention but are NOT the majority of Americans. Our leaders are supposed to be the body that distills our voices into progress, instead they focus exclusively on reelection. They dump trillions into the economy and are shocked…shocked at the resulting inflation.
I too remember conventions providing direction and excitement. Perhaps its the primary system that appeals to the activist wings of both parties which has brought us here. I look back back at crazier times in our history, though, always with the thought (the hope) that we will overcome!
Deirdre LaMotte says
The difference is that the Wings, as you put it, are the only part of the GOP now. This “both sides” rhetoric
is not applicable within the Democratic Party. The Democrats are the only centrist Party we have now. Curious that the Dems would be considered conservative in most advanced democratic nations, but that is bedsides the point.
The new Republican Party is to the right of every issue that our citizens believe in. The problem is they have
gerrymandered themselves where they can be like this. The Dobbs decision will change that; Republicans in swing
districts are desperately trying to change the subject. This will not work because the GOP is dishonest, and voters know it.
Willard T Engelskirchen says
It was easy to see that, in 2016, Trump found that giving his base permission to hate and encouraging them to fear was good politics for the short term. Many of us have prejudices and fears. We try to control them. Donald found that he could profit by exploiting fear, anger, and division.
I come from a working class background. I see the GOP trying to emphasize grievance. I have tried to understand the grievance and its source but cannot figure it out. We need to stay above it.
James Wilson says
History will be a harsh judge for those that favored power over democracy. Can you imagine how history will judge those that initiated a ‘stolen election’ and those that continue to be ‘election deniers?’
There is evil in the world and we are seeing evidence of it. M. Scott Peck wrote a book about it called “People of the Lie.”
Barbara Denton says
Comparing Trump and his followers to Mussolini are definite signs of TDS. Thanks again for outlining all the policies of the Democrats at the Federal and State level. Please let us know when you have any supporting evidence for your constant slamming of Republicans. Just exactly who was Mussolini’s protegee? Trump was born in 1946.
Do you really think anyone who would hire the Obamas to produce content is going to produce a video telling the truth about what happened to Roger Stone. If you are going to talk about the candidate for Attorney General please spell it correctly. His name is Michael Anthony Peroutka.
One statement you made is absolutely true. Hogan and Eckhardt are RINOs. Speaking of which you might also want to name Al Sikes and Wayne Gilchrist as they sponsored the Wes Moore meeting in Cambridge. Perhaps you wrote this article for them. Trust me the only Republicans who agree with you are the Never Trumpers, Rockfish Republicans and the Log Cabin Republicans. They are already known for being RINOs so we are not particularly worried about them.
J. Dean says
What is a “Rockfish Republican?” As a lover of Rockfish, I have nothing but positive associations with the word “Rockfish.” I am curious about what your definition is.
Also, do we have “Bluefish Democrats” here on the Eastern Shore? If so, are these good Democrats or bad ones?
Thanks for any clarifications you might be able to offer.
Barbara Denton says
A Rockfish Republican was a Republican who supported Wayne Gilchrist over Andy Harris due to his purported views on conservation. They still have not gotten over this RINO’S defeat and never will. Gilchrist has never found a Democrat he would not support including when he was in office. This has been going on since 2008 and has not stopped. Fortunately with the passage of time many of them are no longer with us.
Henry Herr says
Therein lies the problem. How can someone be Conservative and hold Republican principles for decades be a RINO? Anyone who doesn’t support Trump is now a RINO. In theory a political party should stand on principles, not 1 person. If you only support 1 person, rather than principles, thats the beginnings of fascism as this letter alluded to.
Jerry McConnell says
Evidence that Trump and his devoted neo-fascist admirers are lacking veracity and understand truth from fiction?
I don’t know what rock you’ve been dozing under, but buying into disproven fantasies and obvious falsehoods (commonly called “lies”) is
the playbook for Trumpo’phile’s. It’d be great if you all would wise up, but that’s not going to happen to anyone dumb enough to actually believe the stuff that you do.
Jim Richardson says
Another interesting book that warns us about the dangers of demagogues in our politics is Sinclair Lewis’s novel, “It Can’t Happen Here”. A very prophetic read.
Jim Moses CDR, USN (Ret.) says
As we “debate” who is and who is not a “RINO,” keep in mind that many of the folks now denigrated as “libs” (or worse) are the same ones who would stand in line in the snow to vote for an Eisenhower, Ford, Reagan or Bush. “I don’t recognize those names,” some might say. A hint for those who do not: they are all people who today could not get the nomination from this sorry excuse for a “political party.”
Deirdre LaMotte says
That was when the GOP had gentlemen and women of honor and integrity. No more. Yes the GOP is full of crazy people, but it is run by authoritarians who
influence the crazies.
Michael Estrella says
There are no Eisenhower Republicans left in the GOP…..only a few anti-Trumpers remain, a very few. There is only a minority group that believes they, in all things, are RIGHT, and they must be obeyed in all things social and political. They follow their chosen leader and hang on his every word and deed without question like lambs being lead to slaughter, and they demand that we all do the same. They want law and order as we know it abolished in favor of a new world where one man, their leader, is above the law and where anyone questioning that can and should be shot. They, the GOP, have traded democracy for fascism and traded their souls for a false God named trump and…….WE THE PEOPLE NEED TO REFORM A MUCH MORE PERFECT UNION!!!