There Is No Middle Ground
Recently I have had some discussions with Democrats who are considering voting in the 2022 Republican primary to support “moderate” Republican candidates like some running for the new Texas House District 70. As this piece from The Atlantic shows, wishing for moderate Republicans is simply unrealistic. Even if there are a few who are willing to buck their entire party and activist base, they will have a hard time being elected, and if elected, will be hounded out of office.
Donald Trump Jr. is surely one of the vilest and most repulsive people to emerge from the Trump presidency. He is a person with literally no redeeming qualities, yet he is one of the most popular figures in MAGA-land. As the article from The Atlantic states, “the former president’s son has a message for the tens of millions of evangelicals who form the energized base of the GOP: the scriptures are essentially a manual for suckers. The teachings of Jesus have ‘gotten us nothing.’ It’s worse than that, really; the ethic of Jesus has gotten in the way of successfully prosecuting the culture wars against the left. If the ethic of Jesus encourages sensibilities that might cause people in politics to act a little less brutally, a bit more civilly, with a touch more grace? Then it needs to go.”
In 2022, running as a Texas Republican means things. It means that you:
- Support denying women reproductive rights by enabling bounty hunters to harass anyone around them with lawsuits.
- Stand with Gov. Abbott’s anti-public health policies that have resulted in the deaths of 75,000-plus Texans.
- Support the status-quo of Texas as one of the least healthcare-insured states for people generally and children in particular.
- Stand with Abbott and other Texas Republicans who put their corporate donors’ interests ahead of those of Texans, including the interests of Texans to actually live and thrive.
- Stand with insurrectionists who defiled our National Capitol and continue to spread the lie of “election fraud” and that Trump won the election.
It doesn’t matter if a given Republican candidate or officeholder really believes these things; running as a Republican means that the candidate is OK with them. I do want to draw a distinction between people who still identify as Republicans and Republican candidates or officeholders; people are certainly capable of supporting “traditional” Republican policies while rejecting the extremist positions of now. But running for office under a given party banner, especially one that demands fealty as does the Trumpist Republican Party, links you to those policies and worse.
And let’s be clear: while the same linkage to policies can be made for Democratic candidates, the policies favored by the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party are things like ensuring all Americans have healthcare, a living wage for workers, forgiving crushing student debt, and taxing the top 1% of earners. The two sides are simply not comparable.
The Democratic Primary Election is in just a couple of months, on March 1, 2022; early voting starts a mere six weeks from now, on February 14. I urge all Democrats to vote for your Democratic candidates in our primary; let the Republicans sort out their own primary. And then let’s turn out to defeat their candidates on November 8, 2022.
Note: A version of this essay first appeared in the Collin County Democratic Party Newsletter The Rally, published on December 30, 2021.
