Republicans, Let’s Be Honest About What You’re Voting For
The Republican Party’s only consistent platform is bigotry and regressive social policy
What does the Republican Party stand for? Ask an average voter — Republican, Democrat, or independent — and they’ll probably answer with something about religiosity, fiscal responsibility, or staving off government overreach. But under closer scrutiny, none of these match Republicans’ record — certainly not with the party as it exists today.
The Republican party applies these perceived principles inconsistently, using them as smokescreens for their only real unwavering commitment: policies grounded in bigotry.
Religiosity
While it’s true that the Republican voting base is more religious than Democrats’, the party’s standard bearer is anything but. Donald Trump, who currently enjoys 90% approval among Republicans in Gallup’s tracking poll, was unable to properly articulate a book of the Bible, said he doesn’t seek forgiveness from God, and cheated on his wives repeatedly.
If it weren’t enough to elect a man who’s the opposite of everything religious voters claim to believe, Republicans’ economic and social policies make its claim of religiosity even less believable.
Donald Trump and his Congressional allies have long been working to cut social safety nets meant to help the least well off among us (a biblical principle, if I’ve ever seen one), repeatedly proposing cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, Medicare, and Social Security. These cuts would offset a tax cut that acted as a giveaway to the rich (something, something, eye of a needle).
At the same time they’ve been working to starve the hungry, Republican politicians and their cheerleaders in right wing media have been demonizing immigrants (someone point me to the verse where Jesus says strangers fleeing violence must apply for and receive the proper papers before we help).
Fiscal Responsibility
Republicans have long claimed to be the party of fiscal responsibility, lamenting the federal deficit and debt. But this doesn’t jibe with the facts, historical or present.
The GOP’s claims of deep concern over deficit and debt all but disappear whenever they’re in power. The Trump administration, like the Bush administration before it, ushered in tax cuts for the wealthy and ballooned military spending, causing massive deficit increases. It’s hard to imagine that Republican voters take “fiscal responsibility” seriously when the people they elect play political football with the idea instead of sticking to it as a serious principle.
Limited Government
If it’s not religion or fiscal concerns, worry about government overreach is often a major motivator for those who find a home in the Republican Party, and it’s an explicit line-item in the Republican platform. But neither the party’s voters nor its elected officials seem particularly keen on it.
For instance, a 2015 YouGov survey found that nearly half of Republicans would support a military coup, a 2017 Pew Research Center survey found that one third of Republicans support an unchecked presidency, and a 2017 Washington Post survey found that half of Republicans would be comfortable with the president unilaterally postponing the 2020 elections.
In the Trump era, Republicans have diverged from their claimed interest in small government, ceding additional power to a president who would be king. Most support Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall across the southern border, which would include forceful acquisition of private property, while about 75 percent of Republican voters and the vast majority of Republicans in Congress back Trump on his declaration of a national emergency over a contrived security concern.
And the GOP inclination toward government overreach doesn’t stop with granting the president more power. They push policies to control women’s bodies, roll back marriage equality, impose religion (read: Christianity) throughout public and private life, increase the U.S. military presence overseas, and more. Whatever the Republicans think of government, it’s certainly not that it should be small.
The One Constant: Bigotry
They discard religious teachings, increase the deficit, and expand government power, but there’s one area where Republican politicians are remarkably consistent: bigotry.
They’ve proven this in Congress, reintroducing bills to allow religious discrimination against gay marriage and confirm Supreme Court nominees who likely aim to overturn the landmark marriage equality ruling.
They fight to disenfranchise black Americans, gerrymandering districts and suppressing turnout by making it harder to vote.
They try to (further) control women’s bodies, angling to overturn Roe v. Wade, and prevent sex and racial equality in the workplace with votes against equal pay initiatives.
They make clear their disdain for non-white immigrants and conduct a wide-ranging “assault on transgender existence.”
In a stunning display that encapsulates all of this, after chastising the Democrats for a congresswoman’s comments deemed antisemitic, the Republican Party couldn’t even come together to vote in unison on a resolution to condemn hate.
You’re Only Getting One Sure Thing With a Republican Vote
All this leads to the conclusion that the only thing you’re guaranteed to achieve by voting Republican is not adherence to religion, fiscal responsibility, or pushing back on government overreach, but the insatiable, continued, appalling bigotry that has engulfed the party. Whatever you tell yourself, whatever you want to believe, however you aim to convince yourself that you’re acting otherwise, the end-result is the same.
Parker Molloy summed this up quite nicely on Friday:
If you’re a Republican voter, this is what your party has become. As the most predictable and consistent characteristic of your party, this is now its defining feature.
If you’re looking for the party that upholds traditional conservative principles, you’re not going to find it in today’s GOP and you’re not going to get it back by rewarding bigotry with your vote.
