Populist Roots Waiting on Republicans
By: Robert Carberry
The numbers are in and the Republicans were bombed-out. No amount of analysis can change that one. In power for years, the party slowly became incompetent and not for the American people. A very unpopular war, watching jobs wave bye-bye, being indifferent to the suffering of way too many people, and finally, corruption, have done it in- at least for now.
Democrats seized the opportunity with a new outlook to battle Republicans in all 50 states. Intelligently, some of their candidates were more moderate or conservative to go along with their message to the forgotten Americans. Speaking of obvious issues like the pathetic minimum wage rate of $5.15 an hour or the insanity of college costs along with calling for an end to a dumb, money hungry war gave them tremendous tenacity. Republicans basically sat there and yelled stuff like “liberal” or “he/she will raise your taxes.” Not good enough and pitifully non-specific. People got tired of it.
Such a blitzkrieg had better register with the majority of the party. The old ways of turning backs on minimum wage workers or those seeking health care must end. The love affair with job deportation must end. The screams of “free market” are increasingly being exposed for the sham it is; basically a shell game for the rich to get richer and create a “serf” society. Limiting unions( yes, they have to be watched, too), trading good jobs for bad ones, passing more of the burden on the middle-class( are they still around?) and avoiding health coverage for millions of people have to stop because this nation is feeling the effects of globalization.
The Republican Party has lost its way in too many cases. You simply cannot defend insane trade imbalances or budget deficits. You cannot defend constant tax breaks for very wealthy individuals or companies.
The goal of any party or politician should be to promote the entire country and not the few. If a company wants to take its jobs to Guatemala or China or Mexico it has that right. But our government then must step in to not only make it hard to do so but to then hit those products coming back into the nation with a tariff or at minimum, to demand balanced trade. It is not protectionist but rather keeping your standard of living. Of course we cannot compete with China when it comes to costs. That is the whole point of living in a high-quality nation. Globalization, like a slowly arriving flu, is now hitting full force and the masses of people know they are targeted for downgrades, for cuts in pensions and benefits and every other scummy move associated with the greed of globalization. Democrats jumped all over that reality and made their move.
The Republicans were once the party of tariffs and protecting its home turf. That ideology needs to be exhumed. Hints of it appear with some members’ strong stance against illegal immigration which is simply a way to get cheap labor in the country. Despite some neoconservative babbling, a strong stance against illegal immigration is a winning issue because allowing it is an invasion against jobs, taxes, and the sense of security. Democrats must play their cards right on the issue because they have been poor on that front.
Despite constant Democrat bumbling in terms of taxes, outrageous racial pandering, a perceived “anti-family” tone and other things, the party got its act together but can be bounced out just as easily as it was bounced in.
Like it or not, “America First” wins. The Democrats projected this with the war, with talk of ending tax breaks for the wealthy, with health care and so on. If they can turn the tide of massive losses of good jobs and directly focus on real issues affecting real people, the party can stay in power for many years. Republicans’ most important group, whites, were said by opinion polls to have only supported the party by a very slim majority. That is horrible news for them and a sign they must change their whole outlook on many things. Time to dig up populist skeletons from years past.
Robert Carberry is a writer from New York