The Third Republican Path

Patrick McCorkle
6 min readOct 13, 2020

Some pundits contend that Wednesday’s Vice Presidential debate between Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence was a return to quasi-normal politics.

Senator Harris and VP Pence actually discussed policy! As I have beaten on my little drum many times, politics is policy, not personality. Maybe not 100%, but policy should matter quite a bit more than personality or a particular candidate’s “aura.”

Sure, there were interruptions, eyerolls and obvious indicators of mutual dislike, but on the whole it was a much more refined experience than what we witnessed-whatever the hell that Frankenstein monstrosity was- between President Trump and former VP Joe Biden.

With next week’s presidential debate cancelled, we may never have to see what we saw on September 29th again.

With President Trump’s position worsening, pre-Trump politics could be restored.

According to ElectionBettingOdds, which averages the results from several odds-generating services, President Trump has a 32% chance of winning opposed to Mr. Biden’s 65.4%. The polls are not great for the president either. The Real Clear Politics average has him losing by 9.8 points.

A couple interesting points: RCP compares the top battlegrounds from 2016 to 2020, and the president has actually gained a half point. For the last months of the 2016 election, the president’s chances reached about 35% at their peak and halved to 17% on Election Day, again according to ElectionBettingOdds.

Mr. Trump is not out. Never count him out.

Still, we all might have to prepare for the post-Trump era. The debate got me thinking about the political future. Especially for the Republicans.

They have two options: the pre-Trump era or the “future.”

The pre-Trump era sounds like Camelot, doesn’t it? I’m not sure it even existed. Donald Trump has been in all of our brains and psyches for so long, how could there be politics without him?

There seems to be this myth, much like Camelot, that when Mr. Bad Orange man is removed from the political scene, politics will normalize.

The Lincoln Project, the political action committee formed by Never Trumpers, pines for the days of old, of great leadership with ads such as “How A President Leads.”

The most recent Republican president, featured in the ad, is George W. Bush.

He was decent!

He was presidential.

Maybe so, aside from the whole speechgiving and speaking parts, but remember what his administration was responsible for.

We can never forget.

A little ditty called the Iraq War. On questionable evidence, we invaded, toppled Saddam Hussein and attempted to nation build, fostering democracy in a region with almost no history of it.

Have we forgotten about how a poor decision lead to unbelievable, seismic consequences?

Here are just a few:

  • Financial cost of 2+ trillion to the U.S.A.
  • 4.4 million Iraqis internally displaced.
  • 44,531 U.S. military casualties with 31,952 wounded in action.
  • Collapse of Iraqi government, leading to radicals such as ISIS seizing control.

To be fair, the withdrawal of troops by the Obama administration is blamed for this last point, however, the decision would not have been needed if the invasion had not taken place.

Have we forgotten about the intense, nasty, divisiveness over said war, which ripped the country apart?

Rock band Green Day’s “American Idiot” album had a couple of songs attacking the narrative surrounding the war, arguing that cable news and the administration propped each other up.

Look at the lyrics of its titular song:

Well maybe I’m the faggot, America.

I’m not part of a redneck agenda.

Now everybody do the propaganda

And sing along to the age of paranoia.

From the song “Holiday”:

Sieg Heil to the president gasman

Bombs away is your punishment

Pulverize the Eiffel Towers

Who criticize your government

Bang bang goes the broken glass and

Kill all the fags who don’t agree.

In these two songs, Green Day greeted President Bush with a Nazi salute and argued that he treated his opponents like ‘fags’ and would kill any ‘fag’ who opposed him.

The Trump era’s politics are divisive and uncivil, but….

How is this better?

Let’s look at the The (Dixie) Chicks, whose career halted because of war criticism. In March of 2003, British newspaper The Guardian published singer Natalie Maines’s comments from a recent London concert:

“Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence. And we’re ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.”

The Chicks, who sang the National Anthem at Super Bowl XXXVII two months earlier, could not have fallen from grace faster. The single “Landslide” fell 34 places from 10 to 44 on Billboard charts in just one week! Callers demanded radio stations stop playing their songs. Protestors destroyed their cds with a 33,000 pound tractor.

Why would we want to return to this?

Much of the political music today focuses on personal attacks against Mr. Trump, with a few Green Day-esque barbs accusing him of fascism or dictatorship.

In spring of 2016, then Candidate Trump accused the Bush admin. of lying. While that may be harsh, at the very best the Bush team didn’t do their homework and/or saw what they wanted to see.

Because Bush, Cheney and others were “respectable” politicians, following Reagan’s 11th commandment, decisions such as the Iraq War are acceptable?

No one from the administration will ever face a prosecution for their missteps.

Is that what the Republicans want to return to?

If not, they can turn to the “future,” represented by VP Pence. Commentator Bill O’Reilly pointed out that the debate was a trial for a 2024 presidential run.

How is Mr. Pence the future?

He’s a throwback to the 1980s Moral Majority.

Take this clip from The Mike Pence Show in 1996. Mr. Pence discussed the case of an Air Force officer who committed adultery:

“I for one, believe that the 7th commandment, contained in the 10 commandments, is still a big deal. I maintain that the promises we make in the fidelity of our faith, to our spouses, to our children, the promises we make in churches and in synagogues in marriage ceremonies (around this country)…. it’s the most important promise you’ll ever make. And holding other people accountable to those promises and holding people accountable to respecting the promises other people make…To me, what could possibly be a bigger deal?”

(1:30–2:05)

Big enough deal to legislate on? Base our common, civic laws on a religious commandment?

What are we, the Pilgrims?

If we even entertain the idea, how would it be enforced? Would there be some kind of morality task force? For small government conservatives, that sounds like an awful big increase in the size of government and a lot of money spent.

What if someone cheated, but the two partners came to an agreement without the intervention of the state? Would the state have to ‘assert its authority’, proving that it’s actually in charge to send a message, although the two parties in question have resolved their differences?

What about non-theists and followers of other religions? Why should they be forced to live under the rules of Christianity, when the Constitution prohibits that from happening?

I don’t like the intersection of morality and politics, and Mr. Pence made it clear here that he would entertain legislation based on Christian ethics.

I am appreciative I grew up in a Catholic environment and learned about the Christian faith. In fact, I align with some of their values.

However, suggesting legislation based on religion is too far. Post-Trump, I fear a boomerang effect which will catapult the Republican party back to the arms of the religious right, making the late Reverend Jerry Falwell smile.

If this is the future of the Republican party, I don’t feel included.

The VP debate made me think about where the GOP goes once President Trump is out of office, either this election or the next.

They shouldn’t go back to the Bush Jr. neocons.

They shouldn’t go back to Christian Right in the form of Mike Pence.

There’s gotta to be a third path.

Excuse me while I go look for it.

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Patrick McCorkle

I am a young professional with keen interests in politics, history, foreign languages and the arts.