Robert Reich explains the death of the Republican Party – but what has replaced it is far worse.
Robert B. Reich, Labor Secretary for Bill Clinton and current Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, has become for many liberals and progressives the country’s Minister of Explaining things.
On Monday he published what is essentially an obituary for the Republican Party.
“I’m writing to you today to announce the death of the Republican Party. It is no longer a living, vital, animate organization,” he began, adding: “It died in 2016. RIP.”
Reich goes on to explain that what was once the Republican Party has now been replaced by six “warring tribes:”
- Evangelicals opposed to abortion, gay marriage, and science;
- Libertarians opposed to any government constraint on private behavior;
- Market fundamentalists convinced the “free market” can do no wrong;
- Corporate and Wall Street titans seeking bailouts, subsidies, special tax loopholes, and other forms of crony capitalism;
- Billionaires craving even more of the nation’s wealth than they already own;
- And white working-class Trumpoids who love Donald. and are becoming convinced the greatest threats to their well-being are Muslims, blacks and Mexicans.
He continues, explaining that, in addition to having their own individual ideologies, each of these factions have their own political organization, fundraising means and candidate.
“I, for one, regret its passing,” he continues. “Our nation needs political parties to connect up different groups of Americans, sift through prospective candidates, deliberate over priorities, identify common principles, and forge a platform.”
Reich continues, noting that the death of the Republican Party leaves the country vulnerable to what he describes as “a veritable Star Wars barroom of self-proclaimed wanna-be’s,” essentially anyone who can raise enough money to run for the Republican nomination or rich enough to do so with his or her own money can run – “even if he happens to be a pathological narcissist who has never before held public office, even if he’s a knave detested by all his Republican colleagues.”
“Without a Republican Party, it’s just us and them. And one of them could even become the next President of the United States,” he ominously concludes.
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