how Republicans can re-gain my trust
I realize precisely none of what I suggest is actually going to happen in the very near future, but it has to be said.
The Republican Party can actually regain my trust. In spite of all the damage caused by runaway selection for nativism and nationalism, disproven trickle-down theories, and a desire to make the other side suffer rather than actually help people, I do want some balance in government, and a Republican Party operated by people who at least know how to read and write, and who realize we're as American as they are, can be a part of that.
But they have to earn it.
They have to acknowledge Trump’s loss, which we all hope will happen by a landslide next Tuesday.
They have to make sure their party is de-Trumpified. Trump’s main enablers in Congress should be stripped of all committee assignments. The RNC can back candidates in the next election who challenge the incumbents who promoted Trumpism. (That would be most of them.). It can make sure campaign dollars don’t go to anyone who parrots conspiracy snailshit. If McConnell is re-elected, Republicans can make sure he is never again given a leadership position.
They can get behind real reform – constitutional amendments to abolish gerrymandering, shitcan the Electoral College, and limit the president’s power to pardon people who committed crimes within his or her own administration; advance the ERA; allow expansion of the SCOTUS and federal courts to restore balance; and reverse efforts to ignore physical reality and marginalize scientific expertise from an advisory role in policymaking.
They can help bring real accountability to the Trump administration. I take great exception to those who say Gerald Ford “healed the nation” by pardoning Nixon. In fact, Ford enabled Iran-Contra, which I think was even worse than Watergate. (He didn’t stop payback for Watergate becoming a primary focus of Republican leadership, as shown by the insane amount of time spent investigating the Clintons.). I haven’t forgiven Obama for deciding to “look forward” and not bring accountability to those who started an unnecessary war on false pretenses and encouraged our troops to torture prisoners. I might never be able to.
The cycle has to end. We can’t just let the past four years of maggots crawling through our democracy to go unpunished, as though it can just be set aside as an aberration. It was the direct result of decades of runaway right-wing selection and tacit permission given by repeated failure to punish. Republicans must acknowledge this.
Republicans can disavow the practice of setting policy not to help people, but to punish the opposition. They must admit that their whole approach was polluted by the politics of personal destruction and the desire for power over an interest in governance. They can acknowledge that the US doesn’t live in a bubble and has to cooperate with the rest of the world.
Do these, and I’ll encourage bipartisanship on Capitol Hill.
The chances of any of this coming to pass are slim at best. We're going to see anger and rage before some of these people accept reality. I hope, though, that a couple of election cycles in the political wilderness will help bring those who want to govern rather than rule to the forefront.
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