Where has my party gone? Where has the party of Lincoln and Reagan gone? I grew up Republican and I still call myself a Republican if I’m ever asked. Unfortunately, these days I need to add a caveat saying I belong to an older mindset of Republicans. This group grows smaller every day, and that scares me more than just about anything else in the world. One such person who belonged to the old order was William McCullough, a Wooster alum.
McCullough represented exactly what the Republican Party as whole used to stand for: federalism, free markets and free people. These three F’s are sadly overlooked or distorted in today’s Republican Party.
What used to be a strong defense of the balance of power between the states and the federal government has now been perverted to a pure states’ rights stance that overlooks the unconstitutional behavior of a state government. Free markets used to mean that government ought to avoid interfering with business whenever possible; now it simply serves as a political talking point meant to rile the masses.
Finally, free people has been all but forgotten. Since when did interfering in and limiting the personal lives of people due to their sexual orientation not violate this principle? Since when did banning a doctor from discussing abortion with their patient not violate this principle? Since when was it okay, under this principle, for the government to monitor and collect data on its citizens without a warrant and the due process that it involves? The answer to all of these questions is: never. It is never okay for the government to do these things, yet my party now feels that all of this acceptable.
We have forgotten who we are, and that has left us behind. This perversion of what it meant to be a Republican started during the civil rights movement when Dixiecrats decided to become Republicans due to their strong stance on the maintenance of federalism which they felt could be used to defend Jim Crow laws (spoiler: that wasn’t how it worked). These individuals then slowly took that stance it made into a states’ rights stance which prioritizes the rights of the states over the rights of their citizens. That development would become a very real problem once Republicans chose to harness the “Moral Majority” for electoral gain. They began to advocate for socially conservative positions in state governments and passed laws restricting the freedom of individuals at the state level by attempting to establish a social order, an order that has been defended at the national level under the guise of “states’ rights.” These laws and regimes are the result of these conditions: “states’ rights” and electoral advantages through social policy. Why would a Republican run and potentially lose on limiting government while ignoring social issues when they can absolutely win on social issues while paying lip-service to limited government?
These attitudes and positions have made the Republican party irrelevant to a large portion of the population today, especially younger voters; however, there is a small group of us who believe in the three F’s. Under the three F’s the Republican Party can once again become relevant to the national discourse. If it does not return to these beliefs, it will become a relic of the past, once its generally older voter base leaves the pool. I sincerely hope that they make a return to these principles soon; otherwise, I’ll die out in the cold with nowhere to go.
Adam Gillmor, a Contributing Writer for the Voice, can be reached for comment at AGillmor19@wooster.edu.