Will Real Republicans Take Their Party Back?
Frank Harris III
April 1, 2010
Unless there is another side they are keeping to themselves, none of the Republicans I know are like the ones the nation is seeing on display during and following the passage of the health care bill: The ones whose incendiary sky-is-falling rhetoric and extremism-in-defense-of-liberty-is-no-vice call to arms is reminiscent of the resistance put forth by segregationists who taunted schoolchildren trying to enroll in Little Rock in the late 1950s, murderers who bombed a church in Birmingham in the early 1960s, and vandals who set fire to buses in Boston in the 1970s.
Or going back further — those confederates following the era of Reconstruction who, angry at the changes following the South's loss in the Civil War, engaged in a campaign of terror and intimidation.
That is what we are seeing displayed and encouraged by the Republican Party and similar-thinking groups such as the Tea Party and militia groups, those who want to roll back what was politically achieved through the democratic process of the vote.
Such comparisons will upset many Republicans who don't feel this way. To you I wish I could say, "Take back your party from the false patriots and angry bigots masquerading as 'real Americans.'" However, as long as I can remember, the Republican Party has been the party with the higher tolerance level for false patriots and angry bigots.
Add to that now, sore losers.
Spare me your anger — please. Direct it to those in your own party who are leading you down a path you may not wish to go. A path that is shameful and embarrassing.
It was only in recent years that the party was seemingly trying to change its image and open arms of inclusion for all groups and ideas. Remember President George W. Bush's slogan of "compassionate conservatism" during the 2000 presidential campaign? Gone. Just a sandcastle memory kicked aside by the boots of today's snarling, in-your-face Republicans who have also given the swift kick to any true notion of "country first," once Sen. John McCain's campaign slogan.
Country is not first to the current regime of the Republican Party. It is party first, and the party says no. It is the party of no-ness. The party of resistance. The party of anger. The party that is creating a welcome climate for hate and what usually accompanies hate: violence.
Over what?
A health care bill meant to provide good coverage and care for all Americans.
Will the real Republicans please stand up?
Those who once stood for family now stand against family when it comes to the health care bill. Exactly who would health care help if not families?
Will the real Republicans please stand up?
Stand up to the false patriots in your party who claim America as their own private country with their own rules, who reject what was voted for 17 months ago and respect only presidents for whom they voted, while disrespecting presidents for whom they did not vote.
Will the real Republicans please stand up?
Stand up to those who espouse and rationalize hate, those who wink at it as somehow leading to positive change, those who shout racial epithets, homophobic slurs. Hate, pure and simple, can't be toyed with or strategized about. It can't be reasoned with or ignored.
Will the real Republicans stand up?
Standing by itself is not enough. Silence in the face of hate is support of hate. Make your voices heard. Lead your party out of this ugliness. Pull your party out of the hate, the no-ness, the resistance mentality.
And if the real Republicans are standing, if what we see now displayed is what it really is, then some hard decisions need to be made by those Republicans who are put off by the doings of their fellow members of this Grand Ole Party.
Either fight harder to exorcise the ugliness in the party that is apparent for the world to see, or leave the party, thereby reducing its false patriots, angry bigots and sore losers by the sum of one.
By one.
By one.
By one ...
• Frank Harris III is chairman of the journalism department at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. He can be reached at harrisf1@southernct.edu.
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-harris-republicans-extremist.artapr01,0,7564475.column