The fantasy of 'reasonable Republicans'

How the idea of cuddling a bison is as dangerous as believing in the GOP

Wishful thinking doesn’t help

Dreams and fantasies are incredibly healthy and normal for average people. We all need them to survive and keep hope for our futures. But, there are also very unhealthy and dangerous fantasies like trying to cuddle a bison is a good idea; Q-Anon is real; the world is flat; and the most bizarre one today probably, that there are reasonable Republicans that will rise up and save the party.

That’s just crazy.

National Park visitor after trying to cuddle a bison

The Secret Society of Responsible Republicans

I hear that last fantasy quite a bit and it manifests in several ways. One version I have talked about in previous notes is the idea on the left that stopping the MAGA movement falls on these ‘reasonable Republicans’ to come together and take back their party. In that fantasy there is this wellspring of conservatives who are going to finally join forces and take back the party from the extremists while Democrats can focus on the real issues.

It comes up anytime I criticize the Democratic Party for not fighting back against the so called ‘culture war’ issues or pushing back against the increasingly authoritarian actions of the Republicans. It manifests as, “why are you blaming Democrats for this abortion law/book ban/attack on freedom of speech? Reasonable Republicans need to fight this!”

It’s delusional to believe that there is this quiet majority that will finally stop the extremists on their own when they’ve had enough. We just need to keep fixing the economy and this secret group of Republicans will see how bad things are and stop it in its tracks all on their own.

That’s never happened in the history of ever. Did reasonable Nazis stop Hitler? Did reasonable Russians stop Putin?

No.

I’m totally reasonable…trust me

Another angle of the hallucination is believing the people who call themselves ‘reasonable Republicans’ but act like every other lunatic. Let’s call it the Gaslight Caucus. For some reason the progressive community absolutely loves these folks when they pop up. They get a ton of media hits and waves of hopeful social media posts.

You know their names from the semi-anti Trump types like Chris Sununu and Chris Christie to the ones who mouth nice soothing statements on TV like Nancy Mace and Nikki Haley. They appear on MSNBC or other networks and say things like “Trump will not be our nominee because he is unelectable,” or “Republicans need to stop being so extreme on abortion,” and everyone swoons.

‘Finally, someone we can work with!’

Then the giant bucket of cold water hits you in the face. Actions speak louder than words. Hell, even their words are telling you the truth when you listen to them all.

What are these ‘reasonable Republicans’ doing? Chris Sununu the governor of New Hampshire, who has been flirting with a Presidential run, appeared on Meet the Press this weekend. He is often highlighted for his comments saying the party will reject Trump and that they are tired of his extremism.

He told Chuck Todd his opinion on mass shootings and about Democratic reactions to them with, “stop trying to take…these human tragedies and…make political fodder out of them. It’s a real losing effort, I think, on the Democrats’ part.”

He goes on to highlight how New Hampshire is pro-2^nd Amendment but has some of the lowest gun violence in the country. You see, the laws they have that are working were passed by Democrats in the past relating to domestic gun violence, child access, a state database, and more. Now he’s trying to roll back those laws and the state has become the supplier of guns to surrounding states. He’s not “reasonable” if he thinks we shouldn’t get angry about kids being slaughtered and want our legislators to actually do something about it beyond adding yet more guns.

Nancy Mace is probably the most ridiculous of all of them. Let’s not forget about the “attack by antifa” on her when someone mysteriously spray-painted minor graffiti on her sidewalk, and she made it a national story. Last week she got hits on multiple networks by mildly complaining that Republicans need to tone down their attacks on abortion rights or it would kill their chances in 2024. The usual suspects gushed that someone finally gets it!

She then made floor speeches and appeared at a press conference attacking Democrats for opposing the hateful Republican House bill banning transgender athletes from NCAA sports. They claimed it was to protect women from sexual predators which is a thing that has never happened and the grand total of four transgender athletes in college sports ever makes it all so obviously bigoted. She’s completely and utterly just another extremist and bigot.

Nancy Mace speaks at a press conference in support of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act

Don’t believe the hype. None of them are reasonable.

The Return of the Normi(e)

The other manifestation of the reasonable Republican fantasy is the actual reasonable Republicans that exist. Believe it or not there are some out there that remain conservatives and true to those beliefs of fiscal responsibility, small government, and something…something…values…something.

The fantasy is that these brave men and women will run for office and turn around the march of authoritarianism. These heroes will overthrow the empire and destroy the evil ruler single handedly waking the brainwashed and returning the Republic to its roots.

Does this sound familiar? It’s Star Wars. All of them.

Vague Mark Hamill reference

One problem with that is that those movies are literally fantasies.

The broken foundation of this iteration is the biggest fallacy of them all. It is all based on the idea that there is this majority of reasonable Republicans simply waiting for their leader to step forward and they will all come from the shadows and vote as a group. This entire concept relies on ignoring absolutely everything going on across the country since Donald Trump’s voluminous ass came down the golden escalator and the paid-for crowd cheered him when he said about Mexico, “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

There are millions still cheering those beliefs and now there are literally thousands of little Trump’s and wannabes echoing them across the country. In Congress, state house, and school board meeting alike the extremists and authoritarians have taken the stage for the Republican Party, and they were all voted there by majorities of their party.

Did you know that Marjorie Taylor Greene had not one, but five challengers in her primary for the Republican nomination in 2022? You could safely argue that four of those opponents were quite reasonable Republicans. I know, I was there working for her Democratic opponent.

That race wasn’t even close. Do you know why? Because the voters of her district wanted her. They love her. They love her hate. They love her poisonous behavior. They love her fake Christianity even as she ran around the region with her boyfriend, while they were both still married. The base of the Republican Party and her gerrymandered district wants her extremism, and they aren’t alone.

The fantasy of a true Republican stepping forward and sweeping to victory in the party to bring it back to sanity is the most ridiculous of them all because the party is gone. There are no reasonable Republicans with the ability to take the party back because the overwhelming majority of those who remain Republican are all in on the movement.

What happened to those Whigs anyway?

Anyone remember the Whig Party? Allow me to crib from Wikipedia:

• The Whig Party was a conservative political party that existed in the United States during the mid-19th century. Alongside the slightly larger Democratic Party, it was one of the two major parties in the United States between the late 1830s and the early 1850s as part of the Second Party System. Four presidents were affiliated with the Whig Party for at least part of their terms. The Whig base of support was centered among entrepreneurs, professionals, planters, social reformers, devout Protestants, particularly evangelicals, and the emerging urban middle class. It had much less backing from poor farmers and unskilled workers. It is considered the primary predecessor party of the modern-day Republicans.

Hold up…that sounds familiar.

So, what happened to this party? Among many divisive challenges they faced the issue of slavery tore the party apart as the Civil War approached. They took no official stance on slavery and those who were against it, or for it, spun off in different directions with some forming the new Republican Party.

In the end it went away. We have had basically the same two parties for over 160 years since. Maybe we need to accept that the Republican Party as a viable and reasonable political party has reached its end. We cannot pretend that a party that promotes taking away freedom of speech, restricting the rights of women to have bodily autonomy, controls what can and cannot be said by educators, and openly promotes violence while flooding our streets with guns is a respectable part of a Constitutional Republican.

It's time we stopped fantasizing about the Republican Party and start planning for what we must do to stop the loss of our democracy to extremism. We can’t hope for them to come to their senses on their own without us pushing back everywhere.

You should no more try to hug a bison than cling to the belief that a ‘reasonable Republican’ will save the party.

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