Colwell: Red vs. Blue and how we got here
Once upon a time and not so long ago, Republicans were described as conservatives or moderates. And Democrats were viewed as conservatives, especially if Southern Democrats, or liberals.
Now, some would describe moderate Republicans and Southern Democrats as having gone the way of the dodo bird. There is the perception today of two tribes, Red vs. Blue, each unified in hatred of the other, rather than diverse political parties.
Lines really can’t be drawn that distinctly, although votes in Congress would seem to show virtually no room for diversity. Lines weren’t as distinct in the past either between wings of the parties, although congressional votes often reflected those differences within the parties.
Republicans today around the nation do have differences. There are MAGA (Make America Great Again) Republicans, those proclaiming loyalty to Donald Trump, and the more traditional conservatives who wish Trump would go away and let the party concentrate on future conservatives causes rather than past grievances.
MAGA Republicans won’t even accept traditional conservatives such as House Republicans Fred Upton, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger as members of their party, calling them RINOs, Republicans in Name Only. It’s not because they didn’t support conservative legislation and fiscal policy but because they wouldn’t support Trump’s insistence that he actually won the presidential election he lost.
MAGA Republicans wield immense influence in Republican primaries. That’s why eight of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the storming of the Capitol to block certification of election results won’t be back in the next Congress. Upton and Kinzinger saw the looming revenge of MAGA primary voters and declined to seek re-election. Cheney also saw it but ran anyway, losing big.
The moderate Republicans of the past haven’t all just disappeared. Some have become independents or have even decided to vote Democratic. Many still will vote Republican for candidates who don’t preach unwavering Trumpism. They won’t vote for some nominees Trump supported in the primaries, giving hope to Democrats of retaining control of the Senate.
The Grand Old Party, which once stood for limited government and restraint on presidential powers, hasn’t been replaced entirely by a MAGA cause of unlimited, unrestrained authority for a President Trump to lead where the party wouldn’t or couldn’t go. Republicans are split over that.
An August poll by NBC News found 41 percent of Republicans supporting Trump more than they support the GOP, while 50 percent said they support the party more than they do Trump.
As Trump’s troubles grow, more congressional Republicans are refraining from campaigning on a claim that Trump won in 2020. Most never really did believe he won but they knew it could cost them needed MAGA support if they said so.
Southern Democrats openly proclaiming support of segregation do seem extinct. Many switched parties after disagreement over the civil rights legislation.
There still are Democratic voters in the South. Democrats winning two Senate seats in Georgia showed that. But most of them are more moderate than Democratic congressional liberals from California and New York. Democratic voters in the Midwest and elsewhere also aren’t in tune with all the rhetoric of congressional liberals. That’s one reason why Democrats lost House seats as President Biden won so big in the popular vote.
Moderate Democrats always existed, once a significant presence in Congress. Now, just as Republican primary voters have become more Red, defeating moderate Republicans, Democratic primary voters have become more leftist, defeating moderate Democrats.
General election voters now can affect the course of politics. It won’t be back to the way things were once upon a time. But they could with their choices force more future diversity and less reliance on hate within the Red and Blue tribes.
Jack Colwell is a columnist for The Tribune. Write to him in care of The Tribune or by email at jcolwell@comcast.net.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Opinion: The tribal lines have been drawn between Republicans and Democrats
