Where Are The Sane Republicans?

If we are to be saved from a homegrown version of fascism, it will not be the Democrats who save us. The Democratic Party is adrift, without strong leadership and with a hopeless minority in both houses of Congress and in almost every state capital. In votes on important issue, the Republicans will win. So there goes Obamacare and a series of other concerns Democrats have fought for and won over the last eight years. Kiss them goodbye. They are toast.

Many loyal Republicans have a serious problem arising from two sources. First, after a series of bloody internal battles they got their man elected, and now as responsible party members it is their job to support him. Second, there is no way they can appear to be in favor of Democratic-sponsored initiatives.

So it seems apparent that we are stuck with the destruction of the ethics and values that are the bedrock of the American experience. That disaster will be our fate---unless the unexpected happens.

Since the weakened Democrats have neither the leadership nor the votes to interrupt the impending calamity, how will anyone stall the juggernaut? Here is my approach to a possible direction.

If President Trump arrived at the White House with a 40% approval rating, that means out there are the other 60%. Who are they? Certainly the majority are Democrats, independents and non-voters. However, I am not about to believe that in that mix there is not a solid contingent of sane Republicans! Where are they?

All of us have Republican friends—or maybe a sizeable group of my readers are themselves members of the GOP, or normally vote with that party. Among the Republicans I know and with whom I correspond, several were part of the “Never Trump” movement. These good Americans are as horrified at President Trump’s announced agenda as I am. They may be in favor of replacing Obamacare with an alternate plan that more closely meets their goals. But they certainly do not want to see a restarting of the nuclear arms race, a trade war, the reinstatement of waterboarding and other forms of torture, the dismantling of any effort to address climate change, the construction of an impenetrable wall across our southern border, or tossing out of the country persons who were brought here as infants and know no other nat

They see what President Trump says he is going to do, and they feel hamstrung! But for the two reasons cited above—party loyalty and a revulsion at Democratic-sponsored issues—they are immobilized.

Here for these solid Republicans, and for the rest of us, is where it gets tricky. If we are really committed to bridges, not walls how do we go about building them between America’s progressive contingency—largely Democratic—and the traditional Republicans who cannot support President Trump?

Right now I don’t see very many Democrats who are even open enough to consider building bridges to the sane members of the other party. We may even like our political walls. As do many of you, I get a half dozen e-mails every day from some Democratic organization asking me to “chip in,” sign this or that petition, write a letter, make a phone call or engage in some mobilizing activity. My gut tells me that I must do all of these things, and that is the direction in which I seem to be continually pointed. But this may not be a path that will lead to building the bridges I am talking about. In fact, the more I engage in these activities, the deeper seems the gulf between progressives and Republicans who may be looking for a way out of their quandary.

The ultimate solution may well be the formation of a new political party that seeks common cause across the present divide. For now that seems like a remote possibility. So our best answer may lie in furthering interpersonal relationships where we deal with each other, not as politically hostile parties, but as those who hope to find common ground. I cannot now see any other answer to this difficult question. I stand ready to listen to your suggestions and I offer to pass them along to those who might read these weekly columns.