I was scanning my blog for posts about nuclear weapons and nuclear war with the thought that I might post about this subject again, when I came upon the following post from June of 2012. Just to remind you, it was during the summer of the run up to the presidential election between Obama (seeking his second term) and what appeared to be Mitt Romney. I conceived the post after hearing a moderate Republican on TV lament that the party was beginning to move much farther right than he was comfortable with, and that Reagan and George W Bush, two center right presidents, might not have much of a chance in the current Republican party.
Imagine that, in 2012, this particular conservative and lifelong member of the Republican party, was concerned that his party was moving too far right, and was concerned that Romney might need to campaign further right than he had governed (remember, he was the Governor of Massachusetts, where his health care policy of health insurance for all became the basis for the Affordable Care Act).
Here is that link.
As it turned out, Obama won that election, 332 to 206 in the electoral college, and by about 5 million votes overall. Certainly not a mandate, but considering that unemployment, which had peaked around 10% after the economic meltdown of 2008, was still just under 8%, it was a strong victory for Obama. While some say that Romney wasn't the best candidate which is why he lost, many Republicans felt that he didn't go far enough to the right. The fact that Donald Trump became their next presidential candidate, and won, perhaps confirms that criticism.
One of the points I made in that post from 2012, was that the GOP had no choice but to veer further right as they had labelled Obama the most far left president in our history. (Those claiming that clearly missed FDR's 4 terms as president.)
Unfortunately, as I described in that post, most of Obama's policies were center left, in general. Sure, the Affordable Care Act was a major accomplishment and considered another step towards socialism, but as we have seen since its inception, it is not only popular, it not only provides millions of Americans with health insurance, but it also has forced health insurance companies to incorporate many popular aspects of the ACA into their everyday operations, such as allowing children up to age 26 to stay on their parents policy, removing some of the restrictions which prevented people to attain affordable health insurance due to pre-existing conditions, expanded Medicare eligibility and required insurers to cover a list of essential health benefits.
In other words, if passing and implementing the ACA was a far left policy, then its overall success and popularity must indicate America is a bit further left than the GOP would like to admit.
All this being said, I can't imagine what that conservative pundit thinks today. Or can I?
You see, the person is David Frum, a former speechwriter for President Bush, who is past lamenting about his party's tilt to the far right. He is now an MSNBC contributor, a senior editor of The Atlantic, and has written much about the dangers of Donald Trump.
While it is obvious that he does not support Trump and is alarmed about the state of the GOP, he apparently has not all together given up on his party, or to be more precise, his conservative leanings. He has just found himself trying to live a center right life within a far, far right political party.
But wouldn't someone as far left as you think that Joe?
True, my political beliefs are a bit further left of the average. As I often say, I see the world in a much different way than those who demonize immigrants (documented and undocumented), believe that we need to have a national religion, think that the LGBTQ+ community is a threat to our nation, worship billionaires (especially the orange one) just because they have a lot of money, regardless of how they accumulated it, think science is a liberal conspiracy, yearn for a "strong" man to lead us despite the danger of his dictatorial tendencies, etc. (It is a large list, growing larger.)
Still, rolling back women's reproductive rights seems pretty far right to me, especially when these new laws guarantee a higher maternal death and child poverty rate. Not to mention the birth of unwanted children conceived as the result of incest and rape.
And, frankly, so are laws that tell children and their parents that any gender confusion they might be experiencing should be ignored. Sure, the bullying will continue, the suicidal thoughts will still be present, but you have no rights in the land of the free to pursue treatment to help yourself. Additionally, don't bother trying to relieve yourself in the gender specific bathroom that makes you feel more comfortable, that is not a right you need to exercise in America. And, if you live in Texas, be doubly vigilant, because AG Paxton seeks your personal records, no doubt to rid his state of people like you so as to make Texas great again.
As for voting, the foundation of our democracy, well, since the GOP presidential candidate has only won the popular vote in one of the last eight elections, we must pass laws and add restrictions which make it harder to vote. I can remember not that long ago having political disagreements with friends and family, but we at least always agreed that we should make it easier to vote. There was even talk of devising a way to vote online.
But now there are laws reducing the number of days for early voting, reducing the availability of mail-in votes, or drop boxes for votes, or if someone can hand a prospective voter a bottle of water while they wait in line. Not to mention the closing of polling sites in (coincidentally) minority communities. Can't win through policy, then just make it harder to vote.
In my state, Pennsylvania, when a voter completes their mail-in vote, he/she must record the date on the envelope or the vote might not count. The fact that when you mail a mail-in vote, it is date stamped by the United States Post Office, or if the vote is received before or even within a day of election day, it was clearly mailed in time, doesn't seem to matter. Because, you see, the point is to disenfranchise voters, and the fact that Democrats use mail-in votes more often really has nothing to do with this silly rule. Yea, right.
And let's not forget banning books. It's not enough to monitor your own kids trips to the library, now we must regulate everyone's access to books. Considering that so much information is available at a child's fingertips through the internet, it makes little sense to focus on libraries, to threaten librarians with fines and the loss of their job, when most of those same kids have 24/7 access via their cell phone. But hey, if you're going to go full right, book banning sounds good.
Speaking of Reagan, the guy famous for his declaration, "Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall", what do you think he would make of a party that embraces the current dictator of Russia, Vladimir Putin? Whose party leader thinks Putin is a strong leader and "very smart". A party with legislative representatives and everyday voters who believe Putin's invasion of Ukraine is justifiable? A party that doesn't understand that a guy who kills his political rivals is a threat to global democracy?
When Reagan was president, one of his favorite fellow leaders was Margaret Thatcher. Now the GOP is led by a guy whose favorite world leaders are all autocrats or dictators! He even just invited one to Mar a Lago! Do you think they were sharing cookie recipes, or reviewing the dictator playbook for dismantling a democracy?
So yes, I am liberal, I am left of center, and I am just as aghast as David Frum was in 2012 at the GOP's headlong drive to the far right. But more so, I am scared at how many Americans, even though a minority, identify with such far right policies as well.
Finally, for those of you who followed the Ronna McDaniel saga, I thought it important to remind everyone that Ronna is Mitt Romney's niece. She used to go by the name of Ronna Romney McDaniel, but dropped the Romney when she was named RNC chair.
Whether that decision was based on the original David Frum complaint that the GOP was moving too far right, and that Reagan, Bush and, as it turned out, Romney were no longer acceptable candidates, or Trump requested it, as some believe, it is clear that the GOP was fully committed to its continued shift to the right at that time.
The fact that NBC News thought she could lend some kind of perspective about how the 2020 election was stolen by the Democrats, or about how the plan in which she actively participated (and may still be indicted in Michigan for) to ignore the American electorate and keep Trump in power almost worked, seems shortsighted, at best.
Even if she was now going to admit that she was wrong when she was all in for Trump, that she now sees his deficiencies, especially since her party has consistently underachieved since 2016 when she became RNC chair and swerved far right, what would be the value of that? Trump has already kicked her out, is already mocking her for running to the left.
Ronna sold her soul to glide behind the coat tails of Trump, and is now, like so many of those whom he jettisons when they are of no use to him, left waving in the wind. That is the danger of going far right, or any such extreme. Once you are out, there is no where to go.
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