The collapse of any semblance of coherence or discipline within the Republican House Caucus has raised many an eyebrow and has brought into question the ability of America to govern itself. But our current political dysfunction should not be surprising. Over time, one of our two major parties appears to have lost any and all interest in governing our affairs.

The factors pushing the GOP off the rails, as well as the edge of sanity, have been building for decades. Arguably, the last time such intra-party discord was witnessed (in either party) was when southern conservative Democrats revolted under the leadership of Strom Thurmond in the post WWII era. That revolution was settled during the party realignment initiated by 1953 Brown vs. The Board of Education SCOTUS decision and accelerated by the Civil Rights movement a decade later.

Arguably, those entrenched in defending what they saw as traditional values, including the continued hegemony of a white elite, were alarmed by President Truman’s integration of the military and the integration of Major League baseball. Northern Democratic liberals (e.g., a young Hubert Humphrey) antagonized their southern colleagues by insisting that a civil rights addenda be added to the Democratic Party’s platform. That spurred the Dixiecrat revolt. But it wasn’t until Johnson forcefully embraced broader civil rights legislation in the 1960s that conservative southern politicians fled the Democratic Party in droves. By the early 70s, the two parties were roughly organized around distinct normative and ideological positions. Our process of partisan polarization had been established.

But here’s the thing. When I was growing up, bipartisanship was common. Given my working class roots, I was a nominal Democrat by virtue of the culture in which I was raised. Still, there were many Republicans I deeply admired. U. S. Senator Ed Brooke from my home state of Massachusetts was a black man who identified as a Republican. He was a true statesman with a broad vision for society. That made sense back in the early 1960s when the most hidebound conservatives were Dems representing Southern states in which legal apartheid was yet practiced. At that time, many northern Republicans could be described as progressives. I can recall proudly shaking Senator Brooke’s hand when he visited my college campus. He was a decent and competent leader.

On occasion, over time, I even voted for individual Republicans. I prided myself on being an independent, rather despising the confines associated with prescribed labels. As a policy wonk, I generally sought to understand all sides of an issue and would work for practical solutions even in such minefields as welfare reform. As a university teacher, I took pride in helping my students develop critical thinking skills. I had little interest in telling them what to think .

However, as the old refrain goes, the ‘times they were a changin.’ Our nation’s political metamorphosis was a glacial yet consciously planned effort. It was part of a long-term plan that emerged in the aftermath of Goldwater’s disastrous attempt to capture the White House in 1964 on behalf of what would later become ‘movement’ conservatives. Lyndon Johnson’s landslide victory in that contest, and a subsequent spate of liberal legislation, seemed to affirm that the 1930s New Deal was not an aberration. A renewed era of sustained progressive thought and deed seemed assured. Oh, how wrong we were.

Conservatives, on the other hand, licked their wounds and got serious about fighting back. In 1971, future SCOTUS justice Lewis Powell wrote a now famous memorandum laying out a long-term term plan for retaking political control. While it used hard and warlike language, the vision laid out by Powell was quite strategic and well considered. The ‘right,’ he argued, must work to take control of the institutions that frame the political discourse in this country. That included the media, our educational systems, the courts, local politics (including gerrymandering voting districts), among other targets. He argued that this would be a decades long struggle for the hearts and minds of the people … a concerted effort to create a new default position respecting our political and normative discourse.

Over the next decade or two, great sums of money were raised from uber-wealthy individuals to redo the infrastructure that shapes how we think about things. For example, a whole set of new think tanks were created to push conservative ideas (Hoover Institution, Cato Institute, the Hudson Institute, the Manhatten Institute, and many others). In addition, organizations were established to reshape specific institutions … the Federalist Society was charged with turning our courts into a reflection of right-wing thought and attitudes. The Americain Legislative Exchange Council worked to turn state legislatures into right-wing laboratories for change.

Education was another prime target since conservatives were convinced that the young were being brainwashed, especially in colleges and universities. In addition to Accuracy in Academia, Hillsdale College in Michigan is heavily endowed and has a mission to expose this nefarious leftist indoctrination in higher education. Conservative students were charged to ‘expose’ liberal professors. There are way too many other initiatives to list here.

Success came relatively quickly. The amiable Ronald Reagan seduced voters in ways Goldwater never could and captured the White House for the right-wing in 1980. While a darling of the conservatives for many years to come, he surely would be attacked mercilessly in today’s environment as a classic RINO (Republican in Name Only). After all, he collaborated with Democratic House leader Tip O’Neil, another Irshman with whom he could share jokes and convivial stories.

While Reagan had no trouble cutting taxes for the rich, he had great difficulty cutting spending even for the social safety net programs most Republicans despised. His budget director (David Stockman) was deeply frustrated that he could not get Reagan to drastically reduce spending even for liberal programs like Food Stamps. Thus, taxes for the wealthy were slashed but not spending (the military budget was expanded). This sent our national deficits spiraling. The revolution of the right was only partially in place.

The next lurch to the right occurred in the 1990s with the Newt Gingrich revolution. While the U.S. was just about the only advanced nation without universal health care, Clinton’s proposal toward that end  was met with incomprehensible hostility. The right-wing efforts to reshape our political dialogue was bearing fruit. Even a benefit our peer nations routinely provided was seen as government over reach here. We continued to hold on to an inefficient and highly inequitable health care financing system. Not surprisingly, Republicans finally took control of Congress. 

A media revolution also was underway, aided over the next couple of decades by the technological advances associated with cyberspace and the internet. Talk radio (remember Rush Limbaugh), then Fox News (1996), Mark Levin (2006) and other right-wing fire brands, OAN and Newsmax (both launched just before the MAGA revolution) replaced network news as distributors of news and opinion. While many had thought our new communication methods would improve society, it actually led to further tribalization and entrenched bitterness across groups.

