Op-Ed: Reasonable Republicans by Fletcher Hall

Yes, Virginia, there is still a Santa Claus. And, yes, folks, there truly are still reasonable Republicans. In an important way, the recent off-year election demonstrates this fact. The centrist Republican learned lessons from the 2010 elections where several very right wing candidates won primary elections, but went on to lose the general election. This included candidates who were really unacceptable to the U.S. Senate, such as the candidate who said she engaged in occult rituals and believed in witches. This year the Republicans picked well-qualified, reasonable candidates to represent the party. These candidates ran on realistic policies that resonated with voters around the nation.

Republicans gained elected officials at all levels, including local, state, and national. This “wave election” was indeed a change in the voting patterns of citizens throughout America.
Years ago, Maryland did elect reasonable Republicans such as Rogers C. B. Morton, Charles “Mac” Mathias, Marjorie Holt, John Glen Beall, James Glen Beall, Helen Delich Bentley, Connie Morella, and Larry Hogan, Sr. These reasonable Republicans with diverse views understood that there was room for them under the “big tent” of the Republican party. That tent still exists, though perhaps somewhat changed in philosophy and composition.

The basic tenets of the Republican Party remain smaller government, reasonable taxes, an adequately prepared military of appropriate size, a realistic and strong foreign policy, civil rights and opportunity for all Americans, and the basic freedoms enumerated by our forefathers in the Constitution. It was President Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, who said, “The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do for themselves in their separate and individual capacities.” This understanding of political reality still is reflected in the philosophy and policies of the Republican Party.

Change has eventually come to the two national parties as time and generations pass. The Democratic Party’s base has shifted as demographics, world events, and issues, real and politically manufactured, have changed. This past election will give rise to schisms in the Democratic Party as it decides its direction regarding the left and centrist components of the party. These changes will certainly affect the battle to become the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in 2016. One of these Democrats many have been “anointed,” but has not yet been nominated.

When observing current national politics, there are many factors to consider. Even in elections prior to the election of George W. Bush, foreign threats such as Isis, the civil war in Syria, the rise of China, and the Ebola threat were not yet issues of international significance. In addition, the domestic issues of a slowly improving economy, legal immigration, Ukraine and eastern Europe, quality education, the need to improve our transportation infrastructure, becoming totally energy independent, and national security must be addressed by the incoming 116th Congress. The interaction between the current administration and that new Congress will be interesting and perhaps problematic.

America has become a diverse and complicated nation. The new Congress and the next president will be faced with equally diverse issues and complicated matters domestically as well as internationally. Not especially a new challenge for our national government, but more complicated and unsettling, like the Cold War with its years of threats and concerns was.

Let’s hope that reasonable Republicans and reasonable Democrats can actually find “common ground” to get about the people’s business by actually solving problems.

The United States again needs to be a “shining city on a hill,” the strong and recognized leader of the free world, the defender of freedom and human rights, the military and economic power of which no other nation can belittle, underestimate, nor destroy.