^ Evan McMullin : potential leader of a new party to replace the wrecked GOP

—- —- —-

Who could have seen in advance that this election would destroy the Republican Party ? My party — 4th generation of my family — and that of Lincoln, the party born to assure civil rights to all people, even to die in that cause.

Who could have seen that my party would nominate for President a man vile in everything, destructive of both party and society, contemptuous and fraudulent, of disgusting sex inclinations, willing to sell his country to the Russians ?

Who could have foreseen that, he being nominated, the party leadership would almost all acquiesce and burp out excuses for his depravities ?

Perhaps you forsaw it. Many kudos to you in that case, I admit that I did not forsee it. I missed it entirely. I had assumed that, even as my party painted itself into an obstructionist corner and spouted absurd agendas that everyone could see were nothing but panders to dinosaur financiers, there remained sufficient commitment to governance that in the end, the party would see the nation forward.

Well, I was wrong. The voters saw what I did not, that my party’s talking points were nothing but prostitution and horse effluent, that none of it would happen except that dinosaur financiers would have their pockets lined by legislators who fund-raise all the time at posh penthouse soirees and “conservative” conferences where political burlesque flirts and fibs.

The voters then nominated a man so vile that he could never be elected, to throw eight months of “GFY”: at the party, my party, and pelt its leadership with political feces. And the leadership, mostly, had no way of cleaning up. This was the sort of nuclear option that we now see exploding. Scuttling your own ship.

So what comes next ? Because the Democratic party does not hold a monopoly of political truth, nor can it; there are no final decisions in the life of a democracy, only temporary resolutions; and none of these solve more than a few most urgent challenges. I wish I had the answer. I don’t; but I do have AN answer :

( 1 ) the party to replace the Republican must be all inclusive. People of all skin colors, from all nations, of whatever LGBT lifestyle and practicing whichever faith, or none : all must take an equal seat at the table and be called upon to lead.

( 2 ) the new party must ensure full empowerment of women, respect for women in all things and in all places and situations, and defense of women’s right to control their own bodies.

( 3 ) the replacement party must call for innovation in government. As our society and economy change from mass production to small mobile units, so our Federal government ought to decentralize many of its functions, better executed locally than from Washington because after all, people live locally

( 4 ) the new party must accept the global economy and profit from it, not fight it, because in the open information age of global trade and idea exchange, everyone lives in an economic everywhere as well as in a certain locality., Many of us, in fact, move many times in our lives, from place to place and even from continent to continent. The new political party must embrace and rationalize this condition of life and work.

( 5 ) the new party cannot seek to impose a platform on voters but must give voice to what a majority of voters want, answering the voters in a more convincing fashion than our opposition. Trying to impose a platform is the Leninist way — incompatible with democracy.

( 6 ) the new party must always go high. And if you ask me, it should make sure that John Kasich joins it.

( 7 ) It should also invite current independent candidate Evan  McMullin to lead its beginning, just as, in 1856, John C. Fremont, as the GOP’s first leader, preceded Abraham Lincoln as a Republican nominee for President.

The Republican faction most free of this election’s depravity is the group we call “movement conservatives.” At the forefront, leaders like Senators Ben Sasse (NE), Jeff Flake (AZ), and Mike Lee (UT) but also many of the Republican party’s most principled editorialists : Erick Erickson, George Will, Bill Kristol, David French, Jonah Goldberg, Ana Navarro, Louise Mensch, even Glenn Beck. And why not ? Structural reform is “Movement conservatives” top priority. They speak differently but greatly resemble the Republican reformers we used to call “process liberals” back in the day. As structural reform is perhaps the core Republican mission, it bodes well that its strongest defenders stand well positioned to lead a replacement party.

Joining them will be a smaller but not insignificant faction, the “socially liberal, economically conservative” group that includes Charlie Baker, Larry Hogan (of Maryland), Bryan Sandoval (of Nevada), Senator Rob Portman (of Ohio), and several Congressmen as well as a sizeable cadre of top activists. There is no place for this group; in the train wreck, but there will be a vital place for them in  the open-door replacement party.

Likewise, the Republican party’s national security community will move almost universally from the train wreck to a viable replacement party.

In addition to these three factions, the replacement party will be a strong vehicle for the many Republicans, of less ideological mind, who simply reject the fascism unleashed by the current nominee and who haven’t the time to combat it inside their own house.

I really think that this move must be made. It is a waste of time to combat the trolls, racists, anti-Semites, gutter mouths, and spite spitters, whose goal is to drive everyone but them away. They are few enough, and vile enough, that isolating them is far more lethal to their cause than allowing them to appear coexistent with those of us who would only be taunted by any kind of political association, even one of mortal infighting. Pariahs need be sent to pariah hell.

I welcome your thoughts. Can we establish a better new party ? Will we end the reign of depraved hate by isolating it and sending it politically to Coventry ?

—- Mike Freedberg / Here and Sphere