Change is slow and gradual. It requires hard work, a bit of luck, a fair amount of self-sacrifice, and a lot of patience. Robert Greene
And herein lies the problem for conservatives (e.g., Republicans, MAGA nation, Tea Party, etc.). When you have ‘hard-right’ conservatives driving the bus, it almost seems as though they end up driving the bus over a cliff. A classic example of this in recent history would be the ouster of former Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy.
For months after McCarthy’s termination as Speaker, all we heard about from the GOP were their fund-raising woes. In reality, the gaggle who threw the Speaker to the curb was the cause of the lack of fundraising for the party. McCarthy was indisputably the ‘King of Fundraising’ for the Republicans. This fellow had (as Speaker) raised hundreds of millions for the GOP war chest. But because the hard-right didn’t care for his negotiating with Democrats on legislation decided to award McCarthy with the political death penalty.
Now, Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (and accomplices) wants the new Speaker of the House (whom the right pushed into this position), Mike Johnson, ‘s head on a platter. Johnson assumed this position in October 2023, and less than five months later, they (the radical right) wanted to deliver Johnson to the political gallows. Why? Apparently, Johnson had cut a bipartisan deal with the Democrats for funding our government and included more money for Ukraine. This infuriated the Georgia Congresswoman, and she began rallying her hard-right troops to toss Johnson in the ditch.
One needs to remember something—or rather several things—about Washington, D.C. The first is that ‘things move very slowly on Capitol Hill.’ The second is that America’s viewpoint of political subjects changes even slower. An example would be that it was a century between when the slaves were freed and America’s acceptance of “civil rights.” Former President Donald Trump learned this the hard way. One of his primary campaign promises back in 2016 was, “I’m going to Washington to drain the swamp.” Four years later, precious little draining had occurred.
The point is that many on the right are hopelessly locked in a naive frame of mind. They honestly believe that “they” can get elected (which is often not the case), go to Capitol Hill, spew their hard-right conservative rhetoric, and all will be right with the world.
A case in point would be many of the old Tea Party candidates. The Tea Party rallied, got their candidates the nomination, and then the candidates blew up, said many stupid things, and lost in the general election. One of the more infamous cases of this was Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, who was campaigning for the United States Senate back in 2012. Akin, who was a ‘pro-life’ advocate, in an attempt to make the case against abortion, decided to tell a crowd on a campaign stop that “raped women can’t get pregnant as their bodies shut down to prevent the pregnancy.”
From firebrand Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert saying that Minnesota Congressional Representative Ilhan Omar was likely a ‘Muslim suicide bomber’ to Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz saying ill-timed and crude comments such as, “The conditions in Haiti are deplorable, they are disgusting. I mean, everywhere you look in Haiti, it’s sheet metal and garbage.”
The 1960s began with President John Kennedy challenging America to be the best you that you can be and we would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Lucy and Ricky slept in separate beds on television, and Matt Dillon showed nothing but respect for Miss Kitty. Most homes in America were much like the Cleavers, with Ward and June as the parents of Wally and the Beaver.
Then came the very liberal Lyndon B. Johnson after the assassination of JFK. Johnson almost immediately thrust our nation into a war in Southeast Asia, drafted legislation to begin passing out government money to the minority community (under the condition that there was no father in the home), and the destruction of American morals and values began. Young people rebelled with the guidance of hippie leaders by the name of Abbie Hoffman, Timothy Leary, Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinham, and Janice Joplin. America’s youth were encouraged to ‘tune out’ of society, do their own thing, have free sex with everyone, and play their guitar. Our once prim and proper mothers and girlfriends were encouraged to burn their bras and go to work rather than stay home and be mothers and wives.
A half-century later, we now have millions upon millions of angry and resentful men who never had any fatherly guidance in their lives. Crime, murder, assault, and drug usage are plaguing our inner cities, and education scores are at all-time lows. An argument can be made that this was all by design, but whether it is or not, the fact is that liberalism presided over the birth of ‘the downfall of our society,’ and it took fifty years to get here.
While rectifying these issues and returning America to greatness is a noble cause that the conservatives want, the fact is, to accomplish this, we need qualified, prudent, wise, and educated leadership with the patience of a saint. We on the right cannot go to Capitol Hill as a bull in a China shop and expect anything to happen but rebellion. The Republican Party needs to realize that putting up wing-nuts such as Margerie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, and Matt Gaetz of the world only puts a target on our backs as being idiots.
We need statesmen and practical thinkers, not bomb throwers. The hard right labels these people as RINO as some sort of ideological insult. This, too, needs to stop. We have had a decade to see if sending radical right-wingers to Washington would change anything, and it has not. America, politically speaking, is center/right, for the most part, not fringe right. We need to come to the realization that it may take fifty years to guide us back to where we all want to be (at least most of us).
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