In spite of the tribalism and divisiveness Americans are facing, despite the fact we find it necessary in 2020 to battle for the soul of America, I am sensing optimism.
Surprisingly enough, my growing optimism springs from very young Republicans and older, more experienced Republicans who are seeking answers in a different way than that utilized by their party’s leaders. Perhaps my optimism is too rosy; maybe I am not basing it on all the relevant facts, but at least I see, in these Republicans, a greater hope for America’s future.
I was intrigued with an NPR interview with a handful of very young Republicans, each representing important issues of the day. Each one approached their issues with a determination for civil dialogue and a better way to deal with the problems than we have witnessed from their adult leaders. The young lady representing younger Republicans on the issue of the right to life made it very clear that the quality of the already born is equally important as the unborn. I was greatly impressed with one’s proposals for dealing with climate change that focused on carbon taxes and carbon neutrality. None of these young Republicans put party above solving today’s pressing problems. Each held opinions that allow for the seeking of common ground and compromise. Each recognized that there are two legitimate sides to every debate.
The Lincoln Project, created by numerous experienced Republican strategists to defeat Donald Trump, also lifted my dreams of a better American political environment. Developed as a “pro-Democracy” organization, its founders and followers avidly believe that “Trumpism is an illiberal and authoritarianish ideology” filled with “hostility to our freedoms, to the First Amendment, and to the electoral process.” Though each and every one of the group’s founders have spent decades pointing out their disagreements with Democratic Party policies, each currently denounce the party of Donald Trump. Further, each of them believes that the Democratic Party is the only one of the two major parties that “currently holds fidelity to the ideas and ideals of this country, to American Democracy.”
With the emergence of the Lincoln Project we have witnessed other Republican-centric groups being formed to turn their party away from the personality cult of Trumpism and return the GOP back to the fold of liberal democracy and democratic norms.
The members of The Lincoln Project are working separately from the Democratic Party, but support Biden and oppose the most ardent Trump supporters in Congress. They are of one mind when one of them states that “we’re in an hour of crisis and decline… because of Trump and the cowardice of the Republican Party that has refused to exercise their power to put a check on him and his indecency and to his abuses of power.” They make it clear that their goal goes beyond the mere defeat of Trump in 2020. They are firm in their jointly held belief that Trumpism isn’t merely going to go away. They foresee “a more extreme ideology” coming out of the ashes of defeat.
The thing about the Lincoln Project that stirs optimism is simply this: In a time of hyper partisanship, when too many voters place party above principle, when naked power appears to congressional leaders to be more important than the ideals of the founding fathers, a segment of experienced Republican strategists insists we place our democratic ideals first, and are willing to abandon their beloved party, if only temporarily, to work to ensure a return democratic values and norms. These highly educated and principled Republicans who are putting country before party should give us all reason to hope.
Michael Adkins formerly was chairman of the Hancock County Democratic Party. Send comments to [email protected].
