The Suicide of the Right

I have been politically aware for over twenty years and have been active for the past ten. In that time, the overriding narrative among Republican Party insiders is the desire to broaden the tent. The ideals of the conservative side of the isle do have wide ranging appeal, even though it is a pretty hard sell these days. It stands to reason that it shouldn't be overly difficult to amass a coalition of citizens from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Sadly, there are far too many among us who feel compelled to destroy all efforts at broadening the base out of a misplaced idea of self importance.

In a recent editorial, I highlighted one aspect of political discourse among those of us on the right and how unproductive it is. Unfortunately, there is a much more destructive force at play. Ideological purity, the belief that if someone doesn't agree 100% with what you believe in they must be made irrelevant, is going to kill off any chance that conservatives have to assemble any sort of consensus.

I'm sure you have seen it somewhere on your social media platforms. These purists scream about RINO's, the establishment, and other such nonsense. It makes no difference to them if said Republicans agree with 75% of their ideas. If it is not 100%, they refuse to vote for them. There is even a small, but growing, percentage of these zealots who claim that they are conservatives who will vote Democratic until they, "get their act together". This truly baffles me. You are willing to vote for a Democrat, many of which despise everything you stand for, just because the Republican candidate/representative didn't agree with you on one or two pet beliefs.

I freely admit voting for a third party for president in 2016. Trump was an unknown quantity and I wasn't completely convinced that he was going to do what he said because there was no political history to go on. When Governor Walker killed the Kenosha casino proposal, I was extremely frustrated. It was a good idea that was going to bring lots of economic development to Kenosha. I also am quite upset about the huge handout of taxpayer funds to billionaires to keep a basketball team in Milwaukee. However, neither one of those decisions, nor both together, was enough for me to not vote for him in his election loss in 2018. While there were some ideological differences between me and the governor, I knew that the Democratic candidate (current Governor Evers) was not an option. However, there was a significant amount of former Walker voters who refused to vote for him simply because they didn't like the idea that he ran for president in 2016. So, instead of a governor that they only had a mild issue with, they gave us a governor who many of them can't stand.

Conservatism is under attack right now. There is no denying it. The idea of hard work, personal responsibility, and fiscal solvency are not particularly popular, but they instill values that cannot be earned any other way. As long as we have to fight those who say they believe what we do, yet do everything they can to ensure that our opponents win, it will be a long fight. Should conservatism die, it will be a suicide...not a homicide.