Since change is the salt of democracy, the arrival of a Republican majority in the United States House of Representatives on January 3 should theoretically be accompanied by a program and proposals rivaling those that have been defended since his election to the White House. by Democratic President Joe Biden. With these proposals, Republicans would be entitled to open a useful debate ahead of the presidential election scheduled for November 2024.
However, it is likely that this is not the case. On the eve of what is usually a formality vote, Republican leader Kevin McCarthy had to multiply concessions to his hard wing in hopes of usurping the “mallet,” the speaker’s (president’s) symbol this house. A psychodrama that reveals deep inner divisions. As for the stated priority of investigating the alleged racketeering of the President’s son, Hunter Biden, it stems from a narrow spirit of vengeance following the two indictments that Donald Trump targeted during his tenure, no doubt far from the concerns the citizen of the United States.
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The narrow majority that the Republicans have in the House of Representatives after disappointing midterm elections and the disproportionate weight of the most radical wing in them are not the only reason. The Republican Party in particular is suffering from a severe ideological collapse reminiscent of that faced by the British Tories after decades of neoliberalism’s dominance.
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This error is old. This party, whose last official program dates back to 2016, has thus abandoned its old beliefs about immigration or free trade without forging a vision for its voters to empathize with. It morphed into a populism fueled by identity fears that today reduces it to pre-emptively denouncing any proposal from the Democratic camp and condemning progressivism, collectively referred to as “wokism,” by denying the persistence of social inequalities beginning with the persistence of systemic racism.
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Rising Republican figure Ron DeSantis is a good example of this backsliding. Indeed, the governor of Florida has made a name for himself by waging war on his state’s education system and on a big company like Disney that strives for social inclusion. He considers it urgent today to tackle the innovative vaccines that have made it possible to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
While Florida is at the forefront of dealing with the consequences of climate change, Ron DeSantis only talks about the adjustments that have become necessary, never about measures that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This amazing silence on an issue that is changing the lives of millions of its fellow citizens oppresses almost the entire Grand Old Party.
The midterm elections showed on the abortion issue what the Republican Party could cost by voting in a full-scale Kulturkampf: many electoral setbacks. Same-sex marriage probably would have been the same had it not been for the fact that the outgoing Congress, thanks to a minority of conservative elected officials aware of their popularity, sanctified by law a Supreme Court ruling when the latter was still an ultra-conservative hotbed. Will the Grand Old Party learn a lesson from this?
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