The GOP is Being Pulled Too Far From the Center, Pt. 1

 By JIM PURCELL

The New York Times published a quote attributed to President Abraham Lincoln. The Times printed this on August 27, 1887. The publishing date was 22 years after the Great Emancipator had passed on to the ages. But it sounded like him nonetheless. He said: 

    "You can fool all of the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." 

    These are fine words from a good man. And, they ring true even into today, which is why anything is ever remembered. 

    Lincoln's "Grand Ol' Party" has been corrupted by so many social misfits and marginal personalities and groups that I cannot even recognize the Republican Party I have espoused since 1975. It was that year, when I was nine years old, when Miss Fleming volunteered myself and Narin Kaminski to debate for our favorite politicians in class. Back then, most kids were convinced, and were right, that politics is boring. So she tried to shake things up a bit. Well, Nain's favorite politician was the smiling and affable Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter and mine was President Gerald Ford, who was also smiling and affable. 

   Carter and Ford were more similar than dissimilar. They each wanted to: secure an unbroken oil supply for the country; rebuild the military after Vietnam; provide for America's poorest and oldest; strengthen Social Security; keep taxes low; support unions; fight terrorism, which was still in its early days for the U.S.; stay out of war, but be strong in peace. 

   There were differences between the two men about how to achieve these goals, but there was no question that this was what either man planned to address if they won the election. Both men recognized the need to have God in their lives, neither tried to force it down anyone's throat or sign the Almighty up for a political party mailer. 

    I do not believe that fans, if you will, of either of these men would say his opponent was evil or 'in league' with foreign powers, or that either did not truly love this country. Maybe it was the fact that both of these well-qualified men were well-educated, had served as U.S. Navy officers on Active Duty, and had long records of honorable public service. In fact, these men were so similar that perhaps it was the cult of personality of these candidates which tipped the scales and gave Governor Carter four years as our President of the United States.  

   For me, the days of Eisenhower, Nixon and Ford always seemed like the "Good Old Days," before abject insanity became a regular campaign issue. When California Governor Ronald Reagan came along, in 1979, I did not hate the new presence of the Christian Right within his Presidential Campaign. The infusion of some faith, I thought, would not nor could not be a bad thing. Of course, I would not have greeted such a presence in presidential politics had I known that the Republican Party would eventually become adled with a revulsion for all things scientific, all things provable by the scientific method, in favor of the radical screaming of frienge Christian separatists. 

   I do not see the Chrstian Right as either Christian or Right. The framers of our Constitution had a balanced approach to faith: God and faith to Him should inform the decisions of individual men and women (whether they are politicians or not) but not be the cause or substance or tenents of law in and of themselves. America is not, has never been, a "Christian Nation," but rather a nation that was created by Christians. 

   The Constitution is a living document: It does not bind us to a past (whether that past is real or imagined). There is a sentiment now with the Republican Party that the "Good Ol' Days" prior to the American involvement in Vietnam is idealized, something to attempt to return to, as a conscious decision. The subtext to this idea is a return of almost total white male autocracy as a standard of leadership throughout the nation. 

   In the next installment in this series, the needs of a modern society will be contrasted with the development of national policy (created by both Republicans and Democrats) during the past 60 years.

(Jim Purcell is a graduate of the NY Theological Seminary, was formerly the associate pastor for Stelton Baptists Church, in New Jersey, and was a journalist during the 1990s-2010s. In addition, he is a registered Republican.)