Jonathan Rauch and Benjamin Wittes write
in The Atlantic magazine:
So we arrive at a syllogism:
(1) The GOP has become the party of
Trumpism.
(2) Trumpism is a threat to democratic values and the rule of law.
(3) The Republican Party is a threat to democratic values and the rule of law.
(2) Trumpism is a threat to democratic values and the rule of law.
(3) The Republican Party is a threat to democratic values and the rule of law.
A syllogism is, according to dictionary.com:
1. Logic. an argument the conclusion of which is supported
by two premises, of which one (major premise) contains the term (major term) that
is the predicate of the conclusion, and the other (minor premise) contains the term
(minor term) that is the subject of the conclusion; common to both premises is a
term (middle term) that is excluded from the conclusion. A typical form is “All
A is C; all B is A; therefore, all B is C.”.
2. deductive reasoning.
3. an extremely subtle, sophisticated, or deceptive
argument.
Which definition applies here? First, has the GOP become the party of Trump?
Has he taken control of the party apparatus? Are the leaders of the Republican
Party supporters of Trump and his agenda? Are there some Republicans for whom
Trump is not the Republican Party? I believe that the answer to all of these is
“yes.” Are there sufficient Republicans who do not support Trump? I believe the
answer is not enough to make the major premise false.
Second, is Trumpism a threat to democratic values and the rule
of law? I believe that the authoritarian values “tweeted” by Trump or spoken at
rallies are the antithesis of democratic values of liberty, equality, and
justice. Trump’s actions involving personal loyalty and fealty as well as his
belief that he is above the law violate the law of law. I believe the minor premise is true.
Thus, can one conclude that the Republican Party has become
a threat to democratic values and the rule of law? I believe that we need two
parties, that competition between political parties promotes health in a democracy,
but when a party ignores American ideals in pursuit of political power and is
willing to destroy the institutions of government and society that incorporate
those ideals, then the political party needs, as Rauch and Wittes contend,
either to reform itself or to suffer ignominious defeat in elections. I hope for the former but fear that
the demise of the Republican Party will occur.
I strongly object to your conclusion especially your fascist/like statement of destruction of a party. Your opening premise is wrong since it fails to take into account that partirs in U.S. are decentralized and even if Trump controls RNC, which he does, he does not control state or local level parties. In fact, he does not control even the leadership of House or Senate. Speaker Ryan has been critical of trump and opposed actions of the administration. Freedom caucus has opposed administration forcing change or defeating administration. McConnell has opposed Trump and forced change. There is also very large contingent of conservative activists and intellectuals who are either never trumped or often critics. So,all in all, I think your premise is wrong and therefore the conclusion is wrong. Even if you take Texas neither the Bush or Abbott or Cruz wing is Trump worshippers. The state party is headed by a nonTrumper and the Travis county GOP chair is close to being a never Trumper
ReplyDeleteI strongly object to your characterization of my statement as "fascist/like," but that does not influence my response. I disagree that the leadership in the House and Senate are not "controlled" by Trump. Verbal criticism is talk, voting is action. How have Speaker Ryan and Senate Majority Leader McConnell forced change? I state in the last sentence that I value partisan competition and hope that the Republican Party reforms itself by rejecting Trumpism, not just verbally but in their actions. I'm afraid that reform is not likely and that another party will rise to replace Republicans. I respect your opinion, but disagree with your characterization of my statement. Has not the history of political parties been one of parties being replaced by new political parties? What happened to the Federalist Party, the Whigs, etc.? I hope that your statements about the Republican Party of Texas are true in terms of the leadership of the state party, a former Travis County chair, and the current Travis County chair, Matt Mackowiak.
DeleteLet me make one other thing clear, I don’t like Trump. I remain Marco Rubio Republican. However, do not think way to oppose Trump is to destroy the party. Rather those concerned with Trump must stay in party and push Conservative principles and reject movement to populist nationalism of Trumpkins. To have viable 2 party system , one must be the GOP, it would take entirely too long to create a new party. In the interim, liberalism would triumph and many inGOP are not willing to destroy party bc of that likely option in absence of GOP
ReplyDeleteI understand your not liking Trump. I agree that Republicans should push the conservative principles that are based on the ideals of America: individualism, liberty, equality, constitutionalism, and democracy. The problem with Trump is that he does not support these principles and has no ideology--other than Donaldism, which is not a political ideology. I would hope that you and other Republicans like you will be successful in making the Republican Party true to its conservative political philosophy, but as long as he is president, the party is enabling him, which is bad for the Republican Party as well as the nation. I will not live in an authoritarian country.
DeleteSorry, if object to my critique of the use of “destroy” but such language is extreme , very aggressive and really should not be used. If you would have said “replaced” i think that would have reacted differently. I do apologize if I offended you. Obviously the sausage making that is legislation does not just involve votes , but conversations that tell Trump no- frequently done by both Ryan and McConnell. Warnings to Trump about “not firing” X Y or Z have been frequent and effective. Also, as I said once you get out of Washington you have many state and local parties that are not under control of Trump. The removal of Bannon happened bc at least partially by GOP pressure such as from McConnell.
ReplyDeleteNow that I have also read the article I think it is correct to assume (and they advocate) that Independents will punish GOP in 2018 (yes somewhat normal, but more so bc of Trump.
Article also mentioned structure of GOP creating Trump. Yes& no, the current primary system and 16 candidates diluted the anti-Trump forces. As one of the authors has stated, “in the good old days” the bosses would have blocked Trump. Unfortunately, he won the nomination and beat an amazingly weak candidate produced by the Democratic npmonation system. Shame on both parties!
However active republicans must stay the course and partially play role of preventing the true takeover of the party by Trump. Article gives bad advice to republican voters. Key is to nominate nonTrumkins race by race. This need to vote in GOP primaries.
As far as Travis county chair as example- follow him on Tweeter and u will see he is no Trumpkin
Agree some on GOP are enablers, but many are not and see no reason to “destroy” a party. Many will not give in automatically or concede the party to Trump
ReplyDeleteSince we do not have a parliamentary system, Trump with us (unless impeached (probable with Speaker Pelosi) & convicted( not likely) unless there is far more evidence than has yet been made clear. If there was
ReplyDeleteSuch evidence GOP would vote to convict. No collusion evidence so far and D’s abuse of FBI probably makes obstruction less likely. GOP Nunes and Gouda and Speaker Ryan have made clear ( in contrast to Trump) that FBI abuse is different than Mueller effort-another example of Trump non-ownership of GOP or of his control of House GOP
I get your concern about the destruction of the Republican Party; so I've changed the last two sentences to express my concerns more clearly. The Republican Party either reforms itself, supports democratic institutions and customs, or it suffers a demise. We should talk sometime so that I could relay more clearly my concerns about what is happening in our hyper-partisan politics. I would especially like to discuss possible collusion between members of the Trump campaign and Russians as well as the nature of the Democrat's abuse of the FBI. I certainly have a different view, but I think that a conversation would be productive for both of us.
ReplyDelete