This is not the column I had planned to write. I started out to write one titled “Where Is Our Partner Party?”
The gist would have been that our democracy works best when we have two strong political parties, a center-left one and a center-right one. We currently have the Democratic Party (center-left) and what used to be the Republican Party (center-right) but what is now the Trump Party, a far-right-wing cult that does whatever Donald Trump tells it to do.
I was going to discuss whether the Trump Party will be able to return to what the Republic Party used to be, after Trump is gone. No one knows the answer to that, of course, but it’s useful to consider the question. I would have mused about whether enough mainstream Republicans remain in that party to revive it and return it to its historic emphasis on limited government, free-market capitalism, deregulation of corporations, and a strong national defense.
I don’t know the answer to that. It may be that a new party will have to be formed, one that isn’t exactly like the old Republican party but that will appeal to many who once called themselves Republicans.
I’m not one who will decide that. The decision will be made by mainstream Republicans and former Republicans who have left the Trump party but remember fondly their old political roots.
But that’s a column for another time. I realized, when I heard Liz Cheney’s statement that Dick Cheney is now supporting Kamala Harris for President, that this election will be very different from those that preceded it. This one isn’t a battle between the two usual political parties.
What we now have is a contest between a right-wing cult and a Democracy Movement.
The Democracy Movement consists mostly of Democrats, yes, but it’s bigger than the Democratic Party. The movement also includes many Independents and some Republicans or former Republicans.
When I first learned of Cheney’s decision to support Harris, I glanced around me to see if the sky had fallen—it seemed so unexpected that the former Republican Vice-President would allow it to be openly known that he wasn’t supporting the current Republican nominee for the Presidency.
I did realize, of course, that his daughter, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, would likely vote for Harris. Although both Cheneys had supported Trump in earlier elections, Liz made a very public break with Trump after seeing the January 6, 2021, insurrection that was fomented by then-President Trump. In fact, she served as co-chair of the House “Committee on January 6,” which did a remarkable job of investigating and exposing the various individuals and groups that were involved in organizing and executing the events of that horrible day.
I admire Liz Cheney for taking the principled stand that she did, especially knowing that doing so would probably end her political career. Predictably, she lost her seat in Wyoming’s 2022 primary election. But she has continued speaking out to warn voters about the dangers of reelecting Trump.
Her father has supported her all the way in her brave stand, and now has taken this latest step, letting her announce his support of Harris. Both Cheneys plan to work to help elect the team of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, Liz says.
But the Cheneys aren’t the only Republicans working against the election of Donald Trump. Numerous current Republicans appeared at the Democratic Convention, voicing in various ways the same idea stated by Geoff Duncan, the Republican former lieutenant governor of Georgia: “If you vote for Kamala Harris, that doesn’t make you a Democrat; it makes you a patriot.”
Each week, it seems, more Republicans announce opposition to Trump’s candidacy. His own Vice-President, Mike Pence, says he won’t support the man he once ran with on the Republican ticket. Several others who worked in the Trump administration, and a few military leaders, have also stated that Trump isn’t qualified to lead this country.
This run-up to the election has the feel of a movement rather than a campaign by a political party. Harris has raised far more money and gained many more volunteers to support her run for the presidency than has Trump, and many of these donors and volunteers have indicated that it’s their first such involvements in a candidacy This run-up to the election has the feel of a movement rather than a campaign by a political party. Harris has raised far more money and gained many more volunteers to support her run for the presidency than has Trump, and many of these donors and volunteers have indicated that it’s their first such contribution to a political candidacy (www.usatoday. com/story/news/politics/ elections/2024/08/29/ kamala-harris-win-firsttime- donors).
I hope Trump and his running mate, J. D. Vance, will be defeated in a landslide on November 5. Then, hopefully, the Orange One will slink off back to Mar-Lago and lick his wounds, while the rest of us get back to solving problems for the country and finding ways to work together again.
Snarling at each other from different sides of a room, without rational discussion, gets us nowhere. That’s not the way the Founding Fathers intended the country to function. They didn’t foresee the development of political parties, of course, but they did understand that people wouldn’t always agree in a democracy.
And over the centuries, having two strong parties—a center- left one and a center-right one—to propose differing solutions to a problem, then sit down and negotiate with each other until they reached a compromise somewhere in the middle, has worked pretty well. I hope we can return to that system before long.
But for now, we have a Democracy Movement to support.