Washington State Republicans Spill the Beans: Conservatives Don’t Believe in Democracy!
In its effort to be relevant, the Republican Party in deep blue Washington is doubling-down on “ideals” conservatives have always embraced but refrained from loudly espousing. Now that artifice has been abandoned for the hard truth.
Washington is one of the more liberal states in the USA. That’s one of the reasons I’m here. But we still have the Republican Party to contend with. They rarely win a state-wide election, and usually put up some off-the-wall candidate (often a celebrity) as their choice for governor, who then goes on to lose by 10 or more points. This year the party has officially selected one of those Black dudes who sense (often correctly) they can become a superstar as a counter-intuitive Republican. He would be the first Black governor of Washington if elected.
That seems plausible in Washington State, for sure. Here, the majority likes all kinds of people. We like diversity. We like inclusion. We like spreading the equity.
But he won’t be governor because, despite that affable mug, in more ways than one he is a dunderhead. His name is Semi Bird, and he is semi-cray-cray. Aren’t all Black Republicans, which is as absurd an oxymoron as Gay Republican… or, yes, Female Conservative?
The Washington Republican Party is now fully Trumpified, which means (among other unseemly traits) emboldened to speak their minds. As in most other states, they have excommunicated the wishy-washy, the centrists, the bipartisan, the RINOs, and are at last ready to double-down on “telling it like it is,” including what conservatives have always believed: they don’t believe in democracy. Shocking? Hardly. This is a stone-cold fact that Americans, in particular, should know very well. It should be drilled into the heads of school kids. But it’s not, and they don’t. It’s a signature failure of education in America, the first and foremost democratic nation in history.
Some people believe conservatives are actually the true American patriots. Nothing could be further from the truth. Conservatives abhor true American ideals. Particularly that stupid “equality” bit, which can provoke a gagging reflex. They have never bought into that jewel of Americanism for one second. But democracy, too, is a thorn in their side, and has been since, well, forever. You will recall, won’t you, that the original American conservatives were the TORIES?
Conservatives prefer a strongman autocracy, if not monarchy and/or theocracy. An oligarchy, kleptocracy or kakocracy will do until the right strongman emerges to take control of things and put all those “others” clamoring for their presumed “equal rights” in their proper places. In the conservative mind, these “others” are not equal and have no inherent rights.
Just like the Second Coming (and the destruction of the world), they are always in waiting for just this. The return of their messiah who will smite their enemies. Let’s hear from one of the Washington State Republican convention delegates on this matter: “When Donald J. Trump came down that golden escalator, I knew that God’s hand was with him. I knew it. I knew God chose him for such a time as this.”
Nice.
Seems like if God had really wanted Trump to be elected He might have easily provided a majority vote for him. Nope. Twice.
There’s worse.
These Washington delegates, participating in a democratic exercise, were not shy about telling the world what they think of democracy itself. They crafted into their state platform:
Ending mail-in voting. Which has worked sensationally in Washington and other states, with zero corruption or interference. Why do they want to end easy voting? Because they don’t want most people voting, period. Making it harder, by any way possible, especially for the poor, the student, the laborer, the chronically ill, the harried single moms (who all more generally vote for Democrats) is the closest thing they can currently manage to outright denying the vote.
What would replace this super-convenient, smart, efficient, modern, humane way of practicing real democracy? A one-day-only, in-person election, with photo ID and paper ballots, with no use of tabulating machines or digital scanners to count the ballots. Can’t make it to the polling station? Can’t or don’t want to stand in line for 10 hours (and still maybe not get to vote… while the line in the white-dominated Republican district is 10 minutes long, max… strange that)? Sorry, sucker. “Democracy” is not for you.
All ballots would be counted by hand. Yep, let’s turn back the clock to the 1930s, while ignoring that machine-counts are faster, more accurate and less likely to be lost or tampered with.
This naked effort to simply take away the vote from millions was not enough. The Washington State Republicans added something else: a resolution calling for a repeal of the 17th Amendment, taking away ALL citizens’ vote for U.S. senators. No way the rabble should be choosing these super-politicians (one of which can put the government on hold). These empresarios should be hand-picked by a cabal of the wealthy and powerful. Senators would once again be appointed by state legislature cronies (usually one of their own). This idea turns the clock back to 1913, when the 17th Amendment, at long last, overthrew the last vestige of the elite advantaging themselves in a rather profound way.
And, as if to underscore their intent and preclude any inclination to misinterpret their conviction, the Washington State Republican Party’s resolution also called on citizens to stop using the word, you guessed it, “democracy.” The word just helps out the “Democrats,” while what we really want in this country is “republicanism,” which word, presumably, helps the Republicans.
Now don’t get confused. The Washington State Republican Party is not some rogue, fringe outfit too close to the rogue, fringe, rightwing capital of America, Idaho. These anti-democratic ideas have been conservative aspirations since the invention of, well, democracy. These very notions pulse in the heartbeat of conservatives across the world, and stretch back to kings and popes and emperors and sheiks and warlords of old. Socrates was murdered, Jesus crucified, Joan burned, Galileo imprisoned, Lincoln assassinated by this very same ideology. When they say they are coming for your vote, believe them, and hope they don’t mean your life, as well. That more and more conservatives in America are actually hoping for a new civil war is not reassuring.
The Washington State Republican Party speaks for the perennial political-cultural-societal-governmental ideal of conservatives now and forever in capping their resolution: We oppose legislation that makes our nation more “democratic” in nature, and that, while we favor and encourage liberty in all nations, we oppose all efforts to use American military might to spread “democracy” around the world.
Let us understand, when they say they want a “republic” not a “democracy,” what conservatives have in mind is: them in control and you not getting a say. And when you remember that when they speak of “liberty,” they mean their liberty, not yours, it all becomes more than a bit chilling. Good luck to the Black man trying to head up this den of vipers. He’d better hope that cabal doesn’t succeed before he earns his millions as a traitor to his race conservative token. Once they are fully back in charge, just like the good old days, they will have no use for him… or many of us… except as pawns.
