For many years, I have hated the Democratic Party. I still do. But I recently signed up as a Democrat. Now that the Democratic nomination contest is about to crystallize, it is a critical time for Republicans and ex-Republicans to join me in my seemingly incongruous act.
I became a Republican with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. It was the party of the Constitution, of a limited government and of a forward-looking American posture around the world. It was Reagan who helped overthrow communism in the Soviet Union and brought countries like South Korea and Taiwan into the democratic fold. It was Reagan who dedicated a smart mark of originality by appointing the great constitutionalist Antonin Scalia to the Supreme Court.
But the day Donald Trump won the Republican nomination, I was out. As a lifelong New Yorker until recently, I know that the three card mount is a scam. I will never lend an iota of support to Trump and his shills. I immediately signed up as a freelance and dedicated my efforts as a writer to expose Trump’s flimflammery.
The party I once regarded as a pillar of our constitutional order is now gnawing at this order like termites, engaging in all of Trump’s transgressions against long-standing constitutional standards and against decency itself. The party that once stood against dictators is now led by a man who admires Russian Vladimir Putin and says he fell in love with Kim Jong Un from North Korea. As much as I hated Democrats, I hate these cowardly cowardly Republicans.
Last confrontation against Bernie Sanders
In 2018, I moved from New York to Washington, D.C., andin January Ichanged my electoral registration from independent to democratic. Living in an extremely blue city, my vote makes more sense in a Democratic primary. I am passionately determined to bring down Trump and I will support any Democrat who could achieve this.
To that end, registering as a Democrat gives me the opportunity to take a final stand in Washington June primary against Senator Bernie Sanders, an elderly defender of a flawed ideology. His appointment would ensure Trump’s victory in November, as well as a Republican-controlled Senate and perhaps also a Republican-controlled House – a triple disaster, a wreck for our democracy.
I still have serious reservations about the Democrats. The party worshiped abortion rights and chased Democrats from the ranks of the right to life. It is fundamentally false and extraordinarily stupid in electoral matters. It means rejecting countless voters who would stand with him on other matters, voters whom he treats with contempt and conciliation.
The Democratic Party is also full of politicians hostile to the State of Israel, starting with the “Squad” and extending outwards on its left flank. Like the British Labor Party, the Democrats tolerated left-wing anti-Semitism, including secular tropes over Jews exercising undue power and control. This while he is practicing a form of identity politics that divides Americans by race and ethnicity, celebrating certain groups while remaining largely indifferent to the fate of others.
Skeletons in open cupboards:Sanders has a bizarre radical past that Trump and the Republicans would use to destroy him
But that’s not the whole story. In the inverted world that Trump has created, the Democratic Party becomes the party of the Constitution. It represents the separation of powers, independent courts, an apolitical Ministry of Justice, a law-abiding presidency. In foreign affairs. It has become the party of NATO and alliances, law enforcement and the intelligence community to protect the integrity of the FBI and the CIA.
Placing Democrats on a New Path
Perhaps some or all of these reversals are entirely opportunistic if not hypocritical. Once in power, the Democrats may well return to their familiar and accommodating ways, and a President Sanders would no doubt speed up this process. But words, even stop words, can change your mind, and at least some Democrats may well have been pushed by Trumpism onto a new path.
Finally, there are different gaps between the two parties. Conservative political philosopher Harvey Mansfield called the Trump phenomenon “a rebellion of the lower half of the IQ against the upper half. The uneducated against the educated.” This may exaggerate the case, but with respect to Congress, can there be any doubt that the Democrats are much smarter than the clowning Republicans? Compare the eloquent Adam Schiff to Devin Nunes, his slow and rogue Republican counterpart on the House Intelligence Committee. It is a boxing ring in which the powerful Mohammed Ali is opposed to a 98 pound nabbish. Among elected officials, the mismatch extends widely at all levels.
Courting misfortune:Bernie Sanders’ ideas are toxic outside of blue America.
The same goes for the principle. Look at what has become of leading Republicans like the Senses. Lindsay Graham and Marco Rubio. Before Trump was in the White House, they called him “a moron” and “a racist, xenophobic and religious fanatic” and “an embarrassment” that would not be respected in the world. When he won, they hailed him as Reagan’s second arrival. Republicans represent nothing these days, except the acquisition and conservation of naked power.
I hope that in November Trump’s Republican Party will die in an electoral firestorm and that some sort of cleansed and chastised phoenix will one day rise from the ashes. As a newly trained Democrat, I have been busy collecting tinder. I call on all of these current and former Republicans who are disgusted with what has happened to their party to join me in lighting the spark.
Gabriel Schoenfeld, Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign adviser, is a senior member of the Niskanen Center, a member of the Board of Contributors to USA TODAY, and a recently registered Democrat. Follow him on Twitter. @GabeSchoenfeld
