Question of the weekBecause of demographic changes and ideological shifts, some contend that the Republican Party must expand its base and broaden its appeal to maintain national relevancy. What is your view of the future of the Republican Party? What, if anything, should the GOP do to broaden its base and become more formidable?
Despite representing ideas that are more attractive to a majority of Americans than Democrats, the Republican Party has placed itself at concerning disadvantage in terms of broad national appeal. And the problem is of the GOP’s own making.
According to the Republican National Committee’s website, the GOP has a “core belief in the primacy of individuals,” and, since its inception, the Republican Party “has been at the forefront of the fight for individuals’ rights in opposition to a large, intrusive government.” Those timeless principles of limited, responsible government, individual liberty and personal responsibility are rooted in the Founding Fathers’ vision for the United States and remain consistent with the preference of Americans today.
But rather than reaching out to wide swaths of Americans with ideas that limit the size and scope of government, the Republican Party has instead focused on genuflecting to a small portion of its base in recent years.
The GOP has been, in effect, hijacked by a small wing of the conservatives who, rather than limiting government, choose instead to exploit government for their own purposes. Interested in growing programs they saw as valuable, and informed by religion, rather than principles of liberty, economic realities or scientific fact, this faction succeeded in limiting the rights of some, benefiting the bottom lines of others, imposing their version of morality on the masses, and protecting and growing a number of expensive and ill-advised government programs.