Will the GOP make room for moderates?
This article originally appeared in the Indianapolis Business Journal on Feb. 5, 2021.
My whole life has been a case study in public service: growing up watching my mom serve as mayor of our small hometown, volunteering for campaigns, working at the Indiana Statehouse and Indianapolis’ city hall. More recently, I signed on as a convention delegate and even ran for office.
I’ve done all but one of these things (more about that in a minute) as a Republican, having chosen that party in my early 20s because of its dedication to values such as limited government, free markets, and personal and fiscal responsibility.
Now, after last month’s events at the U.S. Capitol, I find myself asking whether there is room in the Republican Party for those of us who embrace the very values that drew me to it.
Of course, the party didn’t suddenly transform when the mob attacked the Capitol. I saw the beginnings of this slide over a decade ago as the tea party gained power — as Richard Murdoch took down Richard Lugar, as fringe elements seized control of the party, and, yes, as Donald Trump rose up and the tea party regained strength.
Today, I see this not just nationally, but at home, too. On the night before the siege, a Westfield City Council member and tea party activist wrote on Facebook, “I do not think there are enough people with the guts to take a stand tomorrow … .” Guts to do what? Falsely deny an honest election? Become a denier? Shame the Grand Old Party by committing treasonous acts?
I became a convention delegate to support language recognizing all types of families (that language failed). I ran for Westfield City Council as an independent after a tea party activist won the Republican primary. In both cases, I was driven by frustration with a Hamilton County Republican Party that, hands firmly in pockets, allows the party to drift further from Republican principles.
The day after the Capitol siege, I received this email from a friendly colleague: “Just wondering how anyone can still love the Republican Party after the last four years. Good people exist [in the party]. But in my book, anyone who still chooses to be — even WANTS to be — associated with the Republican Party, has automatically lost his/her claim to goodness. End of story.”
Is that the end of the story? I know those people from the Jan. 6 siege do not represent me — do not represent so many of us who love and work and volunteer for the party of Reagan, Bush, Lugar, Hudnut, Goldsmith and Daniels. But I also know that those people have come to represent that storied party in the eyes of the nation.
So my fellow true Republicans and I must ask ourselves: Do we leave the party and find a new space, one that accepts moderate points of view and fiscal responsibility? Or do we fight to reclaim the GOP we scarcely recognize? As we saw last month, this is so much more than a philosophical question. Our nation’s future might well rest on our answer.•
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Snedeker is a crisis and corporate communications consultant who served as press secretary to Indianapolis Mayor Steve Goldsmith.
