Be Careful What You Wish For
How The Republican Party Has Been Asking For It
The Republican presidential primary is still a better love story than Twilight, but many political observers scratch their heads wondering how the GOP found itself choosing between fearmongering xenophobe U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and sexist xenophobe Donald Trump (Governor John Kasich,R-OH, doesn’t seem to be a choice whom voters are considering realistically). Many other political observers answer “You asked for it.” In 2010, the Tea Party carried a Republican wave responsible for the GOP’s taking back the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. The newly mobilized wing of the GOP was welcomed by the establishment. In 2012, the GOP returned to that wing of the party to deliver another round of victories. Then-senatorial candidate Ted Cruz even spoke at the Republican National Convention with other Tea Party standard-bearers. That was the year the GOP began wondering whether the extreme right was the best place to find representatives of the party. Todd Akin invented the term “legitimate rape” (implying the existence of an illegitimate form) while claiming that women can’t conceive during rape. Robert Mourdock strengthened the tea by declaring that babies conceived in rape are a gift from God. Now, the Republican Party has such a strained relationship with Sen. Cruz because of his extremist tactics that opponent-turned-“supporter” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joked about the potential apathy/joy toward Cruz’s hypothetical murder.
Some Republicans complain that the party’s current crop of candidates doesn’t offer appropriate choices for representation, that this isn’t what they want. One might respond “But this is what you asked for.” Ted Cruz recently cited a quip attributed to Warren Delano, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s grandfather: not all Democrats are horse-thieves, but all horse-thieves are Democrats. In certain contexts, a similar sentiment may link the GOP to racism, misogyny, and other forms of chauvinism and fear-mongering. Additionally, how long have Republicans begged for an outsider and/or a businessman? Enter the Donald, the answer to Republicans’ prayers whether they knew it, accept it, or not.
Such is the weakness of democratic political representation: its reliance on the (in)competence and mobilization of those represented, specifically those choosing the representatives. Representatives are chosen by those who participate in the political process. Typical American political participants, especially in the primary season, are extremists who represent the far edge of the party. They mobilize more easily than their moderate companions. They care more than the moderates do. Unless checked by a competent party machine that filters the options, representation is left to the will of the people — those people. The tradeoff between what the people need and what they want becomes no clearer or more dangerous than when their true will is exercised unhaltingly. It is when the unamended will of those people is completely trusted that society’s weaknesses are revealed in the light of those people’s incompetence. That is because political representation depends on the communication, via elections in this case, of the will of the people. Who communicates what that will is? Those who mobilize, i.e. the extremists, serve as the voice of all the people when left without a moderate muzzle only because they are the loudest. Demand certain standards for your party’s image and leader, and you will find candidates like Lincoln and Roosevelt. Afford those people absolute discretion, as democratic as it is, and you get President Trump. Donald motherloving Trump.
Nonetheless, that’s democracy, and listening to some Republicans might make you think that God himself has anointed them ambassadors of democracy. Therefore, they should shut up and take what they asked for. You don’t get to broadcast a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, fearmongering, anti-immigrant, pro-outsider, ultra-pro-business message and complain about your racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, fearmongering, anti-immigrant, outsider, businessman frontrunner. Make no mistake: right-wing extremists are raping the GOP, and Donald Trump is the baby. But don’t worry. Todd Akin says that if it’s legitimate, you should be able to “shut that whole thing down.”
