Tennessee WordSmith: A Liberal Dose, November 9, 2023 "The Republican Party Is Eating Itself Alive"

November 9, 2023

Troy D. Smith

“The Republican Party Is Eating Itself Alive”

Before I go to my main topic, I want to commend John Gottlied for his article last week about depression. I have dealt with depression and anxiety issues for most of my life, and I know many people who struggle quietly and privately. It is on all of us to make such people feel safe in being human without judgment.

Now let’s talk about how jacked up the Republican Party is.

Man. The Republican Party is jacked up.

I’m serious. House Republicans tossed out their own speaker, which has never been done before, and it took them three weeks and several candidates to pick a new one. Three weeks without a Speaker -so, effectively, three weeks without a House of Representatives or any kind of funding bills, at a time when we are facing multiple crises overseas. Nothing like this has ever happened in American history. Will Rogers famously said, “I’m not a member of any organized political party -I’m a Democrat.” That was funny because it was true. For way over a century, it was Democrats who had trouble rallying together, whereas Republicans presented a united front. The sad part is, I don’t think Democrats have gotten any more organized -they just look like it when compared to the mess Republicans have devolved into.

And what a cast of characters: Matt Gaetz, implicated in sex-trafficking and, so far as I know, still under investigation for sexual misconduct; Lauren Boebert, last seen drunkenly engaging in sexual behavior at a family performance of Beetlejuice; and George Santos, who probably couldn’t even tell the truth about what day it is. Perhaps the most shocking part of it all is the fact that Republican Congressmen standing for the Speaker position were receiving death threats to their families -from Republicans who supported one of the other people for the spot. This demonstrates how badly things have devolved -after several years of promoting hatefulness and encouraging, directly or tacitly, political violence against liberals, Republicans are now receiving threats of violence from supporters of their own party.

Then you have the U.S. Senate. Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville has single-handedly kneecapped the entire U.S. military power structure at a time when, again, we are facing multiple military issues around the globe. Why? To force the military to change their insurance coverage for things he does not personally approve of. This is not to even mention all the suffering he is inflicting on military families who are losing money that should be theirs, with officers forced to do the work of two or more people until they are stretched so thin their health is threatened.

And then there is the presidential campaign. Hooboy. I can’t even keep track of all the trials and criminal charges Donald Trump is involved in -and I’m a historian! Yet he is the overwhelming choice of the Republican electorate to be their presidential candidate. Yes. The same party that castigated Bill Clinton’s sexual impropriety because “ethics matter” is continuing to support a man already found liable for sexual assault and massive fraud. A man who, as I heard someone say recently, handles a Bible like he thinks it will burn him. Their biggest arguments are that the 2020 election was rigged (which has been proven to be untrue multiple times) and… Joe Biden is old. They’re practically the same age! Trump can’t keep straight what state he’s in, or for that matter finish a thought. As Bill Barr said (and this is an understatement), “his verbal skills are limited.”

The whole apparatus seems totally incapable of solving any problems or even offering any plans to do so. The whole party has become a massive clown show, with each individual throwing their country and even their party to the winds in order to out-Trump Trump and get as much attention (and raise as much money) as possible.

Maybe it’s time for some of y’all to switch sides.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.