On Tuesday the Republican Death Star showed signs of vulnerability. Republican strategists sought to intervene by calling their politicians to clue in and reform. How do they “recapture the jolt of energy” that launched them to victory in 2016, one wondered. Leading GOP intellectual Bill Kristol tweeted that he welcomes new ideas and new energy, but party fortunes hang on one reality: “until conservatives and Republicans confront the problem of Trump, I suspect nothing else gets traction.” This is what partisan experts do. Facing adversity, they tweak the system and the message to find an advantage.
But there’s a bigger picture. You can change the black to pink, but the Republican Party remains a death star. When it comes to governance, that party offers nothing but destruction. It has no interest in improving life for ordinary Americans in any particular way. Instead, it serves the super-rich who fund its candidates, forwarding the expenses to the rest of us. That is its only purpose for existence.
Take policy. Throughout the entire Obama administration Republicans assured us that they had a better plan for health care. Once they gained power we learned that no such plan existed. Seven years to work on it, and not one decent idea. For my entire adult life they’ve promised an improved tax policy. Once again it’s clear they have no such policy despite the full generation they had to cook one up. It’s been decades since Republicans offered an actual idea, fully cooked, to address our society’s basic concerns.
The Death Star works far better as a weapon than as a tool. With climate change now posing a top security risk for the United States, the Republicans have managed to prevent serious policy change. Hell, you can’t even talk about it. Ever the opponents of regulation, they abandon parks, streams, and underground water sources to corporate exploitation. Rather than invest in healthy education and criminal justice systems, they farm out the work to profiteers. They say they honor the troops, then eviscerate the programs that support our veterans. And they pacify their base by playing the culture wars: they attack minority voters by undermining the Voting Rights Act and passing Voter ID bills; they expose undocumented immigrants to deportation; and they obsess over who may use which bathroom. So beholden are they to the NRA, they’d rather tell us mass murder victims are better off with Jesus than consider gun policy.
In short, the Republican Party does nothing constructive – and lots that’s deadly. It has no real interest in governing, only in undermining responsible governance. This week’s election results inspire a measure of hope that Americans are figuring this out. Unfortunately, we are a fickle people. It will take repeated, well aimed attacks to take out this death star, and it won’t be easy.