(ThyBlackMan.com) As an independent, I don’t particularly feel the Democratic nor Republican Party serves the best interests of my community or needs as a citizen. With that being said, I respect that there is a manner, decorum, and level of knowledge that should be had by a public official. Someone who is a politician that helps to lead our nation should have an idea of how to do such. Republicans should use this time to think about what has come of their party, the Grand Old Party. What we understand to be Republican today in 2024 is not something that many of us grew up with or understood. The Republican Party that we knew under both Bush administrations and the Reagan administration even, is something that we don’t see anymore. Once Upon a time, if you were not a Republican, you could argue about their public policies, military positions, or foreign and domestic issues. We can look at why we disagreed with the Republican Party’s policies…their politics.
However, now we’re wondering if they have a moral compass at all, in terms of public policy and decorum. We’re talking about actually understanding how the government works and being able to function in that capacity. The problem is we are unaware of if Republicans themselves are truly ready to be honest about what happened with the Donald Trump experiment, as I’d like to call it. The Republican Party took a gamble that they should not have. And ironically, think that Republicans deem themselves conservative, this gamble was as liberal as they come…and it backfired terribly. When Trump decided to run for president the first time many Republicans knew what he was. They knew he might not be able to be controlled. They knew he was wild and some even knew about his past, and his current legal issues and shady handlings.
Many Republicans, when he first decided to run, spoke out against him. Eventually they slowly begin to backtrack. I wonder what changed their mind. Let’s be honest be they thought that Trump could be a revitalization of the party. Maybe they some of them thought he could help them regain America after the Obama Administration. Maybe he brings in younger voters. Maybe they felt that he was charismatic, and he may even be wild, but they could control him. I think it’s safe to say they were wrong.
Trump turned out to be the petulant child that they could not control. Republicans could not put a handle on him because he was able to appeal to the lowest parts of this country’s base. The things that lie beneath America that are ugly, divisive, violent and damaging were things he was able to make surface. To think the outgoing President sat back and watched, as the nation’s capital was attacked, and his Vice President put in harm’s way by other fellow Republicans is appalling and shocking. There had to have been many Republicans that had served this country in our military, in our city governments, in the halls of Congress, and as former presidents that sat back at home and watched something they never thought they would ever see.
America’s center of government was being attacked by Americans. And ones they been emboldened by the words of an outgoing President. Who would have thought that would become the face of the Republican Party? Lies, disrespect, and mutiny are all things now thoroughly attached to the Republican Party. To make matters worse, Trump became a convicted felon and that didn’t stop him from receiving the Republican nomination for President of the United States. The Republican Party still had not learned their lesson. What more does it take for Republicans to understand that they must redefine who they are as a party and as Americans? Because right now they look like a pretty scary cult.
It’s safe to say there are many Republicans that are already aware of this truth. Some of them are starting to wake up, and others are starting to find the courage to speak out. They are choosing country over party, because right now, the party is a mess. The cesspool, the swamp. that Trump once stated he wanted to drain has become the Republican Party led by none other than himself. In these coming days, as we prepare for another election, Republicans are going to have to think about what they want the United States to become. They must think about what they want their legacy to be, and how they want history to write them as a part of America’s political history. This chapter has been nothing short of a nightmare. Republicans are going must find their way back to the conversations around policy, democracy, the rule of law, government, and governing. They will have to find themselves somehow. This won’t be an easy task, because those that follow Trump do so blindly. They are blatant in their racism, their prejudices, their bigotry. their ignorance, and they’re willing to defend the right to be wrong in a damaging way.
This is what the Republican Party has allowed to happen, and only they can fix that. I’m an independent, so of course that means I’m definitely not a Republican nor a Democrat, but even I hope that Republicans find an identity that is worth respecting. We all know that politicians aren’t always the best people. All of them have some sort of back story, have created policies, or have supported policies that we don’t agree with. They are far from perfect, but what we’re seeing right now has nothing to do with perfection. It literally has everything to do with not knowing how to do your job, and the people of the United States paying for that. I hope Republicans find their way back to representing policy and America in a respectful way.
Staff Writer; Christian Starr
May connect with this sister over at Facebook; C. Starr and also Twitter; MrzZeta.
Also via email at; CStarr@ThyBlackMan.com.