My grandparents were Republicans. My mom’s parents. I actually don’t know what party my father’s parents claimed. But mom’s parents were staunch and proud Republicans. Technically, my mom was, too. When she and my dad married, they flipped a coin to decide who would register with which party, each agreeing to choose one so they would get all the information from both sides. Can you imagine? So precious. A time in our history when voters actually sought out platform statements.
Brunswick resident Heather D. Martin wants to know what’s on your mind; email her at heather@heatherdmartin.com.
Anyway, my point is, a great deal of my childhood was shaped by two individuals who proudly flew the Republican party flag. Grandpa was a Mason, grandma belonged to Eastern Star. They supported the chamber of commerce. I was never much of a joiner and had no interest in any of that, but I understood that while we disagreed on how to get there, we were all striving for the same thing: safe, thriving communities where people felt valued and could make a better life for themselves.
My grandparents also taught me that there is value to an opposing viewpoint, to having a different perspective in the conversation, to being required to compromise and seek common ground for the greater good.
Which leads me to ask: what the heck has happened?
I can say with total and complete certainty my grandparents would not recognize today’s Republican party. What madness is this? To deliberately spread lies, incite violence and refuse to abide by the governmental structure you are sworn to uphold?
Where is the integrity? Where is the dignity? Where is the common sense? This is not my grandparents’ Republican party.
For that matter, it’s not like my grandparents are the only Republicans I admire. Not counting neighbors, there’s Margaret Chase Smith, naturally, and more importantly to my point, since we need living role models to heed the call, Bill Cohen, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Olympia Snowe. That’s just for starters.
So where are they? Where is the uprising? The communal reclaiming of the narrative?
It is time, folks. You have work to do. Those of us on the other side can’t do this work, it has to be in house. It is time, past time, for the party to remind itself of its platform, its values and its purpose.
Jonah Goldberg, a Republican, said it best the other day on NPR: “There’s this thing called Belling the Cat. It is in every mouse’s interest that there be a bell on the cat so that they can hear it coming. But it’s in no individual mouse’s interest (to be the one) to put a bell on the cat. And that’s why we got Trump in 2016, because it was in none of the presidential wannabes’ interest to take Trump out when they could have.”
In this moment, as we watch our entire political system come under vicious, misleading and sometimes bizarre, attacks, while spurious lawsuits are hurled one after another despite being dismissed outright and nearly immediately for total lack of evidence of any sort, I say: good and noble Republicans, it is time to bell the cat.
I do not want the Republican Party to go away, I want it to return to itself and be the other side of a civil, reasoned debate. I want us all to join in a rare show of bipartisan unity to eradicate domestic terrorism and put an end the assaults upon our Constitution.
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