What’s Really Going on With the GOP
As we witness the Republican party veer further to the extreme right despite it being a losing election strategy since 2016, a common question is, what are they even doing? But after reading mounds of political analysis, the answer becomes clear, and it’s disturbing. This has been their plan all along.
Going back 50 years, starting with right-wing political consultant Roger Stone tattooing Nixon’s face on his back, the party embraced authoritarianism. The religious right, including Senator Ted Cruz’s own father, was key to installing Ronald Reagan. The actor-turned-political puppet ushered in the Reagan Revolution, with the GOP declaring war on the middle class, labor unions, public education. Republicans began vilifying minorities and the poor, blaming “welfare queens” and minorities for everything. Ask one, it is the only argument they ever use.
In 2016, the Republican party fell in line under the influence of the Trump campaign. In the 2016 election cycle, the party weakened its support of Ukraine in their platform, in favor of Putin, one could argue, in breach of the agreement made in the 1994 Trilateral Statement.
Putin himself began as a KGB officer, quickly moving up the ranks and permanently installing himself as Russian president in 2000, using that KGB playbook. The KGB long-term plan included grooming Trump starting in the 1980s.
Starting in the 1970s, France’s far right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was considered too radical to ever become a real threat. But he groomed his daughter Marine, who recently came close to winning the French Presidency. This incremental approach has also worked in Italy, UK, The Netherlands, Argentina, and is even gaining ground in Germany.
Back in the USA, Chief Justice John Roberts, who I contend has done more damage to our democracy than any other person, uses this incremental approach, from sanctioning dark money in politics with Citizens United, to gutting voting rights, Row vs Wade, and now potentially a key wealth tax, thus handing more money, and thus more power, to oligarchs.
None of this is accidental. It’s a long-term coordinated effort to move the Republican party toward autocracy. It may take them another 10 or 20 years, but they are positioning themselves to allow the wealthiest to rule the world. Our job is to defeat them by electing Democrats who will pass legislation, reform the Supreme Court, and reverse the gains they have made toward their ultimate goal of total control.
Chicago native Lorraine Evanoff earned her degree in French from DePaul University then became a Certified Financial Manager. She worked as a finance exec in film production for seven years in Paris, then in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era, and later for various Hollywood production companies, notably as CFO of National Lampoon. She is currently living in Los Angeles with her husband.