Much has been said and written concerning the genesis of the Trump candidacy. My own opinion, based on observations of over a 40 year term of elections, is that Republicans, and Republicans only, are responsible for the current potentially catastrophic climate of the American electorate. In particular, the premise of this article is that Republicans have created the class of American voters who distrust and are openly antagonistic to their federal government. A few caveats and/or disclaimers first:
I am an “old white guy”. I grew up in a midwestern family, in a very “red” state (before that term even originated), with a Republican father and, at least initially, a Democratic mother. I believe in her later years she became completely Republican, listening to Bill O'Reilly and similar pundits almost exclusively. At any rate, at an early age, like most of my peers, I mirrored and/or adopted the political beliefs of my parents. Upon reaching high school, when I truly started thinking for myself, I came to look at politics somewhat dispassionately, focusing in on the positions of the candidates and found myself aligning more and more with those that ran under the Democratic banner. My background, income, geographical location, occupation and lineage all would indicate a Republican. At the present, nothing could be farther from the truth.
Here is the crux of the matter as I see it: Republicans have since Ronald Reagan ran for president adopted and pushed the idea that government is the problem, that it does not work and so the onus of government must be removed from the backs of the American people. In order to support this position and prove the correctness of their assertion, Republicans have, to one degree or another over the last 36 years, attempted to corral the government by trying to abolish departments and cut funding for programs. To a large extent, they have been unsuccessful in abolishing departments but Congress' control of the purse strings has allowed them, when in the majority and even sometimes when in the minority, to reduce the income the government receives through tax cuts. This is the quintessential Republican effort to “starve the beast” so that “smaller government” is the result. What is really intended and what has recently become clear to those who take the long view of politics and society, is that these efforts were meant to cause the government not to work, to not function in the best interests of the country, to be dysfunctional, to be “out of touch” with the American people. Thus, Republicans' efforts to obstruct the current President from Day 1 (Mitch McConnell and others meeting on the night of the 2009 inauguration and pledging to make sure Obama was a “failed” president by obstructing everything he proposed) were geared to create a failure which they could then point to as reason for concluding that the Democrats and Obama in particular were wrong for the country and that, consequently, people should vote for Republicans. In essence, Republicans created the failure of government in order to point to it and say, “See, the government is a failure!”
Those who have been most susceptible to this argument are those that who have worked the hardest and seen nothing come from it over the last 35 or so years. And who could blame them? You go to work every day, eking out an existence that barely, if you're lucky, pays the bills, without ever making any real headway towards a secure future. All your efforts instead benefit and go to those at the top, those in control of the corporate world. You're told “We have to downsize” “We have to lower our labor costs” because we're competing with Malaysians or Pakistanis or Chinese workers. So yes, you see all your efforts going to the top with nothing for you. And you're told that it's because of lousy trade deals and incompetent government officials that this is happened to you. That you're in this position because government DOES NOT WORK.
So clearly, since government does not work, it must be radically changed. Tear down Washington and start over in essence. Get rid of all the bureaucracy, regulations, taxes and simply let the American people keep and spend their own money. The siren call of the anarchists masquerading as Republican outsiders and/or Tea Partyers, is indeed alluring when the ties that bind a society together are trashed.
The Republicans, facing a loss on the presidential level, are already staking out their position in the (almost certain) election of Hillary Clinton. John McCain had a Kevin McCarthy “speaking the truth” moment when he recently stated there was no way the US Senate, if it remained under Republican control, would consent to any Supreme Court nominee put forth by Hillary Clinton. The marker laid down is clear: obstruction, delay, de-funding, government shutdowns, anything to make the government and Clinton fail. This then is the mantra of the current Republican party.
The most serious problem resulting from this policy position is that it creates the primordial soup – the electorate – from which someone like Donald Trump can arise: a demagogue that arrives on the scene, speaking to people's fears, apprehensions and biases, promising to “fix the problem.” Trump has, unwittingly in my opinion, spoken the truth of the nature of his candidacy by claiming to be the only one who can fix things. And the people, beaten down by the very party which now claim to be their champion, believe the consequent lie – what's one more? – put us in power and we will cure all your ills.
We have seen this before: Germany and Italy in the 1930's. It does not end well.
It is incumbent upon the Democrats to lay open in the clearest detail the root cause of Americans' current distrust of their government. It is also incumbent upon Democrats to place the responsibility for this cause at the feet of those who created it: Republicans. Not so as to destroy the Republican party but rather to urge it to return to common sense and act as a party actually concerned with the future of the American nation. Neither party has a monopoly on the truth or policies which are good. In other words, urge Republicans to help govern, to fix problems and get things done. But also clearly state that should Republicans choose to obstruct, then Democrats will indeed govern and the necessity of doing so alone will be laid bare for all to see. Actual governance is really all the American people want from their elected officials.