I want to continue the discussion I started in my last blog about what we can do to restore the social contract that holds our democracy together that evidence suggests has been broken.
I also said that I believe the underlying reasons our social contract is broken are spiritual, meaning lost values we once shared as a people.
The question now is, can our social contract be repaired? Can values be recovered? In short, can we save our republic?
I realize impeachment and the insurrection deserve attention, but I also think discussing these questions gets at the core problems we are facing whose solutions hold the key to our future as a country.
That said, there is only one place to begin if we want to move forward in the right direction and that is to tell the truth about Republicans today – they are the primary reason the American social contract has been broken.
This would be a partisan statement if there wasn’t so much evidence to prove how true it is.
– Former Republican Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was charged this week with two counts of willful neglect for his role in the Flint Michigan water poisoning scandal that had its origin in a Republican-sponsored law that allowed Snyder to replace elected officials with an Executive Administration with dictatorial powers.
– 33 Republican-controlled states have introduced voter suppression laws since the Supreme Court struck down the pre-clearance requirement of the 1965 Voting Rights in 2013.
– Republicans in North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Michigan passed laws to place restrictions on the powers of newly elected Democratic governors that had been available to previous Republican governors.
– Republicans in those same states, plus Minnesota, Florida. Georgia, South Dakota, and others have gone to court to prevent governors in their states from imposing coronavirus restrictions based on CDC guidelines.
– 148 Republicans in the House and 6 in the Senate voted to reject the certified votes in 6 states of tens of millions of Americans who voted in the 2020 election, the majority of whom were black.
– Senate Republican obstructionism that dominated the Obama presidency, including using the filibuster 137 times, more than twice the average of previous years, and then when they got control of the Senate they simply refused to bring up any of Obama’s proposals.
– Polls that show Republican views on issues contradict the views of the overwhelming majority of Americans. Here are some examples: (1) 66 % of all Americans say Trump acted irresponsibly in his statements and actions since the election, 66 % of Republicans say he acted responsibly; (2) 62 % of all Americans say there’s no solid evidence of voter fraud, 65% of Republicans say there is; (3) 57 % of all Americans say Trump bears a great deal or good amount of responsibility for the assault on the Capitol, 56% of Republicans say just the opposite, that Trump bears no responsibility; (4) 52 % of Americans say Republican leaders went too far in supporting Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, 51% percent of Republicans say GOP leaders didn’t go far enough. (WPO/ABC Poll)
In all these ways today’s GOP has broken faith with the social contract, the constitutional covenant, that makes us who we are.
The worst by-product of what they have done is to undermine the essential role telling the truth must play in a democracy. Facts, information, knowledge, evidence – none of them matters anymore. Instead, Republicans have employed a critical tool of propaganda, tell lies often enough until most people start believing them.
That has been the GOP strategy for four years, which is why it was no surprise when Trump started insisting he had won the election “by a landslide” and that Joe Biden’s votes were fraudulent. No need for evidence. Just tell the lie and eventually enough people will believe it.
We now know. They broke it.
The sub-title of former FBI director James Comey’s latest book are the words: Truth, Transparency, Trust. These are the core values that once held together the social contract we Americans made with each other when we ratified the Constitution in 1788.
The modern Republican Party gave up on truth, transparency, and trust when they decided winning was all that mattered. That is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth that we as a nation must accept. There is little chance to move forward as long as we refuse to acknowledge the point from which we must start.
One of the true ironies of what has happened to Republicans and the role they have played in breaking America’s social contract is the influence evangelical Christians have had in causing both of these developments.
That will be the subject of the next blog.
linnposts.com 
Jan, remarkable statistical and truthful description of today’s most prominent cause of the loss of America’s “social contract”. That said, it is also clear that in order to restore America’s social contract, that Republicans must rebuild or create in order for there to be any hope of rapid progress, much less unity. Just today Rand Paul released a statement that warns “one-third of republicans will leave the party if GOP senators back impeachment”. I don’t think he realizes how positive that would be for remaining republicans and America as a whole. One-third of 73 million who voted for Trump is less than 25 million voters. They should be happy that they will be gone. Conviction gives them a new political “out”. At least the remaining 50+ million could re-build in a more bi-partisan way that could regain support in the next 2-4 years if their focus too became aiding in “restoring America’s social contract”. I know this would be a tall order at this point. But let them all leave. That would at least be a start in the right direction. John
John, you make the best point, that Rand Paul does not realize what good news it would be if Trumpers dropped out of the Republican Party. Then there would be hope for genuine conservatives who are the real Republicans to take a seat at the table of power once again. That hope does not exist as things stand today. It would be great irony if Paul’s comment led genuine Republicans to vote to convict.
(This comment by Wilbur Ressler, a regular reader of this blog. He was not able to post it so I am doing it on my end.
Jan, I appreciate your reflection on the social contract being broken, and the percentage of Republicans that choose to support President Trump’s lies despite overwhelming contrary evidence. It’s not the first time they have chosen to believe “alternative facts” but it’s potentially the most dangerous. Even so, and at the risk of repeating myself, I’m a little troubled by not what you say but by what you don’t say. I’m just suggesting that Democrats have some soul searching to do as well and that the social contract that we’ve lost is much more likely to be regained by admitting our own complicity in society’s problems than it is by beating Republicans over the head and trying to force them into seeing the error of their ways. I believe it isn’t hard to find self-serving, corrupt Democrats whose behavior is less than admirable. For example, far too many on the left, including myself, were much too quiet or outright supportive of President Clinton and Hilary during the Lewinsky affair. This isn’t to defend President Trump in any way. I think he is unfit to be President and should have been removed from office on January 7. Certainly in my life time there has never been another President as corrupt, unethical and dangerous as President Trump. I am suggesting though that we on the left are not without fault and need to be more forthright about that.
Wilbur, I appreciate your reminder that Democrats are far from perfect, but the danger you are wading into is making a false equivalency that Republicans like to use to justify themselves. Your reference to Bill Clinton is an example. At no point was Clinton’s immoral and reprehensible behavior an attack on our democracy. Nor is Trump’s immoral behavior. Breaking the social covenant we have as a nation is not about personal morality. It is about undermining the democratic principles and institutions that make us a democracy. This is what Republicans have bought into, the latest example being their support for Trump’s lie that the election was rigged. The Democratic Party has never tried to overturn an election, never fraudulently claimed election fraud, have never refused to testify before congressional committees engaged in their oversight responsibility, or any of the stuff Trump has done to attack the Constitution, all of which Republicans have supported. Nor have they done the worst attack of all, trying to keep people from voting. So, no, Democrats, as bad as many of them can be, have never attacked the social contract of our country, never tried to undermine the Constitution. That is why you are making a false equivalency that distracts from the real threat we are facing. Trump doesn’t believe in democracy. Republicans have not only supported him 100%, they have engaged in attacks of their own as I mention in my blog.
Jan, I couldn’t agree more with your central point about the danger of a false equivalency and must give consideration to the suggestion that that’s what I’m doing. Thanks for your response.
Jan, with your indulgence I want to add one more comment. When I wrote my original reply I debated between two ways of trying to make my point. I think I chose the wrong one, and I agree with your response about a false equivalency between Clinton and Trump. What I considered saying is that were the roles reversed I personally believe that many Democrats would not take anymore of a principled stance than Republicans have. It’s your blog so you get the last word.
Wilbur, again, I don’t agree because Republicans have moved from advocating small government to being anti-government. Democrats, on the other hand, advocate for an activist government which means it is not in our DNA to be anti-government. Thus, given the same circumstances, I don’t think Democrats would have done what Republicans did.