The gathering storm - what’s tearing the GOP (and America) apart
In 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected president a fundamental shift occurred within the American electorate. Union members and their blue collar peers abandoned the Democratic party in favor of the America-first philosophy of the Reagan revolution. Believing that through Reagan the GOP would now embrace a pro-American agenda, these middle-aged collectivists found a haven for their personal beliefs and principals which would become a rudder for the Republican Party. These “Reagan Democrats” helped move the party forward, and as the ’80’s gave way to the ’90’s, many of them remained with the Gipper’s party out of a conviction that moral sentiments were more important than trade policy (of course Bill Clinton’s support for NAFTA didn’t hurt). But now as many of those retiring pre-baby boomers have found, the party of Reagan has abandoned them and they have no place to turn.
Every day these 60-and-over types watch as their elected officials from the Statehouse to the White House turn a blind eye to the needs of the working class American and the economy they rely on. Trade barriers are removed and cheap labor is legalized through the greased slides of undocumented immigration amnesty. The jobs these folks had are long gone, and the concept of America-first has faded in favor of big companies moving their operations overseas in search of lower costs and improved profitability. Nobody is looking out for the needs of the American worker (much less the pension solvency required to allow these retirees a semblance of tranquil dignity in their golden years).
Some of them have chosen to return to the Democratic party and their offers of socialized medicine and a nanny-state: what else can they do now that their pensions have dried up and the companies for whom they once worked have failed or moved away? But others - now in droves - are throwing up their hands in disgust and wondering where to turn. The GOP can still count on the upper and suburban upper middle class voter while the Democrats find solice in the ”working” middle class and urban community, but the folks that once made up the backbone of this country have been lost and their values and beliefs are going out the door with them.
What makes me think this?
We’ve spent the last few months watching as our elected officials debate and position themselves around an immigration policy that NOBODY (except for the politicians) is interested in. The cause of this deliberative ignorance on the part of the Beltway crowd is tied directly to the money that these ever-campaigning politicos rely on for getting elected. Big business and its lobbyists write the check and the guy (or gal) in the blue suit asks, “how high do you want me to jump?” All the while turning a deaf ear to we the people.
Look at the White House. Ed Gillespie is now sitting at the right hand of George W. Bush - talk about the fox being in the hen house. If things were bad with the lobbyists and the business of government before, one can only assume that the parade of well-heeled corporate interests will be wearing a path through the White House halls.
The folks in DC don’t get it and it’s already started to destroy the GOP. Is America far behind?
