One of my best friends here in Ireland recently asked me how I could have been such a strong supporter of president-elect Obama from the very beginning of his campaign, and yet am now advocating on behalf of strengthening the Republican Party as a force of opposition. While I understand why these seemingly conflicting actions may strike others as being counter-intuitive, there is actually a method to my madness.
The Democratic Party and most of its constituents regard America as a centre-left liberal democracy, while most Republicans view the United States as a centre-right federal republic. As far as I’m concerned, both viewpoints are to some extent accurate, which is precisely why I also believe neither party has a true handle on how best to govern America’s divergent and often conflicting interests.
The name ‘United States of America’ is a reflection of the considerable political governance power that individual states and their respective executive and legislative branches have relative to the nation’s federal government. The US also has a strong and fairly independent state and federal judicial system that arbitrates disputes between the elected state or federal officials and the elected state or federal legislatures.
The Republican Party has traditionally been the party that sought to keep the power of the federal government in check while it concentrated on defending and/or extending America’s political and economic influence abroad. On the other hand, the Democratic Party has traditionally sought to use the federal government to devise and implement changes in US domestic policies to address social ills.
But history shows that both parties have a tendency to push their agendas too far to the left or right when they are in control of congress and the presidency. While I hope that the Democrats won’t act in a way that reinforces this view over the next few years, I also know that a stronger Republican Party is more likely to prevent this than any amount of wishful thinking on my part.
But the increasing power and influence of predominately white, older and or less educated socially conservative voters in the Republican Party has led it to stray from its traditional values of restraining the growth of the federal government and spending by that government. These socially conservative voters have also sought to enforce their religious views and moral values at a national level on issues like abortion and how to deal with social problems like violent crime, illegal immigration and teenage pregnancy.
Many of these Republican voters don’t like change because it scares them. This explains why they are so prone to follow the lead of demagogues like Rush Limbaugh and Republican politicians who argue against teenage sex education or tout bigger fences and more prison cells as solutions to America’s social problems. They view the scientific evidence on global warming with the same suspicion as fundamentalist ministers who think creationism trumps all of the scientific evidence that supports evolution.
Fortunately there are some younger Republican leaders who recognise what the social conservative base of the party still denies. I’m keeping an eye on governors Charlie Crist, Jon Huntsman, Bobby Jindal and senator John Thune. I expect a stronger Republican Party will emerge only after one or more of them has wrested control of the party and its message from the social conservatives who currently hold the reins of power.
Charles Laffiteau is a lifelong US Republican from Dallas, Texas who is currently pursuing a PhD research programme in Environmental Studies at Dublin City University
