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My whole life has been a case study in public service: growing up watching my mom serve as mayor of our small hometown, volunteering for campaigns, working at the Indiana Statehouse and Indianapolis’ city hall. More recently, I signed on as a convention delegate and even ran for office.
I’ve done all but one of these things (more about that in a minute) as a Republican, having chosen that party in my early 20s because of its dedication to values such as limited government, free markets, and personal and fiscal responsibility.
Now, after last month’s events at the U.S. Capitol, I find myself asking whether there is room in the Republican Party for those of us who embrace the very values that drew me to it.
Of course, the party didn’t suddenly transform when the mob attacked the Capitol. I saw the beginnings of this slide over a decade ago as the tea party gained power—as Richard Murdoch took down Richard Lugar, as fringe elements seized control of the party, and, yes, as Donald Trump rose up and the tea party regained strength.
Today, I see this not just nationally, but at home, too. On the night before the siege, a Westfield City Council member and tea party activist wrote on Facebook, “I do not think there are enough people with the guts to take a stand tomorrow … .” Guts to do what? Falsely deny an honest election? Become a denier? Shame the Grand Old Party by committing treasonous acts?
I became a convention delegate to support language recognizing all types of families (that language failed). I ran for Westfield City Council as an independent after a tea party activist won the Republican primary. In both cases, I was driven by frustration with a Hamilton County Republican Party that, hands firmly in pockets, allows the party to drift further from Republican principles.
The day after the Capitol siege, I received this email from a friendly colleague: “Just wondering how anyone can still love the Republican Party after the last four years. Good people exist [in the party]. But in my book, anyone who still chooses to be—even WANTS to be—associated with the Republican Party, has automatically lost his/her claim to goodness. End of story.”
Is that the end of the story? I know those people from the Jan. 6 seige do not represent me—do not represent so many of us who love and work and volunteer for the party of Reagan, Bush, Lugar, Hudnut, Goldsmith and Daniels. But I also know that those people have come to represent that storied party in the eyes of the nation.
So my fellow true Republicans and I must ask ourselves: Do we leave the party and find a new space, one that accepts moderate points of view and fiscal responsibility? Or do we fight to reclaim the GOP we scarcely recognize? As we saw last month, this is so much more than a philosophical question. Our nation’s future might well rest on our answer.•
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Snedeker is a crisis and corporate communications consultant who served as press secretary to Indianapolis Mayor Steve Goldsmith.
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Quote: “I do not think there are enough people with the guts to take a stand tomorrow…Guts to do what? Falsely deny an honest election? Become a denier?
Do yourself a favor, Ms. Snedeker: Rather than cower to the demands of wealthy Democrats who demand that you kneel at their woke altar, take the time to watch Mike Lindell’s documentary regarding the 2020 election. (Really, you must be smoking some serious dope to cite the November 3 election as “fair and honest.”)
https://www.brighteon.com/797d2448-5994-43c4-8acd-7387828d4dbd
What Republican Party positions stressed by Richard Mourdock and Donald Trump do you not like? Their defense of life from the moment of conception? Their defense of The United States Constitution? Their defense of Second Amendment Rights? Their defense of the nuclear heterosexual family consisting of a married mother and father raising their children in a God-fearing home as the foundation of a free and prosperous people? Their defense of religious freedom in a country that was founded with one of its principles being that the government would not establish a state religion, as does current government’s desire to establish Secular-Humanism as the country’s default religion…or else? Their defense of legal immigration procedures that served the country favorably while they were enforced? Pray tell, what do you dislike about their positions? How to those positions differ from what you think The Republican Party should be doing?
There is a reason the acronym RINO came into being, you know; those interested in compromising basic truths to “go along and get along” with wealthy, atheist America-haters who would stop at nothing to install puppets as brain-dead as Biden and, eventually, Kamala “Horizontal” Harris to further their collectivist world agenda and become richer yet at the expense of The United States of America’s sovereignty and the prosperity of its legal citizens.
Kate, I think Bob answered the question quite well… there’s no room for moderates in the GOP any longer. They think more of a pillow salesman than Dick Lugar.
And spare me the bit about the US Constitution, Bob … the GOP doesn’t believe in their oath to it any longer. They believe in Donald Trump. They are truly Republicans in Name Only, they’re Trumpublicans at heart.
It’s a weird coalition nowadays in the QGOP. Some are religious extremists, they want their version of Christian sharia law in America. Others, they can’t be reasoned with, their minds are poisoned with nonsense from Fox News and its ilk and the Facebook echo chamber, not to mention QAnon. Pulling the strings and feeding those enfeebled brains are the rich puppet masters who make sure they get their tax cuts … they know if they keep the base fired up and angry at the “socialists”, they’ll keep voting to give rich people more of their money back. So angry they can’t think straight, your average GOP voter is these days.
No…..there is not room. The Democratic party and their inclusive values welcomes you.