Lynn Smith: Cowards, Crooks, and Crazies, Part III
It’s long been observed that American politics is best conducted between the 40-yard lines because when extremists are allowed to dominate either end of the field, our country loses its moorings. But with Republicans pandering to the most extreme elements of their voting base, primary battles have become radical right-wing scrums, with the nuts in possession of the ball, and running it downfield. This month, as the cowards quake, and the crooks corrupt, I’ll end my three-part series on the downfall of the Republican Party, with the conspiracy-loving crazies.
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The embrace of the kooks within the GOP is not an aberration, it’s a culmination. From McCarthyism to Birtherism, from Christian Nationalism to rural militias, from FOX News to Breitbart News, from Rush Limbaugh to Tucker Carlson, and from the John Birch Society to MAGA, the Republican Party has deliberately nurtured extremism. Not only are Republican politicians brandishing firearms and threatening to extinguish the Dems, but former President Trump is overtly embracing QAnon conspiracies that among other nonsense, call for his lifetime appointment as President.
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In today’s GOP, President Reagan’s bold and unapologetic disdain for dictatorships, is long gone.
Joseph Welch was the lawyer hired to represent the U.S. Army when it came under attack by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Subcommittee on Investigations for the Army’s alleged infiltration by Communists. Welch courageously asked, “Have you no decency, sir?” during the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954, he basically ended Republican Joseph McCarthy’s reign of terror in the U.S. Senate. And during his unsuccessful run for president in ’64, Republican Barry Goldwater spoke derisively about the racism among his own supporters. Thankfully, his candor and courage allowed him to thrive in the Senate long enough to join colleagues, John Rhodes, R-Ariz., and Hugh Scott, R-Pa., in encouraging President Nixon to resign in ‘74.
Ronald Reagan openly referred to the John Birch Society as a “lunatic fringe,” and Republican congressional leaders Everett Dirksen and Gerald Ford, publicly agreed. During the civil rights movement in the turbulent decade of the ‘60s, conservative bulldog William F. Buckley ran critical commentaries on Republican displays of “conspiratorial and unpatriotic hostility” from his editorial perch at the National Review.
Compare those quaint times with now, when a substantial portion of the American right is animated by any action, however illegal or immoral, that allows them to retain control. Shockingly, neither Trump’s attempted coup, nor his theft of our country’s national security secrets, is enough to shake the few remaining Republican patriots out of the trees. No fewer than 86 judges rejected at least one post-election lawsuit filed by Trump and yet, almost 150 Republican candidates are currently running on the gospel of election fraud. Some candidates running for secretary of state, and even governorships, are openly saying they won't certify a Democrat if they win in 2024. Now, truth is nothing more than an inconvenient annoyance, and the crazies are given free rein to gin up one farcical fantasy after another. What tragic irony in a nation birthed during the Age of Enlightenment!
But most dangerous of all are the crazies’ public bouts of rage, increasingly peppered with threats of violence, that are driving the sane and stable folks out of public service. We are losing our most experienced servant leaders, those that have exhibited decades of apolitical excellence, because they can no longer endure the abuse meted out by radical loud mouths. Tragically, we are left with ethical and moral vacuums within our school boards, our election commissions, and at all levels of government. Because democracy is dependent upon our ability to self-govern, the out-of-control extremists at either end of the field, are fundamentally incapable of providing the clearheaded leadership that our country requires. But because we’re the folks that elect the governing class, we’ve all played a part in creating our political brokenness.
I voted for independent candidate Ross Perot in 1992. It was the first time that I didn’t vote a straight Republican ticket in a national election, and I still regret that decision. George H.W. Bush was a far better man than Bill Clinton, and in 1992, the GOP was still a functioning political party. But now, the GOP is mostly engaged in igniting culture wars and spreading lies, while the Dems, however imperfect, are passing forward-looking legislation that will improve the lives of millions of Americans. Appallingly, Republicans have harnessed the worst elements in politics, poisoned our national discourse, and are no longer worthy of representing the world’s only remaining superpower. This post-truth, pro-conspiracy, pro-rage cult of personality, must be decisively defeated in November. So for the first time in my life, I will vote a straight Democratic ticket in the upcoming elections.
And candidly, I’m praying that millions of Americans will do the same.
— Community Columnist Lynn Smith is a retired wealth management executive who resides in Holland. Contact her at lynn.angleworks@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Lynn Smith: Cowards, Crooks, and Crazies, Part III
