Ask any group of informed voters what's wrong with the Republican Party today and you'll probably get a variety of answers as different from each other as they are alike.
For some, it's that the party has moved too far from Reaganism. Others will say it has not adapted to the cultural changes the nation has undergone in the last 20 years and is too focused on turning the clock back. Some will say the leadership is still too white, too male, and too upper class to reach the voters it needs to be a majority. And many will argue Donald Trump is the root cause of everything gone wrong.
No one can be quite sure who's right and who's wrong. That's a problem, as is the inability of so many of the party's leading figures to stop bickering with each other long enough for someone to come up with an agenda the American people would find worthy of their support. Call it the triumph of personality over politics if you like. The main point is, it doesn't work.
The GOP is made up of a collection of concerns. The people who vote for its candidates do so because of the connection they make with voters on a broad array of issues. The Democrats, on the other hand, find their power now limited largely to what can be projected out of the party's seemingly ironclad rule over urban centers.
A Republican renaissance is in the offing, but only if party leaders can focus on fixing the problems that vex the nation, many of which are experienced most acutely by voters living in big cities where the GOP is weakest.
Most voters—even those in inner cities—can see the merit of smaller, more efficient, limited government if it is explained to them. The trouble is, people in positions of leadership inside the GOP stopped defending the free market just about the time Ronald Reagan left office.
The kinder, gentler, more compassionate GOP is too closely intertwined with the government to do much good in the long run. Programs conceived with the best of intentions work for a while, then grow in scope and size until they are inefficient and unaffordable. This is not because some politicians are simply venal and determined to bring the system crashing down. The phenomenon of entropy exists in public policy too.
Some find the idea of a culture war appealing. They think it wins elections, and point to Donald Trump's victory in 2016 and gain of 11 million votes in 2020 even while he was losing the White House as proof. Unfortunately, it's not that simple.
America is a unique place, akin more to a civilization like ancient Rome than a country like one might find in Europe. We are a diverse people from as many different backgrounds as exist anywhere on the planet. Some things are universal, or at least should be, like respect for the flag, tolerance of religious differences, and the virtue of self-reliance. Beyond that, we've been left considerable room to be who we want to be and live as we want to live, making the idea of a single government-protected culture unpalatable to many.
Elections fought on those grounds are risky propositions for the GOP. What works in rural Nebraska in many cases doesn't go over so well in the middle of New York City. Cultural conformity can be achieved, but only alongside a degree of coercion most Americans would find repellent.
This may have a lot to do with why the Republicans were so unsuccessful in November 2022 in blue and purple states but did extremely well in red America. Where the party was in power and could prove it could improve lives and living standards, it thrived. Where the discussion was largely theoretical, because the voters Republican candidates needed to persuade were independents and disaffected Democrats, the culture war arguments mostly flopped.
The way forward is not to abandon cultural issues—"values-based campaigns" as they were called in my day—but to integrate them back into a matrix that includes the need for a strong national defense and robust economic growth, accompanied by justifiable expressions of pride in our nation's accomplishments. Socialism didn't cure polio, put a man on the Moon, or turn the internet into a global commercial and intellectual marketplace—freedom, American style, did that.
The GOP's most significant victories in the last half century have come about specifically because of well-articulated promises to pare the national government back, not to enlarge it. That's where the victories of the future will be found as well, through the creation of an environment where liberty can prosper.
Newsweek Contributing Editor Peter Roff has written about U.S. politics and policy for more than 20 years. He is now a fellow at several public policy organizations including the Trans-Atlantic Leadership Network. Email him at RoffColumns AT gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter and TruthSocial @TheRoffDraft
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
