I came to Washington 26 years ago, a committed conservative from the South. The fall after I got here saw the Republicans take control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 60-plus years, and with an accompanying Senate victory, the GOP controlled Congress. There was almost no one alive who could remember the last time that happened.
In the quarter-century since, the feckless GOP leadership has squandered that victory. It ran on conservative principles, which represented the American way of life. But it sold them out to power, whether that was to the Chamber of Commerce on unfettered illegal immigration, or concessions on voter fraud-enabling “motor voter” laws, or the annual capitulation on the budget and Medicare and Social Security (basically driven by the fear of being tarred as racist by the left), or just shortsighted or self-serving horse-trading that got them through the next election. The GOP (at that point, truth be told, comprised of many former Southern or “yellow dog” Democrats) proved to be craven -- not to the degree of its northern and national Democrat counterpart -- but mainly subservient to self-interest rather than principle. Ironically, but predictably, it got them nothing, and worse yet, a constituency that doesn’t believe them anymore.
Two-and-a-half decades of surrender since, combined with the basically socialist/communist and corrupt rule of the Democrats for the better part of the 20th century, has brought us here: a populace that can’t tell truth from lies. And the radical segment of that populace is in the streets, brainwashed by the indoctrination factories we call college (and to no small degree, by the public school system that led them there).
The Democrats lied about Bill Clinton -- “it was just about sex” -- Monica Lewinsky was 24 years old! It was about abuse of power and obstruction of justice. But their willing accomplices in the media were all too willing to steer their coverage and thereby the national conversation in that direction, as they had been and would do for the next twenty-five years. And some Republican senators, likely compromised by their own (undiscovered or otherwise official misconduct), voted against convicting Clinton at his impeachment trial.
The Democrats lied about the George W. Bush Administration’s pursuit of war in Iraq, even though every credible intelligence service in the world believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in 2003. Democrats lied about the housing crash that led to the financial crisis in 2008 – it was Jimmy Carter’s policies that were the root cause of it, not Wall Street and greedy lenders and traders. Democrats lied about Obamacare (“if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” and premiums would go down $2,500 month). Democrats lied, claiming a provocative video about Islam that no one had seen led to the attacks in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012 (Susan Rice on five Sunday shows said the attack had been planned for months, all the while a terrorist outpost literally sat next door to the doomed US mission).
Democrats lied that Trump was an agent of Russia. Democrats lied that Trump made racist statements after the Charlottesville riot. Democrats lied about Brett Kavanaugh. Democrats contrived a whistleblower against President Trump, who then lied about what was said in the phone call heard ‘round the world. Democrats lied about congressional testimony and used it to impeach a sitting president. Democrats lied about the coronavirus, first calling Trump a racist for banning travel from affected countries, then lying about his response at home when the pathogen inevitably made it to US shores – thanks to more liars, the Chinese Communist Party.
Democrats are now falling back on their most tried and true lie of all, that the United States is a racist country. And it’s just cover for yet a bigger lie, that the solution to that is the erasure of history and the institution of communism, under the auspices of Black Lives Matter and Antifa.
Through all this, Republicans, beyond some perfunctory hand-wringing congressional resolutions and payoffs from the federal treasury through “sensitivity training” and affirmative action and other such state buy-offs, have done nothing. They are completely intimidated and beaten by the race-baiting and thuggery, both mental and physical, of the left. They do not assert, much less defend, the unassailable historical record of racial progress to the point of defeat of racism (yes - I said it – there will always be racists, but racism is dead in America, and has been for at least three decades, probably more) in this, the greatest country in the history of countries. This cowardice, from the ABOLITIONIST GOP!
Based on that failure alone, the Republican Party is as disgusting as Democrats, maybe worse. At least Democrats stick by their constituency, hell or high water. Republicans insult and reject their own on a daily basis, and have for at least 15 years, dating back to the infuriating complacency and abject capitulation of the George W. Bush era. America, its founding ideals and the future they promised, are on the brink. Republicans, for my first 35 years, were the American party. They’ve thrown away that claim. If communism in the guise of racial grievance is to be defeated, Americans best start looking elsewhere. Or to themselves.
Tommy Sears is a consultant and lobbyist. He has lived in Washington, DC for 26 years and has worked campaigns from school board to President of the United States.