Posted on 12/17/2020 6:53:12 AM PST by Presbyterian Reporter
On July 6, 1854 the first meeting of the new Republican Party took place in Ripon, Wisconsin. Ten thousand people turned out. The party’s inaugural organizing convention was on February 22, 1856. Within four years of that date it would successfully run Abraham Lincoln for President and gain the White House.
America in the 1850’s was a nation torn apart by a single issue, slavery. A low-level guerilla war over the issue was ongoing in Kansas and Missouri. Abolitionists like John Brown were advocating arming slaves in the South and igniting a race war.
The two major parties of the day were the Democrats and the Whigs, the latter a name taken from that of a British anti-monarchist party. The Democrats took a clear position on slavery. They were for it, and they wanted it to remain a part of American life.
The Whigs took no clear position. As battle lines were drawn, and the nation moved ever closer to war, the Whigs remained focused on tariffs, the role of the Supreme Court and the power of the Presidency. They remained obsessed with issues from an earlier day, and ultimately, they made themselves irrelevant. Most of the people who joined the new Republican Party came from the Whig Party, which would soon cease to exist.
Almost one hundred and seventy years later, America again finds itself divided over the issue of “slavery.” A populist movement, championed by – but not defined by – Donald Trump, stands for individual liberty, personal freedom, limited government and an intense focus on the national interests of the United States and its citizens. Opposed to this movement is an immensely powerful cabal of corporate media outlets, Big Tech, multinational corporations, professional politicians, government Mandarins and far-left organizations.
Just as slave owners once professed to have a moral obligation to control and rule over the members of the “inferior” black race they held in bondage, these new elitist overlords believe it is their right and their duty to save the “great unwashed” and masses of “deplorables” from themselves. They increasingly take unto themselves the power to tell the vast majority of Americans – who are apparently lacking in sufficient sophistication to govern their own lives – how to live, what to believe and how to raise their children. For these members of the self-appointed ruling class, there are no inalienable rights there are only privileges given to those who conform and obey. And, like all privileges, these can be taken away or curtailed whenever the elite chooses to do so.
The Democrats have again taken a clear position. They are for slavery. They believe that they can close your business, take away your ability to travel and silence your voice anytime they want. Opinions that are judged “unenlightened” will not be tolerated. Your parental rights are contingent at best. If your son tells the counselor at school he thinks he is a girl, it will be the elitist masters in the school administration and the judicial system who will decide what happens next, not you.
Where the Republicans are as a party on all this remains unclear. The tens of millions of Americans who support the so-called MAGA movement seem laser-focused on regaining control over their government and their society. They seem crystal clear on their opposition to globalization and ever tighter government control. And, yet, the Republican establishment seems often to prefer to focus on other questions and attempt to wait out the moment. Like the Whigs, they seem determined to ignore the central issue of the day and focus instead on their own insular agenda.
In October, as the Presidential election loomed and the impact of the pandemic lockdown on the U.S. economy deepened, the U.S. Senate, under the control of Republicans voted to eliminate the per-country numerical limitation on the number of employment-based visas issued to foreigners seeking work in the United States. The Senate did so using a procedure, which allowed Senators to support the bill without having to take a vote recording their names. With unemployment at dangerously high levels, winter approaching and an eviction moratorium about to expire, Republican Senators thought it both a priority to give more jobs to foreigners and to prevent anyone from identifying them by name as having done so.
The Republican controlled Senate is now hashing out the basic structure of a new COVID-19 relief package. A draft of that package shows that it will not include any stimulus checks for average Americans. They will be left to fend for themselves as the carnage caused by misguided business lockdowns grows every greater. The package will include, however, a bailout for Defense Department contractors. Federal agencies will continue to be able to use taxpayer money to provide what amounts to paid leave to federal contractors sidelined by the pandemic.
Meanwhile, as the firestorm regarding widespread election irregularities rages on across the nation, the vast majority of Republican establishment politicians at both the national and the state level have remained silent, seemingly washing their hands of the controversy and awaiting a return to business as usual under a new Biden administration. A few hearings have been conducted. Nothing of consequence has been done.
The reality is that a great many of the “leaders” in the GOP have always been uncomfortable with the principles of the populist movement sweeping the nation. They have yearned for a return to the “good old days” when everyone wanted bigger, more expensive government, ever tighter ties to China, endless military adventures and global trade pacts. They did their best to conceal this reality as long as Donald Trump inhabited the White House. Sensing he is on his last legs; they conceal it no longer.
Like the Whigs, they have misjudged the moment.
