The radicalization of the Republican party

After the financial meltdown of 2007-2008 that most countries quite haven’t recovered from yet, we have seen a polarization of the debate concerning the size of the state and the role it should play in man any sphere of society, especially social services and the regulation of the market. The centre position, moderate, which includes some elements of free market while also proposing Keynesian theories, seems to slowly disappear in the profit of the good old debate between the left and the right, as seen in the quasi-disappearance of the Liberals in Canada and the surge of the New Democratic Party.

In the United States, the situation is quite different since the radicalization of one party, the Republican party with the election of Tea Party members, has led the other party, the Democrats, to leave a position that has often been characterized as centre-left to move towards the centre and centre-right for some economic policies, while also trying to advocate the presence of more social programs, as has been seen by the abrogation of the Affordable Care Act. While it is difficult to characterize major political decisions in a left-right political spectrum, it is true that the refusal to compromise by one party led the other to adjust its policies to try to satisfy, unsuccessfully, the demands of a renewed conservative party.

The radicalization of the Republican Party seems to have been the most apparent after the mid-election of 2010 that saw a lots of Tea partiers getting elected to Congress. While markets were going wild and with the risk of an economic meltdown in the United States, the Republicans, strongly influenced by the Tea Party, opposed any tax hikes and the end of fiscal heaven for the most fortunate, putting the normal citizen’s life and economies in jeopardy. While the Democrats were trying to pass the Budget control act of 2011, the Republicans insisted on the necessity of deep cuts in order to raise the debt ceiling and were not ready to compromise, which puts jobs in danger in an economy where the unemployment rate was already pretty high.

The failure to negotiate even provoked a downgrade of the nation’s credit by Standard & Poor’s to an AA+. In one of the worst financial crises of the last three decades, ideology and partisanship should be put aside for the common good of the average American.

Not only is the Republican party victim of radicalization but it is also slowly abandoning the poorest Americans. While there was hope that the two parties would come together for the good of the common people after Paul Ryan claimed his will to work with Democratic Senator Ron Wyden to reform his budget plan, it soon vanished in thin hair. It proposed not only to dismantle important government programs, abandoning the poor but also to subside programs to local communities, which are often cash-strapped, with some of them already facing extreme levels of unemployment. Even for fiscal conservatives, this plan is clearly not realistic and not within their ideology. It proposed no spending cuts in the defense, a major cause for the American debt and it would not balance the budget until 2035. Mr. Ryan even voted for an increase of $8 billion more than what President Obama agreed with Congress in the summer of 2011, which makes this plan even more unrealistic on both sides, whether you are a Republican or Democrat.

All of this serves to prove the ridicule behind the necessity of always opposing the other ideology in politics, even if it’s for the common good. It’s time for a reform of the American political system so that the people can finally fight the inaction that has been provoked by a polarization of the debate and unwillingness to compromise.

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