Power for the Sake of Power by Mark G. Bocchetti, Esq.
Guest Author 22 February 2021
When I was 15 my mother told me that if I wanted to who know I was I should look at my friends. In other words, you are who your friends are. That is a difficult message to hear and appreciate as a 15 year old. While it does not represent an absolute truth, it does reflect a pragmatic sense of the reality of public perception.
The Republican Party faces this problem today. Who are they? We hear traditional Republicans saying that all Republicans are not all racists, not all neo-Nazis, not all white supremacists, not all anarchists, not all anti-LGBTQ, not all authoritarians, not all gun advocates, not all climate deniers, not all anti-government, not all Fascists, not all irrational QAnon conspiracy theorists, and not all MAGA cultists. While that may be true, all of these factions are allies under the current Republican banner, and allies, by definition, must have some common goal or goals. While their goals may differ the most basic commonality across these groups is their messaging. With the possible exception of traditional Republicans, they are all purveyors of hate and fear. Their negative messaging is used to devalue and dehumanize perceived enemies or threats. Through that messaging their followers are often indoctrinated into the idea that the “other” is their enemy, and that enemy is depraved and degenerate and seeks to take away “their country.” Depending on the group the perceived threat might be people of color, immigrants, government, gun control, or even liberals or Democrats in general. Trump once referred to Democrats as “human scum” without challenge from anyone under the Republican banner.
During the 2020 presidential campaign the Republican Party did not even have a party platform from which we might gain some insight into their goals. The entire platform was whatever Trump wanted. Therefore, we are left to determine what the common goals of these fractured factions under the Republican umbrella might be. All of these groups or factions are reactionary and, most often, radically reactionary. Their actions demonstrate an apparent belief that black voters are not legitimate voters, which yields the common but merely intermediate goal of disenfranchising black voters. But that is only a means to an end. The one truly common goal is power. There is no sense of a common good. They seek minority rule. They want control. They want to choose who is rewarded and who is punished by a variety of different and perhaps competing standards that would conflict with and likely offend the common sensibilities of most rational people.
It is telling that in our democracy the overriding Republican election strategy is to try to make it harder for citizens to vote. They just lost a presidential election by more than 7,000,000 votes and the reaction in red states is to try to enact laws that place more obstacles in the way of voters of color. In Arizona they have even proposed a law that would allow the state legislature to take back an election from the voters if they do not like the outcome of the election. This should come as no surprise considering eight Republican Senators and 139 Republican Congressmen voted on January 6th to overturn an election where the arguments to overturn had been rejected in the courts more than 60 times as having no basis in law or fact. Those rejected arguments were wildly racist in their genesis, and had they been successful, would have nullified the votes of black people in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit, and Milwaukee, and as a consequence would have overturned the election, thereby negating the 81,000,000 votes for Joe Biden.
The 147 Republican members of Congress that voted to overturn the election give us the clearest evidence of the common goal of the various factions within the Republican Party. They were not motivated by truth. They were motivated by winning at any cost, even at the cost of democracy itself. Their only goal was power. And it is a moral imperative that any person or entity seeking power for the sake of power alone must be denied that power. It is reason alone for denying that person or entity power because they would wield such power for personal benefit and without conscience. The desire for power without an honest and genuine motivation to promote and serve a common good can never be trusted. It is corrupt in its inception and nothing good can come from it.
Revisiting this idea of you are who your friends are, what is the current public perception of the Republican Party by those residing outside of the Republican echo chamber? The alt right extremist groups residing within the Republican tent have a plainly bigoted and violent credo, and yet they are not disavowed in any meaningful way. They remain within the Republican tent because Republicans still want their votes. Since they are allies, it is fair to assume that allegedly traditional Republicans will be willing to capitulate to at least some alt right ideas and desires in order to retain voter loyalty. This is clearly reflected in the actions of Republicans in the last three months. With very few exceptions, Republicans could not even find the courage to deny Trump’s big lie about the election. Then they refused to convict Trump in the impeachment trial despite overwhelming evidence of guilt with most relying on an argument of unconstitutionality that would likely be rejected completely out of hand by the 234 Article III judges they placed on the federal bench in the last four years. In short, they cannot be trusted to do the right thing, and they cannot be trusted to faithfully execute their oaths of office. This conclusion reflects a pragmatic sense of the current political reality of Republican identity. From outside the Republican bubble they must be viewed as an existential threat to democracy. This conclusion is further evidenced by their support for a real push toward autocracy during Trump’s presidency. With goals that are clearly anti-democratic, if they should win another presidential election while still pushing for a radically reactionary future, the damage done to democracy will be irreparable.