Gingrich set the tone for the new, hard-right version of the Republican Party. No compromise with the other side was to be permitted. This was war. Since government was evil, shutting it down was a blessing (though they were surprised when people did seem to care). I recall a Republican player on the Hill (Ron Haskins) with whom I had worked on several occasions describing Gingrich to me. “He sees himself as a revolutionary. He wants to blow things up.” As someone dedicated to making government work, I was appalled. I feel Ron was wary as well. I still recall the ONE TIME Gimgrich publicly agreed with Clinton. It was on NAFTA. He barely could get the words out without having an aneurysm and stroking out on the spot.

As the Republican Party lurched further to the right, the wise pundits kept predicting that it was inflicting fatal wounds on itself. It was becoming a racist and regional party that would self-destruct and cesse to be relevant. But these wise men and women operated within their own bubble, an isolated echo chamber. In the real world, the new methods of cyber communication were operating according to a different dynamic, one that would push the GOP to places that were inconceivable when I was younger.

Essentially, this new dynamic went like this. There were now so many options from which individuals could select to get information, they could easily reinforce their priors if they tuned into the correct echo chamber. All else had been labeled fake news no matter how credible the information provided. There no longer was a Walter Cronkite to deliver the evening news in a calm, dispassionate manner, ar least no such person who could reach the whole nation. What these new outlets found (from Fox to Breitbart News) was that emotion, not logic, kept people tuned in and their fiscal bottom line healthy.

Unfortunately, this dynamic was self reinforcing. The conservative base was easily bored. They demanded  ever more salacious and gripping revelations about the sins and depradations of the ‘other’ side. And here is the key. All those enamored with authoritarianism demand an ‘other’ to fear and to despise. It might be the Shias or Sunnis in the Mideast, Catholics or Protestants in Northern Ireland, Hindus or Muslims on the subcontinent, and the most notorious of all … Jews for the German Nazis.

For the Republican base today, we have desperate Latinos pushing against our southern borders (not all that dissimilar to North Africans trying to slip into the EU.) For an insecure and easily frightened Republican base, immigrants are an easy scapegoat for a host of real or imagined threats. In our context, a good deal of the ire within the ‘right’ is directed toward the nameless elite … the educated, the ‘woke’ types they see as disrespecting and ignoring them. They thus often turn to rather ignorant demagogues who have no skill or interest in actually governing. I keep wondering if they would select their butcher to do open heart surgery on a loved one simply because that person in ‘one of them.’

What the far right found, especially their media, is a recipe that worked. In your target audience, you stoked  fear, loathing, hate, and division. Next, you offer the base a savior with simple solutions. The far right outlets have no illusions about their role and purpose. In a court deposition, Rupert Murdoch (who recently stepped down as CEO of Fox News) admitted that Fox News was NOT distributing news but rather entertainment. What he didn’t admit was that the entertainment distributed was based on appealing to the worst instincts of their audience.

For reasons I’ve never fathomed, I’m on the mailing list of many of these far-right organizations. I’m forever getting breathless messages about breaking revelations respecting the outrageous sins and depradations of the bad guys. While I can discuss these revelations as crude propaganda, many cannot. This stream of disinformation is cleverly designed to keep the base stirred up, angry, and desperately needing a strong man to save them and redress their grievances. Thus, Trump enters stage right!

The problem is that the rhetoric must keep escalating. Yesterday’s outrage is old news. Thise in front in the camera like Hannity or Carlson must produce ever more radical revelations. As the media propaganda escalates in degrees of absurdity, politicians must follow or be faced with the end of their political hopes. They might easily be labeled a RINO and primaried into oblivion.

About a dozen years ago, the best and the brightest in the Republican House were Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, and Kevin McCarthy. The first two are gone and the 3rd recently was unceremoniously dumped as House Speaker. Now, the extremists in the House, the nihilists with no interest in governing, are running the show. Heaven help us.

I don’t blame the Republican establishment for this mess. They are merely trying to survive. When Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney departed the scene, it was in recognition that the people they had represented for many years with honor and in a principled manner had changed dramatically. Who would have guessed just a couple of generations ago that 25 to 35 percent of the American people would trash the American constitution and wish for an end to demicrarcy … longing for a strongman to be placed in charge. They now yearn for a savior to resolve their fears and ease their pervasive anxieties. More than anything, they wish for someone to ‘get’ those they blame for whatever ills they believe they experience. If the number is closer to 35 percent, they are within striking distance of ultimate control. The German Nazis never had more support than that before getting power.

Is there hope?  Damned if I know. As I repeatedly say these days, I’m glad I’m old. On my most optimistic days, perhaps the far right will go too far and there will be a backlash. But that presumes some minimal level of judgement and just a bit of human decency among the base. I’m not optimistic on that score.

As I am writing this, Jim Jordan (a firebrand Trump supporter) has been nominated to be the next Republican House Speaker. (Note: I doubt he will be elected). Still, the revolution started decades ago would reach another level of ‘success.’  The American dream of representing a mature democracy and workable federal system of government would suffer another humiliating defeat. The wider world must look on in disbelief.

I can recall one of my Florida neighbors (when we wintered there) talking about Obama as we played a round of golf. This was about a decade or so ago. He was shocked at the level of animosity this sensible and intelligent American President received in the States. I think his precise words were, “what the f#&k is wrong with you Americans. We love him up in Canada.” I ask myself that same question these days … “what the f#&k is wrong with my fellow Americans.” Why can’t they see what is going on?

As I see America imploding in slow motion, I seriously doubt I will ever feel any pride in this country again.