Since the late 19th century, America’s two-party system has usually been associated with peaceful co-existence and a balance of power between Republicans and Democrats.
Yet the 2016 election of Donald Trump, who ran on a hybrid of traditionally Republican and Democrat positions, threw the system into chaos.
While the Republican base loved his patriotism, promise to secure our borders and rejection of identity politics, GOP leaders undermined him. Most Democrats gave zero credit while he fought for shared policy goals like better relations with Russia, withdrawal from Afghanistan, peace with North Korea, trade protectionism and prison reform. Instead, for years they maliciously accused him and associates of being Russian agents who stole the election.
Meanwhile, Trump’s popularity continues as a backlash against those who disparage the country as racist and colonial. Most progressives push critical race theory indoctrination — which is itself viewed by some as state-sanctioned racism and workplace harassment. Democrats enjoy one-party rule together with power and influence centers of government bureaucracy, Big Tech, Hollywood, corporations, professional sports, the media and education system.
Once leftist fringe elements, Antifa and Black Lives Matter, have become normalized. This is despite “mostly peaceful” protests in 2020 causing dozens of deaths and up to $2 billion in damages. Democrats attacked the rule of law, due process and human rights via the Russiagate inquisition and countless similar “guilty until proven innocent” anti-police false narratives.
The GOP must unify and toughen up because it can’t stop left-wing authoritarianism once firmly entrenched.
This week’s vote over Congresswoman Liz Cheney’s future as the #3 Republican in the House of Representatives is a test. Many of her colleagues believe it’s a distraction to keep confronting the former president on his “stop the steal” 2020 election rhetoric and subsequent Capitol riot in which a handful of his supporters died and nearly 500 were arrested.
Having served as a Pentagon spokesman during the George W. Bush administration, I respect her and her father, then-Vice President Cheney. Yet I agree with Rep. Cheney’s colleagues.
Plus, times have changed. Republican corporate class types aren’t powerful enough to thwart today’s aggressive and well-funded woke movement. Just look at Democrat financial power.
According to Forbes, the top 10 richest Americans are collectively worth over $1 trillion. And it’s a who’s who of progressive superheroes and Democrat mega-donors. Jeff Bezos: Amazon. Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook. Bill Gates: Microsoft. Warren Buffet: Berkshire Hathaway. Steve Ballmer: Microsoft/Los Angeles Clippers. Larry Page and Sergey Brin: Google. Bezos owns The Washington Post, which routinely tries to destroy Republicans with illegal leaks from government sources, rumor and innuendo. His new Superyacht is about the same size as most modern navy frigates. Facebook just extended its Trump ban and regularly de-platforms conservatives. Google skews search results to hurt Republicans and help Democrats by putting progressive news outlets up front and burying conservative ones.
Modern Republicans must increasingly rely on popular, pro-America movements to survive. They should shun woke corporations and Big Tech which despise them anyway.
While researching Cheney’s situation, I learned something about myself. Not metaphorically, but literally.
Recently released Trump State Department documents show my name on the list of official candidates for the Under Secretary, Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, noting my role as the 2016 Trump campaign’s Director of the National Security Committee.
With the man calling for Cheney’s ouster, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy profiled by Tucker Carlson on Fox News, we learned that political focus-group guru Frank Luntz is his housemate in Washington. We also learned Luntz had been nominated by Vice President Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, for that same Under Secretary position. Many were shocked considering Luntz’s anti-Trump statements and Trump’s brutally insulting return fire in 2015.
They shouldn’t have been surprised, since nominating and hiring anti-Trumpers into his administration was normal. Trump didn’t just accept a Trojan Horse, he and son-in-law Jared Kushner let in the whole Trojan Cavalry. Those personnel decisions led to both impeachments and limitless investigations of his associates. “America First” campaign loyalists were mostly ousted or walked away by the first or second year, if even rewarded at all. Can anyone imagine Presidents Obama or Biden allowing a similar sabotage of their administrations?
Senate Republicans didn’t help. Despite a 52-seat majority during President Trump’s first two years, they returned hundreds of nominations to the White House, including those of Trump loyalists. Meanwhile, Democrats always unify and stack the field with their nominees, outrageous or not. It takes a miracle for their senators to say “no” and block a nomination like Joe Manchin did to Team Biden’s pick for OMB Director, Neera Tanden — after her scathing tweets surfaced about his colleagues and daughter.
So yes, the GOP needs to get tough and get unified — or get lost. A woke “Uniparty” with no real opposition may be the Democrat dream, but considering they already tell violent protestors to “get more confrontational” and openly call for Gulags, it would be a nightmare for the country.
J.D. Gordon is a former National Security & Foreign Policy Advisor to Republican leaders Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee and Herman Cain. Previously, he served as a Pentagon spokesman during the George W. Bush Administration and is a retired Navy Commander.
