I receive dozens of emails weekly from people labelling me a RINO, a Democrat in disguise, or a cog in the left wing propaganda machine. Naturally, these emails don’t warrant a response, but they do raise an interesting question collectively.
Why is it so bad to criticize my party or the people leading it?
The people who attack my frequent criticism of President Donald Trump and the direction of the Republican Party are wrong about my motivations. I’m more conservative than the vast majority of those people might think. But I believe it’s more important to be critical of your party than it is to cover up deficiencies.
We should not be scared of criticizing our leaders as a way to strengthen conservatives in the future. The GOP will become weaker if we are unwilling to point out its blemishes.
The Trump administration lacks the moral foundation and conservative principles to truly represent a conservative outlook on American politics. Trump’s expansion of power for himself, disregard for norms and the law, and his own character problems warrant criticism from those who claim to be conservative.
It is true that I still agree with the GOP platform far more than I do with the Democrats’, which many people find hard to square with the majority of my columns.
But I’m harder on the GOP because I expect more from conservatives. Before Trump, Republicans had a consistent belief system rooted in a handful of core principles, such as limited government and free markets. Now, that is just not true.
Today’s GOP is abandoning that structure by supporting policy ideas like the expansion of tariffs, challenges to the separation of powers, and a blind alliance of the party to Trump. Even Congress has decided against legislating a conservative agenda despite having control of both chambers.
We see this in the news media, as well.
Many conservatives in the media approach their coverage as a balancing of the mainstream outlets, which generally do favor Democrats, especially in the Trump era. These people ask softball questions, provide cover for Republicans and excuse away Trump’s behavior. Organizations like Fox News do little better the Republican Party by catering to it.
This approach is unproductive for several reasons. By protecting Republican politicians, conservative media limits the flow of information to red state voters. Voters then become less informed, and more likely to base their decisions on that limited information.
That’s fine if you want a voter base with a fraction of the information. I don’t.
