Trump and the GOP: Time to replace the party

By Michael Farris

Donald Trump is not destroying the Republican Party. His rise into the leadership of the contest for the presidency reveals the unpleasant truth that the Republican Party has no core values. Trump is simply blowing up the empty shell that constitutes the GOP.

Trump is not succeeding because he has a clear vision for the future. His vague promises of winning until we are sick of winning is a content-free message. The message that comes through is that he is mad as hell and isn’t going to take it anymore. That message sells. And the reason it sells is that the GOP leadership has utterly failed to pursue the kind of bold changes that are needed to rescue our country from the perils of big government.

The GOP repeatedly raised the debt ceiling. The GOP has never curtailed any significant federal programs that are driving the debt into the stratosphere of numbers that are simply beyond our ability to comprehend. The GOP can’t even defund Planned Parenthood when there is video evidence of their unscrupulous activity in the marketing of the body parts of dead babies.

Religious freedom is falling prey to the homosexual agenda. The GOP took the side of religious freedom. The Democrats took the side of the homosexual agenda. The Democrats are clearly more successful in delivering on their promises.

Republican voters have been repeatedly told that if we don’t elect a Republican president, we will lose big time when it comes to Supreme Court appointments. Yet, it is a Republican justice who wrote the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade (legalizing abortion), Obergefell (legalizing same-sex marriage), NFIB v. Sebellius (upholding Obamacare), and Employment Division v. Smith (holding that the free exercise of religion was a much-diminished right).

Republicans claim to be constitutionalists. But when the Constitution says that Congress must declare war we make excuses and enter into wars at the sole decision of the president. We bemoan executive orders as unconstitutional when Obama makes them with his phone and his pen, but when a Republican is in the White House we seem to forget that Article I, Section 1, of the Constitution says that all legislative authority is vested in the Congress of the United States.

Republicans claim to be federalists, but GOP federal education mandates on the states are only of a different flavor than the Democratic education mandates.

Republicans say that we will consider immigration reform once we have secured the borders. But after three or four election cycles of saying the same thing, people begin to believe that there is no intent to actually secure the borders.

Trump gives no appearance of understanding these failures, much less having any solution, but he has tapped into a latent distrust of government that arises when election after election the GOP makes promises that they do not deliver.

If Trump wins the nomination, I believe he will lose the general election, and the Republican Party should be pronounced dead. If he wins – and as a person who believes that Hillary Clinton will do everything in her power to destroy this nation – the result will be far worse than any other scenario.

We will need a new party to replace the GOP Trump blew up. Its brand will be far too damaged by the image of Trump’s red-faced bellowing with a message free of any content except unscripted anger. His mixture of vitriol and scapegoating cannot be the basis for a political party in a free nation.

Here is the message that is needed:

The most fundamental issue in any nation is revealed by answering this question: What is the purpose of government?

If you believe that the purpose of government is to protect life, liberty and property, then you believe in limited government, which is the foundation on which we can build a nation that is truly free. But if you believe that the purpose of government is to provide for our needs, then you believe in socialism. Freedom and socialism do not mutually coexist over extended periods.

The biggest obstacle to a free nation is a centralized government trying to be all things to all people. We need to restore a limited central government with its principal focus on national defense (including defending our borders) and foreign relations. The vast majority of domestic issues need to be decided exclusively at the state level. States can once again be the laboratories of democracy, and we can see for ourselves whether limited government works better than socialism. If California and Massachusetts want to go the socialist path – let them. And we will watch where prosperity and jobs and freedom prosper.

This will require a gradual dismantling of many of the domestic agencies of the federal government, because the Constitution assigns their functions to the states. And experience has shown the federal government fails when it tries to be all things to all people.

A free country also must embrace religious liberty and virtue. We have never seen a free nation built upon any other principles. And we should not expect that a nation will survive when it forgets these principles.

These are the kinds of messages Republicans delivered during election seasons and promptly forgot as soon as they took their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution.

We may face a choice this election between a party that is prepared to nominate a pragmatic socialist and a party that is on the verge of choosing a functional fascist.

We need a party that champions limited government and freedom. It does not currently exist.

Michael Farris

Michael Farris is a constitutional lawyer and Chancellor Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. Read more of Michael Farris's articles here.


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