Trump’s apparent defeat ends nothing. The movement he has headed is not defined by him or dependent on him. The tens of millions of Americans seething with anger at COVID lockdowns, social media” thought police” and dictatorial state governors are not going away. They have seen now the reality of the GOP establishment, and they will remember.
America’s populist movement is not fading away. The GOP may be. Already there is significant talk of a new party, one which is not irrelevant, one which addresses the issues of the day. This much is clear. There will be a reckoning, and any party which does not address the issues of the day is doomed to disappear.
Are we about to see a 'what comes around, goes around moment in our history'?
I see no reason why I should support the Republicans. They don’t seem to support anything I care about.
Democrats are worse, sure. That makes the Republicans the Lesser of two Evils. But I’m not interested in supporting Evil of any size.
“I see no reason why I should support the Republicans. They don’t seem to support anything I care about.
Democrats are worse, sure. That makes the Republicans the Lesser of two Evils. But I’m not interested in supporting Evil of any size.”
^THIS
The Whig party controlled the newspapers before it died.
The ComDems control the media today.
This is a stupid comparison related to Whig party.
The GOP is nothing more than a “controlled opposition” that the leftists permit to limp along to give Americans the illusion of choice. In 2022 we need to savage the GOPe incumbents in the Republican primaries. There are at best a handful of Republicans worth re-electing. If we cannot turn the quisling GOP around it is time to form a new political party.
What we call “Republicans” are history.
I’m tired of voting for RINOs.
I despise Democrats.
Really DESPISE them, I don’t want to live near
or do any business with them.
So what is left?
Personally I think a Libertarian
MAGA party would stomp all
of the others into the ground.
Trump lit a match, I’m mixing
charcoal, stump remover, and sulfur,
so join in.
Yesterday, I made the first step in telling the GOP that I am not happy with their non-support of President Trump.
I changed my voter registration from GOP to NO PARTY AFFILIATION.
Now I live in Florida, a Closed Primary State, so I will need revert back to registering as a GOP in August 2022 so I can vote in the GOP Primary.
In August 2022 Senator Marco Rubio will be on the primary ballot and I will vote for any person who is opposing him. Hopefully, a strong conservative will challenge Rubio in 2022 and Florida conservatives can remove him from office.
The Democrats don't need them anymore and don't want them hanging around to split the loot.
The base of former Republican rank-and-file members has been repeatedly betrayed by the leadership. Nothing ever changes here.
Two more "election" cycles and the Republican office holders will all be gone anyway. Elections are now just for show; the outcomes are controlled. The question of "who shall rule" will be decided by other methods.
A better more pertinent question..... will the Anti American leftists led by Joe Biden go the way of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.?
Will Joe Biden go the way of King Louis XVI of France?
Will America set up a goulitine on the DC Mall with thousand cheering as leftist heads roll ?
You did read the article, right? The author's entire premise is about how the Whig party, by ignoring its base and their concerns, had its members abandon it to form a new party. No mention of control of the newspapers was even mentioned in it. Try reading it again.
They say "ignorance is bliss" but it is not bliss when you read it in a comment.
The GOP had a banner election and 2022 should be better yet. They lost POTUS but Trump was a rino (in a good way).
Looking at state map it is idiotic to think the GOP is going away.
[[[The Whigs took no clear position.]]]
Ahhhh, RINOs back then too.
Thank you, I’ve been doing that exact same thing for years.
Never again will I send money to ANY Republican candidate, regardless of how “conservative” they describe themselves.
For all the years I’ve been a voter, I’ve been cheated by the Republican Party. They say one thing and do the opposite, or nothing at all.
The Republicans I admire and respect, less than a dozen or so of ‘em, cannot influence the future of their party. They will forever be considered noisy backbench trouble makers by the senior members, who are hopelessly mired in deep-state corruption, and answer to no one other than moneyed corporate lobbyists and interests. Those of us who are Conservatives are not constituents. We’re subjects.
President Trump bypassed all the noise and fluff of special interests in favor of the individuals who elected him.
The special interests joined with the out-of-control internet and tech giants, the media, and with rabid left-wingers and socialists to topple his successful (successful for the average non-connected voter) first four years.
No one in power is going to answer to the 75,000,000 plus individuals who voted for President Trump. We count for nothing because we have no power.
Starting in 2016, the left shouted “RESIST!!!”
Starting today, I will shout “REFUSE.”
Barring a pleasant miracle on January 6, 2021, Mitch McConnell will go down in history as the man who destroyed the Republican Party.
Least evil of two lessers.
No. The one thing both parties agree on is that there will be no replacements. They put many rules in place at the federal and state level to make sure no 3rd party ever gets traction. No matter how faith people lose in either party they will not go away or be replaced.
The new party should be called the America Fisrt (AF) Party. I am in.
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