Are Irrational Republicans Destroying The Republican Party And Jeopardizing America’s Ability To Govern?

There is a faction of Republicans on the right that is destroying the Republican Party and has the potential to seriously jeopardize the ability of America to effectively govern. It is hard for me to understand exactly what it is that those who espouse the ideals of this group truly want.

There are many among them who say that they want to elect politicians who will fight President Obama and not compromise with him under any circumstances. They feel strongly enough about this that they recently felled their top leader in the House of Representatives. And after doing that, Senator Marco Rubio said that it was time for new leadership. Not to be outdone, Bobby Jindal – Republican governor of Louisiana, even said that it was time for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to follow suit.

The 2016 Republican presidential candidates, among which are Senator Rubio and Governor Jindal , are likely saying negative things about establishment politicians in hopes that they will get a boost in their poll numbers and enhance their chances to become the nominee. Both of these candidates are trailing Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina who are all outsiders that have never held elected office and who have no political experience.

All of those candidates that are trailing the three frontrunners seem to be trying to emulate, of all people… wait for it, wait for it, wait for it; Donald Trump. All of these seasoned politicians are trying to pattern themselves after The Donald! This is the same man that when he first entered the race that many of them said would not last long at all. Some in the Republican Party even labeled him as a Joke and clown. Now the 2016 candidates are trying to emulate him?

What makes this whole thing so bizarre is that Mr. Trump is saying that he will do a lot of things that are all but impossible to do and he has provided no details as to how he would go about doing them. As seasoned politicians these other presidential candidates know that many of the things that Mr. Trump is saying that he will do as President he will be totally unable to do unilaterally yet they refuse to confront him on this and instead try to emulate him.

All the while that these candidates are following Mr. Trump down the primrose path Republican members of congress are once again demanding that the government be shut down unless they get their way and the Republican Party is coming apart at the seams. Why aren’t Republicans more focused on what is happening to their Party and working to prevent its utter demise?

Although I have hammered Speaker John Boehner in this blog more than a few times for being an ineffective leader, even I realize what a tough job that he has in trying to be reasonable and govern while trying to lead a fractious group that is full of rebels whose desire is not focused on governance but on getting their way on everything and if that doesn’t happen, their first resort always is to shut down the government. That is where the problem is. Democrats and Republicans need to have discourse in order to be able to resolve their differences. And they cannot even begin to do this if one side demands that you agree to do everything their way and if you do not agree to that, then that is a deal breaker and discourse cannot even begin.

It is reasonable to assume that those who make these kinds of demands know that in a democracy when there is disagreement as to what should be done and how it should be done, no one ever gets 100% of what they want. If things are to be resolved at all then everyone must give up something in order to reach common ground. That is how things work in a democracy.

This seems to be a case in which a group that is in the minority is demanding that things be done exactly as they want them to be done or they will destroy the system. The really sad part about it is that they are not bluffing! It is unlikely that they would succeed but without doubt, they would try.

What this means is that – under the circumstances – rational Democrats, Republicans, and Independents must come together and reasonably work together to prevent the destruction of the Republican Party. This will be for the common good because we need a two party system. And just as important, we have too many true conservative Republicans who have too many good, meaningful and workable ideas that would be good for America to allow an irrational group – that is in the minority in the Republican Party – to destroy those true rational conservatives.

This is something that should be done now. Although it might be intriguing and tempting to some elected Democrats and their constituents to wait and watch to first see if the demise of the Republican Party would provide some kind of a strategic advantage for Democrats in the hope that everything would then be rosy, it is too much of a risk. And as previously mentioned, we need a two party system. So the best thing to do is begin to work to solve this problem now!

Eulus Dennis