Message to the GOP: Change Your Hearts or Die
By: Jay Sizemore
Tags: Politics, Adaptation, Progress, Change, Republican Party

Message to the GOP: Change Your Hearts or Die

Photo by Lisa Yount on Unsplash

There is a change in the air. With the election of Joe Biden, the American people are denouncing the cult of Trump. Unfortunately, much of the GOP leadership are refusing to acknowledge this message. And in doing so, they are dooming themselves to inevitable backlash and even more defeat on the horizon. Unless the Republican Party comes to terms with the changing landscape of political ideology, they will be systematically replaced by those who do accept it, and the Republican Party as we know it will simply cease to exist. It will be pushed to the fringes, become a party of extremist views and outlandish characters that are merely considered jokes and flukes on the political stage.

The old Republican Party is fracturing. It is becoming two parties inside itself, those made up of the die-hard Trump sycophants, and those who are willing to defect in order to save themselves and any shred of their former dignity. We can already see this happening, as more Republicans are willing to admit that Trump lost the election and are issuing congratulatory statements to Biden. Even Mitch McConnell, the self-serving chameleon that he is, has done so. Ultimately, this will prove to have been the point in history where the GOP cemented its own decline.

It’s the policy that the Republicans adopted during the Obama era that started this downfall. By refusing to work with the Obama Administration, the GOP created a system of legislative gridlock that prevents the healthy function of government for the people. In order for our government to work, there has to be some level of ability to lean toward compromise. Instead, we have been getting nothing but hard lines drawn in the sand, and a government that constantly teeters on the edge of shutdown and crisis.

This refusal of compromise is what directly led to Congress’ inability to pass a second stimulus package while the country has languished in economic squalor for months during the pandemic and its second wave of shutdowns. And when they finally did manage to pass it this week, the stimulus given to the people is a weak $600 per person, half what was given in the first stimulus bill, and not nearly enough to really address the eviction crisis, or the needs of the people. Mitch McConnell was quick to label this stimulus deal a success and to cast blame on the Democrats, when it has been more than apparent who was really to blame behind the relentless stalling. The Republicans were quite frankly more interested in protecting corporate interests than helping the average working American. Just as they were more interested in sending out billions in foreign aid and military spending.

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And that, my friends, is the root of the entire problem. Americans are tired of these millionaire politicians who consistently cater to the interests of the wealthy and special interests over the common good of the nation. Americans are tired of paying their hard earned tax dollars to fund these legislators their $130,000 a year salaries just to watch them accomplish the bare minimum of anything at all even resembling a functional government, and then to see their government consistently fail to meet their needs, even during a legitimate crisis.

Americans are tired of struggling to simply make ends meet, while these politicians argue over which corporate entity most deserves the biggest tax break. Americans are tired of watching their government shrug and wring their hands at news items such as the largest foreign hacking campaign in history, probably instigated by Russia. Americans are tired of being lied to on a daily basis about literally everything, but especially about the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic, while the death toll eclipses that of 9/11 on roughly a daily basis now.

Most of all, Americans are tired of not having public servants who bolster their confidence in American infrastructure and systems that are supposed to be in place to protect them. The whole ordeal with Trump trying to overturn the election of Joe Biden should go down as one of the worst moments in American history. And if this event doesn’t permanently shift the focus of American politics, then I genuinely weep for the future.

Like it or not, change is coming. The Republican Party knows this. It’s why they’ve done everything in their power to cling to the past. It’s why they’ve resorted to gerrymandering and voter suppression. It’s why many of them cling to Donald Trump like parasites affixed to the legs of a T-Rex watching asteroids rain down out of the sky. Their entire shtick and attitude is a relic kept from a dying generation. They’re all just fossils waiting to happen, already collecting dust.

This is your final warning, GOP. You can either accept that the world is changing, and decide to adapt in order to survive. Or, you can remain steadfast and hold to your antiquated views, watching in rapt horror as the world moves on without you, even as you wither into nothingness. The choice, in the end, is yours.