The GOP’s Bad Plan
Backwards. Sexist. Racist. Homophobic. Dying. These are words that could be used to describe some GOP policies, and more and more so, the GOP voter base at large. That is not to say that the GOP is implicitly backwards, sexist, racist or homophobic. Increasingly, however, that is the common perception held of the Republican Party as a result of its insistence on pushing legislation such as the so-called religious liberty law that recently passed in North Carolina. The law is a direct hit at LGBT people, shamelessly discriminatory. The GOP is going against the tide of change by relying on a literally dying voter base of old, white conservative men to carry its power. This is ridiculous in a time when the GOP is clearly on the road to implosion at the hands of such a voter base. The year 2012 showed that the GOP needed to expand among youth, women and other minority groups. It’s hard to believe that the GOP would so willingly ensure its own destruction by prioritizing the subjugation of people it needs to attract.
In pushing discriminatory legislation, the GOP is playing the short game rather than the long game. It is playing the local game rather than the national game. It is destroying its reputation by pushing agendas sure to win in small and localized pockets, but as a result is sacrificing the greater image of the GOP as a whole. What is acceptable in rural Texas is not the same as what is acceptable in New York City. By playing for small pockets rather than the big prizes, the party is being damaged all around. Local government does have more power than most people acknowledge. However, national government is clearly more capable of change than local government. The short term local game will only get the party so far and will certainly ensure that the party will not survive in the future.
The strength of the Republican Party does not lie in its social conservatism, but rather in its free market policies and more libertarian wings. The Republican Party could easily capture the votes of young Americans and of minority voters if it sheds its social conservatism and general backwards reputation in favor of pushing economic shrewdness and small government. The party’s business wing could hold plenty of appeal if it abandons the evangelical. By holding onto social conservatism, the GOP is not just damaging the party’s reputation as a whole; it is directly going against the interests of the business wing. Indeed, many big corporations are actively speaking out against the legislation in North Carolina.
The rise of Donald Trump poses a significant risk for the GOP. Following the 2012 elections, party leaders performed an “autopsy” of the results. They concluded that the Republican Party had to become more inclusive to regain votes from the Democrats. The rise of Donald Trump does the exact opposite of this. His rhetoric is centered around exclusion. If he manages to win the nomination, his rhetoric would become that of the party’s. To survive, the GOP should be doing everything it possibly can to make Republican ideals more inclusive. Pushing homophobic legislature does the exact opposite of this and instead bolsters the dominance of Trump-style social conservatism. The Republican Party will die with the rise of extreme social conservatism and evangelicalism, as so will their supporters, literally.
It is unreasonable and idiotic of the Republican Party to continue to allow social issues to dominate the conversation. By focusing on topics like gay marriage and abortion over economic policy, the GOP is losing minority groups and the youth, who are necessary for survival in the modern age. Social liberalism will merge well with the GOP’s economic policy. By focusing more on small government and free market policies over restricting the freedoms of minority groups, the GOP could save themselves from destruction, if only party members could look up long enough to see the direction the country is headed in. The liberal shift of our society is inevitable. As social issues are important to the youth of the United States, to ensure the survival of the GOP in years to come, they must stop moving further and further to the right and instead move with the tide of the nation.