The Republican Party has taken a hard-right turn – Gainesville Sun

One of the things that really baffles me is the blatant hypocrisy within the Republican Party. The only arguments they ever make are ones that are politically convenient for them, and without hesitation, they’ll flip around when that is also convenient.

Dr. Seuss Enterprises stops selling a few books that nobody’s heard of that contain racist imagery in a private business decision called capitalism, and Republicans scream “cancel culture!” But when a Republican congressional leader speaks the truth about the result of an election, Republicans run them out of leadership.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of the party remains silent when a Florida congressman is being investigated for child sex trafficking. Many Republicans have no problem allowing a bakery to refuse baking a wedding cake for a gay couple because it’s the right of a private business. But if a grocery store or a restaurant says you have to wear a mask, Republicans go crazy and complain that it’s tyranny.

In all honesty, the Republican Party is no longer the party of tax cuts, personal freedom and fiscal conservatism. They’ve turned into a fringe reactionary right-wing group whose goals are limited to triggering the left and “owning the libs” by engaging in dishonest and bad-faith shouting matches.

That’s not to say that every Republican is like this. There are still a few Republicans left who, though I disagree with them on policy, are still able to have somewhat honest discussions with the other side while acknowledging the reality of facts, science and truth.

The Republican Party has only won the popular vote in a presidential election once since 1988. To make matters worse for Republicans, America has been shifting leftward in recent years, with an electorate that is becoming more diverse, more urbanized, more youthful and more accepting of Democratic policies like single-payer health care, a higher minimum wage, environmental regulation and universal background checks that Republicans in Washington, D.C., are hesitant to support.

The Republican Party has come a long way since the Reagan and Bush eras of fiscal responsibility and traditional family values, and I think their hard-right turn over the last decade or so speaks to the fact that there will need to be a reckoning on ideology, behavior and candidate choice if they wish to stay relevant in American politics.

— Jacob Ascher is a high school student in Gainesville.

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