BILL KNIGHT
On October 16, 1854, in Peoria, Abraham Lincoln argued against expanding slavery and touched on a citizen’s role, that when he governs himself that is self-government, “but when he governs himself and also governs another, that is more than self-government. That is despotism.
“No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent,” he continued. “This is the leading principle, the sheet anchor of American republicanism.”
What a difference 169 years make to the party Lincoln helped found.
Today’s Republican leaders seem eager to govern by control — controlling access to polls, women’s bodies, real religious freedom, paid sick leave, and the pursuit of happiness. (GOP leaders are less interested in controlling military-style weapons, employers who break labor laws, or prominent figures who suggest “terminating” the Constitution.)
(And, please, see Disclosure below.)
A GOP agenda?
The GOP this month gains eight seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, where they’ll have a 220-213 majority. Days before November’s midterm election, 16th District Congressman Darin LaHood told Politico he expected 20 to 45 additional Republican seats, adding, “If we get only 10, that will be a disappointment.”
It’s unclear whether he’s disappointed in House Republicans’ plans.
After Republican campaigning on inflation and crime, Jim Jordan and Republican leaders’ first post-election rallying cry was to investigate Hunter Biden, followed by suggestions to investigate the FBI, Anthony Fauci, the Jan. 6 Committee, Merrick Garland and the Justice Department, Homeland Security’s Alejandro Mayorkas and even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (for being insufficiently loyal to the GOP). Other members threaten to all but abandon Ukraine, reduce Social Security and Medicare, block the restoration of IRS staffing, and attack labor.
Capitol Hill: A Dysfunction Junction?
In fact, after Speaker-hopeful Kevin McCarthy voted against Congress imposing a contract on rail workers, he was asked why and rambled about Biden and Afghanistan and a weak economy. (Wait-what? That withdrawal was set in motion by a Trump deal; the economy grew at a 2.9% in the third quarter, higher than the 2.5% average in first three years of Trump’s term, and 2022’s 3.6% average jobless rate is the best since 1969.)
Republican figures positioning to pressure McCarthy are a Chaos Caucus. Laura Boebert was named to the Republican Policy Committee; Virginia Foxx wants to abolish the Education Department; Elise Stefanik wants to impeach Biden; Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene oppose further help to Ukraine; Greene and Paul Gosar have advocated violence against those who disagree with them (they “need to get the hell out,” Greene said) and were removed from committees last term, but McCarthy’s OK’d their return.
Such hi jinx is less about governing than retaining or gaining power, unlike the ’50s. In 1950, Republican Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine rebuked Sen. Joe McCarthy and “certain elements of the Republican Party [pushing for] victory through the selfish political exploitation of fear, bigotry, ignorance and intolerance.”
Unlike Liz Cheney, she wasn’t expelled from the GOP.
By 1956, the Republican platform called for “improved job safety,” assistance to “older workers, handicapped workers, members of minority groups, and migratory workers,” “equal pay for equal work, regardless of sex,” “elimination of discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry or sex,” “expansion of Social Security,” “better health protection for all our people,” “protection of the right of workers to organize into unions and to bargain collectively …
“The Republican Party supports an immigration policy which is in keeping with the traditions of America in providing a haven for oppressed peoples,” continued that platform — those Republicans — adding, “We are determined that our government remain warmly responsive to the urgent social and economic problems of our people.”
Glimmers of such warmth survive this winter.
In Illinois, newly installed state GOP chair Don Tracy stood up to dozens of disappointed Republican activists gathered at a state Central Committee meeting in Bolingbrook on Dec. 10 clamoring for Trump-style “conservatism.” Tracy commented “A lot of people see us as angry White people that cannot be trusted to govern … We have got to reverse this.”
In Springfield, respected moderate Republican Jim Durkin resigned as Illinois House GOP Leader after the midterm, and said some in the GOP are more interested in solving problems than seizing power and building war chests (Darin LaHood has accumulated more than $4 million, Politico reported). Durkin told the Chicago Sun-Times, “If they take this approach — 100% allegiance toward conservative values in a party platform — we will continue to have bad elections. This is not Mississippi. This is not Idaho.”
This country is the land of Lincoln.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Bill Knight reluctantly agreed to get yard signs for Joe Biden and Eric Sorensen placed in one rural precinct, but as a Bernie Sanders Democratic Socialist, he’s also cringed at Democrats’ foolishness and has praised Republicans from Dave Leitch and Ray LaHood to Jim Edgar and John Anderson. As awful as he regards Donald Trump, Dems have had lousy figures, too, from Rod Blagojevich and Mike Madigan to Presidents Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, even Woodrow Wilson. So: This opinion is about country, not party, about sustaining self-government, not surrendering to supremacy of one sort or another or the primacy of power over problem-solving.