Meghan, thank you. Thank you for reminding me that there are still members of the Republican party who are willing to examine the party’s ideology with a fresh and objective eye. Thank you for showing that the ideology of the John McCain of 2000 is alive an well in his daughter at least. Thank you for giving me hope your influence on your father may remind him of the iconoclasm that he tossed aside during the 2008 campaign.
You are not alone in your struggle with the ridiculousness of figureheads like Coulter and Limbaugh. The fact that the Republican party is tolerating these backwards bigots certainly goes a very long way to explaining why the GOP is in the trouble its in. There is absolutely no excuse for allowing a woman who has graced us with such gems as, “If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether,” and, “Not all Muslims may be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims” to remain any sort of political figurehead, yet the party seems deathly afraid to distance itself from people like her.
There seems to be an inability, or at the very least a lack of desire, to separate conservatism from religion, specifically Christianity. At some point, the classical liberalism on which the party of Lincoln was founded became perversely intermixed with a Victorian social priggishness and anti-intellectualism that stifles opportunities for scientific growth and seeks new ways to control people’s morality. The Republican party is systematically aleinating younger people by refusing to budge from fundamentalist religious positions. There are flashes of legitimate policy (support of the military for example), but it’s difficult to take a party seriously as an intellectual force when prominent members reject modern evolutionary theory or resist efforts to extend basic human rights (secular recognition of a marriage) to homosexual couples.
Unfortunately, many young people who believe in classical liberalism are thoroughly disenchanted with the Republican party and it will take some massive shifts in the GOP’s ideology to ensure long-term viability. The Libertarian Party is driving hard to establish itself in the minds of young people as the true standard-bearer of fiscal conservatism and social liberalism, and to a large extent they are succeeding. The Republican Party is losing the battle of public perception because it insists on clinging to extremist social positions and cannot seem to understand that its opposition isn’t evil, just of a differing opinion.
I am not sanguine about the GOP’s future as a party unless it changes course and once again embraces libertarian ideals, but every so often I see a younger Republican who embraces the change that needs to be made within the GOP and who is willing to work within the party and try to shout some reason into the prevailing maelstrom of reactionary thought. I wish you luck.
And, even though the proposal is strictly intended as hyperbole, if you’re ever in Seattle, why not find out if I’m “Mr Far Right”; I’ve got a damn good chance since I didn’t vote for either Obama or your father. 