Be a RINO

How do you get the word out to solve an obvious problem? It’s becoming clearly evident that the Republican Party is at a crossroads…long in coming. It will be a battle in which the outcome impacts everyone. 

Much rhetoric, really lip service has been given to the idea that unity for a politically split America can be achieved with just so much kum ba yah.  Obama thought he could sell it and, as a result, he got his clock cleaned by the Mitchell led Republicans ending in four years of Trump horror. Now it has become a lead infomercial for Joe Biden. 

Our Nation has a majority left leaning, moderate electorate. There is room in that majority for moderate, conservative Republicans and the Nation would be politically less dynamic without them. However, since the beginning of this century the Republican Party has been hijacked by an extreme Right wing of the Party, primarily by philosophies rooted in White Supremacy and Christian Nationalism. 

They have cloaked themselves in flags, “patriotism”, prayers, slogans of “law and order”, and “righteousness”. However, what really drives them is an endless dirge of fear propagated by power hungry politicians and a dedicated, profit driven media. Rush Limbaugh deserved a metal, sure, but it should have been for amassing $500 million by soaking the faithful. 

The far Right (otherwise known as the Trump base) have been brainwashed (truly brainwashed) into fearing that “Liberals”, Government, minorities, immigrants, intellectuals, homosexuals, and the poor are conspiring to take away everything they hold dear, and, even worse, poisoning their children to their values and beliefs. This mindset is virtually no different than that embraced by white Southerners immediately after the Civil War. 

Like political fundamentalists, there is no wavering from Right Wing Conservative dogma, so any Republican that strays is immediately thrown into the Liberal stewpot. In fact, those Republicans are the most targeted, not just for their “heresy” but because they can actually be taken down within our democratic process. 

It wouldn’t be an issue was it not for the fact that the arcane mechanisms by which we choose representatives in Government is weighted in their favor.  The Electoral College, the Senate, and gerrymandering gave this minority real power. They created a President Trump and the people who enabled him for four years. This should not, cannot happen again. But to stop it will take more creative effort than has been rallied to date. 

Democrats and Independent voters (D&I) need to take on Republican extremism. Not by trying to win general elections in Red states and districts, but by controlling them where it counts…at the Primary level. 

Democrats and Independents need to vote in Republican primaries to assure that the only choice available in the general election is between two individuals who believe their power and future will ultimately be determined by defending the Nation's well being. 

A movement needs to begin right away to prepare D&I to register as Republicans in those states that require such to vote in a Republican Primary (closed or semi-closed), or to educate them to vote Republican in those states that have no requirement (open or semi-open). Every adult American citizen should have the right to vote in both Republican and Democratic Primaries, but that would have to occur at the state level, and we’re probably decades away from that. 

Changing registration to Republican would also allow Democrat and Independent voters to influence Republican caucus states. 

This should not be stealth activism, quite the opposite. We want to encourage moderate Conservative Republicans to take on the extreme Trumpian candidates, and we want existing Republican lawmakers to know they don’t have to define their actions through appeasement. 

The sacrifice of not using a vote to influence the Democratic nomination is minor compared to the need for keeping the door closed on Right Wing extremism. It’s time for the American majority to define the future. Become a Republican in name only…be a RINO.