Hot Take!!!! Conservatives can exist without the GOP

Recently, I was asked what “principled” (read: Republicans who claim not to be racist) Conservatives can do to repair the GOP. This was my response. Lightly edited for readability.

First, all Americans need to look at the reality of the situation. If Trump and those who think like him are in control of the GOP, then there is a political party in America that is authoritarian, anti-democratic, and racist. That party needs to be repudiated. Conservatives can’t win without racists, but racists can’t win without Conservatives either. You can’t be a principled Conservative and accept the Republican party platform. You can’t be a Democrat and concede that there is legitimacy to that platform.

This means principled Conservatives need to leave the party. You don’t have common cause with Democrats fine, but that requires creation of a new consistent Conservative political party. And for various reasons it’s extremely hard to establish another party but it has been done before. 

This new party must be dedicated to several things.

First it is possible to be conservative and not be racist. It hasn’t been tried yet in America but it’s possible.

 For social Conservatives if you’re pro- life fine, but it has to be consistent. You can’t be pro- life and also be for the death penalty when you know the legal system unfairly locks up black and poor people and they don’t have the same options as others. And support real investment in public education. When did that become something that wasn’t conservative? When did that become something that wasn’t American?

You can be for law enforcement, but you also have to be against police brutality, and not tacitly accepting of it as the cost of doing business. 

You can be for limited government; but understand that limited government policies carry with them a legacy of racism that programs like Affirmative Action and others actually work to remedy. Therefore, in any case where the issue is about race, at minimum Conservatives need to reconsider their position.

They have to support the implementation of policies that actively deconstruct white supremacy and acknowledge that institutional racism is a thing that actually exists instead of trying to mindlessly preserve the status quo.

They need to be pro faith, pro truth, pro intellect, and anti-discrimination. Why isn’t that conservative?

It’s hard to break the mold but the mold must be broken if the conservative movement is to retain any credibility at all. But it starts with repudiating completely white supremacy. And if that means loss of political power for a while then that is the cost of embracing the Southern Strategy in the first place. Additionally, it will have the benefit of hopefully expelling racism from the political field once and for all or at least permanently marginalizing it.

And while I’m at it, Conservatives need to stop supporting people who are suppressing the vote and also support the outlaw of gerrymandering. This will actually benefit them in the long term because it will break the hold white supremacists have on elections.

Conservatives need to spend some time out of power so they can re-imagine what the Conservative movement has to contribute to the future America.

Finally, both parties need to find a way to repudiate polarization and come back to the table of compromise in order to move the nation forward. The thirst for power cannot override the will to do something positive for America. And that can only be done once the white supremacists are removed from any meaningful role in the conversation. I don’t believe any of these things are at odds with the Conservative agenda. If…that conservative is also not a racist.

So yes the Republican party will die, but if they do all these things, a new more principled Conservative Party will rise in its place.