John Edward Simms: Dirge

I am in mourning for my beloved Republican Party.

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The United States has had a two-party system effectively since its founding. The party of Lincoln was previously known as the Whigs before the Civil War. It was a conservative party that was primarily supported by entrepreneurs, planters, and other business professionals. It was the party of social reformers, religious coalitions, and the emerging urban middle class. The American Whig Party was a direct descendent of the British Whig Party that espoused what its members called “Conservative Liberalism”, which staunchly opposed absolute monarchy. 

The Republican Party was founded in 1854 in Wisconsin by, among others, Abraham Lincoln and Horace Greeley (a U.S. Representative for New York). As a side note, Greeley’s wife, Mary was an active member of the suffrage movement. The new party quickly absorbed most of the members from the Whig party. It supported classical liberalism and economic reform. In 1865, radical republicans increasingly took control demanding harsher measures in the south to ensure the elimination of slavery and its adherents.

It seems a tragic irony that the Republican party has devolved into one supported by Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and absolutists. It has abandoned its founding principles and become the party of “anything for a buck.” 

In a two-party system, it is necessary that each party be able to negotiate and compromise. Each candidate presents an interpretation of an agreed-upon set of facts, as well as a vision for the future and a plan for implementation. The perceived quality of their ideas and the candidate’s ability to communicate them drives the vote. This is democracy. Each party understands that progress is in movement towards an ideal, not the instant attainment. 

As I write, the absolutist Republicans in the U.S. Congress have shut down negotiations, preventing the necessary functioning of the government. This is during multiple major world crises including wars in the middle east and eastern Europe, conflicts with Iran, and a potential confrontation with China.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, has made it clear that he will take vengeance against any who oppose him. He has said he will be Dictator, “But only on Day 1.” 

How many times in history has someone with absolute power given it up voluntarily? Never. There are many examples of absolute monarchs who became ill, physically or mentally, and were unable to do the job, but they didn’t volunteer to get sick. In most cases, they die or are deposed after a coup.  

The Republicans currently in Congress will not negotiate, therefore they cannot shape policy or advance their ideas outside of the media. 

Some Republicans have supported the notion of “burning the whole thing down” and starting over. The debacle of replacing Speaker of the House shows that they actually have no plan moving forward. In that sense, they are following the lead of Trump, who vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act and promised a new system, which apparently never existed.

I have been labeled a “Never Trumper” and I agree. The “hypernorms” of leadership include characteristics such as honesty, fairness, productivity, empathy, responsibility, and forthrightness. Donald Trump fails embarrassingly on all of them. 

Trump has boasted of committing sexual assault, refused to pay debts he legitimately owed, failed miserably in business, committed fraud, and has lied much more than any other anyone else holding the office. I believe he is completely amoral and lies as easily as he breathes.

As I see it, Trump told farmers that their problems weren’t their fault and that he would fight for them. He then started a trade war with their two biggest customers, China and Mexico. He then gave huge tax cuts to the individuals and institutions that hold the farmers’ debt, so they didn’t need to negotiate with the farmers. The result was the highest farm interest rates in 20 years and the highest farm foreclosure rate in a generation. 

I am an advocate of small government. I don’t believe the federal government should be dictating what happens in our schools, bedrooms, or doctors’ offices.

I am not an advocate of no government, which seems to be the position of many members of the Republican Party today. 

My dilemma is that some policies of members of the democratic party will likely bankrupt the country. For example, some democrats have supported Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), which is neither modern nor theoretical. An example from ancient history would be 3^rd-century Rome^[1][2]. In the modern age, we have the collapse of 18^th-century France which led to the French revolution^[3]. Modern examples include Germany in the 1920s^[4], leading to the dissolution of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler’s Fascism. Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz described how the Soviet Union in the 1990s attempted to simply “print more money” to alleviate their economic crisis. The result was the fall of the government, leading to the rise of the autocrat Vladimir Putin.^[5]

Every example provided by history resulted in economic collapse and a change in the system of government. Rome was divided into 3 separate empires, wherein Europe entered a feudal economy characterized by the dominance of regional governments. A macro-view of the nature and effects on business has been described^[6]. The French Revolution led to a failed democracy and the rise of the dictator Napoleon Bonapart. The collapse of the Weimar Republic paved the way for the Nazi party The dissolution of the democratic experiment in Russia provided fertile ground for the current dictator, Putin. 

The current rise in populism is greatly concerning. For the DiamondDemocracyD8 Conference at Stanford University, the host and organizer, Larry Diamond, wrote

To be sure, populist politics is always dancing with the devil.  This is not because populism is intrinsically disparaging of the weak and marginalized.  Historically, in the United States and many other countries (up to the recent examples of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia), there have been plenty of populisms mobilizing constituencies of the economically and socially marginalized.  Rather, all forms of populism—even “good” (progressive, democratically inspired) ones—harbor an intrinsic tendency to become a runaway train.  If you weaken the brakes on political action, you may overcome barriers to needed reform, but you also risk a descent into tyranny, or at least erosion of essential democratic checks and balances. 

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The quote from George Santayana^[7] is often misquoted as “those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it,” but in this case, the misquote seems more applicable. Learning from history is a process of pattern recognition. Economic inequity and chaos leads to political chaos, which creates an environment favorable to the rise of a populist leader who then takes control of the government, effectively ending representative government. 

In 2021, Carl Paladino (as a congressional Republican candidate for the House representing New York) referred to Adolph Hitler as “the kind of leader we need today.”^[8] Paladino was subsequently endorsed by Elise Stefanik (R-NY). Stefanik is the Number 4 Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives. She backed Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2022 election. She became Chair of the House Republican Conference after Rep. Liz Cheney was removed due to her opposition to Trump.

The Republican Party I grew up with was built on the two principles of family values and fiscal responsibility. Donald Trump is not the great leader he believes he is, because he lacks two essential qualities: Character and Competence.

I will vote for whoever has the best chance of defeating Donald Trump. Even if it results in disaster, at least I won’t have sold my soul or helped end the great democratic experiment.

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^[1] West, L.C., The Economic Collapse of the Roman Empire. The Classical Journal 28 2, (Nov. 1932) pp.96-106. Johns Hopkins University Press.

^[2] Bartlett, C., The Financial Crisis, Then and Now. Epicenter, Blog 12/10/2018. Harvard University. Available at http://www.epicenter.wcfia.harvard.edu 

^[3] Barseghyan, L.; F. Molinari, & F. Velde, Regional Inflation During the French Revolution. CAE Working Paper #04-06, 5/2004. Available at https://cae.economics.cornell.edu

^[4] Burdekin, R.C.K & P. Burkett, Hyperinflation, the Exchange Rate and Endogenous Money: Post-World War I Germany Revisited. Journal of International Money and Finance 15 4, (Aug. 1996) pp.599-621. Science Direct/Elsevier. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016.0261-5606(96)00023-X.

^[5] Stiglitz, J. The Ruin of Russia. The Guardian 4/9/2003. London.

^[6] Simms, J., Cultural Evolution and Accounting Diversity. Journal of International Business and Economics 14 4 (Oct. 2014).

^[7] Santayana, G. The Life of Reason Vol. 1: Reason in Common Sense. London Constable, London 1905.

^[8] Richards, Z. House GOP Candidate Called Hitler ‘The Kind of Leader We Need’ in 2021 Remarks. NBC News, 6/9/2022.

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John Edward Simms is a life-long Republican and retired professor of accounting and business ethics who lives in Houston, Texas.