I’m a lifelong Republican. My party once stood for freedom, not religious prohibition | Opinion
I am a lifelong Republican. Make that a struggling Republican who voted for three Democrats in 2020. I’m on the cusp of using the cliche, ”I didn’t leave the Republican Party — the party left me.” And it’s not solely over social issues, though certainly that’s part of it.
I don’t think the last presidential election was stolen. The Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was an attack on democracy. And more Republicans who know these truths should say so.
The GOP is also on the wrong side of the abortion rights issue. Actually, it is on the wrong side of most of the social issues making headlines today: abortion, transgender rights, marijuana, same sex marriage and more.
At one time, Republicans believed the role of government on such matters was to stay out of them. The party followed the ideal of less government regulation of social life.
The GOP core values were small government, free market capitalism, fiscal conservatism, strong defense and individual responsibility. From these values, the party derived the approach of minimizing regulation (small government) of individual social behavior (personal responsibility).
However, things started to change after Jimmy Carter was elected president. Some evangelical Christians, particularly Southern evangelicals, moved over to the GOP, perhaps because of Carter’s strong support of the Equal Rights Amendment. Whatever the reason, they became more overtly political than before, and helped elect Ronald Reagan president and deny Carter a second term.
Some might say the Christian right assimilated into the GOP. Others would say it hijacked the party. In 1977, James Dobson founded Focus on the Family, and in 1979, Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority, both GOP supporters. Televangelist Pat Robertson made a serious run for the 1988 GOP presidential nomination.
Christian right forces its values on the public
The Christian right’s influence on the GOP continues to grow. As a result, the party has lost its way. It no longer applies the concept of less government regulation of social life. Instead, the GOP increasingly gives the Christian right a path of manically forcing its values on Americans through public policy and laws. Abortion is one example. At the state and national levels, the GOP is working to prohibit personal choice.
The country is clearly divided on abortion. Whether a person sides with pro-life or pro-choice is a matter of individual accountability and responsibility. If the GOP stayed true to its traditional values, then its public policy would respect an individual’s decision. A true Republican should never tolerate public policy that prohibits a fellow citizen from making a personal choice on abortion.
It is acceptable that conservative Christians inform people of their moral view of abortion and try to persuade them to make other choices. It is not acceptable that the GOP allows the Christian right to force its moral view of abortion on people through the power of public policy and law. To do so is un-Republican and un-American.
Barry Goldwater, the father of modern conservatism and the Republican candidate for president in 1964, wrote in 1992: “Abortion is not something the Republican Party should call for the abolition of, by legal means or by any other means.” Unfortunately, since Sen. Goldwater penned this view, leaders of the Christian right have firmly planted themselves in the GOP — and they don’t see things that way.
Imagine if the GOP took a hands-off position on abortion. Further, what if the party went back to its roots and applied its ideals of small government and individual responsibility to the many social issues in politics today? The Christian right would find itself without a means to force its moral beliefs on others — and the Republican Party would welcome voters like me back to the fold.
Mike Souder is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who has also worked in the manufacturing and education fields. He lives in Prairie Village.
