Save the Republic

 Responsible Conservatives Step Up to Save the Republic

 

The battle for the heart and soul of the Republican party is getting more heated. Sensible conservatives are starting to condemn the authoritarian former president and his followers as the true threat to our democratic Republic. 

 

In a joint, open letter published on Wednesday by the conservative magazine The Bulwark and the liberal New Republic, writers and pundits from across the political spectrum came out with a specific list of policies implemented by followers of the former president which they all agree are inimical to the survival of our democratic Republic.

 

Here is the list, verbatim,

 

“We vigorously oppose ongoing Republican efforts to change state election laws to limit voter participation.

 

“We vigorously oppose ongoing Republican efforts to empower state legislatures to override duly appointed election officials and interfere with the proper certification of election results, thereby substituting their own political preferences for those expressed by citizens at the polls.

 

“We vigorously oppose the relentless and unending promotion of unprofessional and phony “election audits” that waste public money, jeopardize public electoral data and voting machines, and generate paranoia about the legitimacy of elections.

 

“We urge the Democratic-controlled Congress to pass effective, national legislation to protect the vote and our elections, and, if necessary to override the Senate filibuster rule.

 

“And we urge all responsible citizens who care about democracy—public officials, journalists, educators, activists, ordinary citizens—to make the defense of democracy an urgent priority now.”

 

The letter concludes, “[n]ow is the time for leaders in all walks of life—for citizens of all political backgrounds and persuasions—to come to the aid of the Republic.”

 

Wisconsin and Washington County GOP leadership have embraced all the policies opposed in the letter and need to be replaced by those who support our democratic republic form of government. 

 

There are decent conservatives in our state and community who are appalled by the actions of the former president and his followers, especially with the conduct of the former president after he lost the last election and of his followers who stormed the Capitol to overturn the result of the election on January 6^th. Some congressional Republicans are also speaking out against the former president and what he represents.

 

There are decent conservatives who support our system of open and fair elections and want to secure the vote for all eligible citizens. 

 

There are decent conservatives who support fairly drawn legislative districts which are competitive and more responsive to the will of the voters. 

 

It is time for those conservatives who support the rule of law and our democracy to step up and retake control of the Republican Party in our country, state and county. 

 

If that happens, hopefully, we will return to a political debate about ideas and policies that move the country, state and county forward instead of the current culture wars that do nothing but divide us and stoke hatred. 

 

Locally, the first place where we need to tone down the rhetoric is with our local school boards. Well heeled Republican mega-donors are funding the Mequon-Thiensville school board recall movement over health and safety policies implemented by the current board. Other Wisconsin school board meetings have become heated battlegrounds over mask and vaccine policies and inclusive curricula where the real motivating factor is frustration over a vanishing way of life and privilege.

 

Responsible people need to take back the conservative movement and the GOP to move back to governing in a spirit of compromise and collegiality. If they don’t act, our democracy is in peril.