Since I became politically aware, I have been a conservative and a loyal Republican. I grew up in a bourgeois religious community, so traditional values came naturally to me. As the grandson of a Holocaust survivor who came to this country destitute and lived the American dream, I was imbued with patriotism and self-reliance at an early age. I was drawn to the GOP because, rather than ensuring equality of outcomes, I believe the role of the state should be to enable people to exercise their individual agency to prosper and live according to the dictates of their conscience.
During the 2016 presidential election, the first time I was eligible to vote, none of the Republican candidates seemed to express this vision. In the general election, I cast my vote for a man I thought was the lesser of two evils. I could not have been more wrong.
Shortly after the election had ended, I witnessed an outsider upend Republican orthodoxy in almost every area of policy and win. I began to investigate what exactly I claimed to champion. I started to read the foundational works of American conservatism, like “Man and God at Yale” by William F. Buckley, “Conscience of a Conservative” by Barry Goldwater, and the “The Conservative Mind” by Russell Kirk. I was inspired by the words of Edmund Burke and F.A. Hayek, and I was moved by the speeches of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
This self-exploration provided me with a much-needed epiphany. Donald Trump is the antithesis of everything conservatives claim to stand for. Trump chose to forsake traditional Republican policy priorities, including fiscal restraint, entitlement reform, free trade, and a robust American presence overseas. He is not tethered to any bedrock conservative principles. He is not moored to values of limited government, individual liberty, and moral universalism. He is motivated primarily by animus and half-baked nostalgia, and his presidency reflects this.
Over the last four years, I have watched the party of Lincoln descend into demagoguery and threaten the institutional bedrock of our republic. I have also witnessed the consequences of a media echo-chamber that insulates its audiences from reality under the guise of “conservatism.”
No one on the right, myself included, not even the self-righteous “Never-Trumpers” at the Lincoln Project, can absolve themselves from blame for what has transpired. We must be clear about the trends that enabled armed insurgents to storm the United States Capitol, using unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud as a pretext for attempting to overturn a free and fair election.
For the past 30 years, since the Federal Communications Commission eliminated the Fairness Doctrine, which required the holders of broadcast licenses to present issues of public importance in a fair and balanced manner, a rightwing-infotainment complex has been festering. This echo chamber insulates its audience from reality. While broadcast plutocrats like Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingram, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, and all the charlatans at Newsmax, One American News Network, and on talk radio proclaim themselves leaders of the plebeians of Middle America by spewing bile and malicious hate, they’ve managed to profit off of riling up millions of people who frankly don’t know any better. The swindlers disseminating this propaganda are by no means patriotic or conservative. They will gladly thrash our institutions, intelligence agencies, federal law enforcement officials, and even our democratic process if it means making a buck off of clickbait.
For years, since Reagan left the political stage, Republicans have failed to explain how their policies can lay the groundwork for a more prosperous and compassionate society. Instead, as the party lost its institutional and intellectual authority, rather than articulating a winning message bringing new people into the tent, the GOP has chosen to profit electorally off this toxic media circus and use fear to drive its base to the polls.
This equilibrium persisted for almost two decades as Republican politicians kept passions and the worst excesses of the animus brewing on the right in check in exchange for votes. The electoral strategy began to fall apart during the early 2010s as the Tea Party movement gained traction. It ultimately culminated in 2016 with the deposition of the establishment with Donald Trump’s ascension to the GOP nomination for President of the United States.
Since the fall of 2017, I have been a member of the NYU College Republicans. I am now the President of the organization, and I am proud of what I have accomplished with my executive board, promoting conservatism, not reactionism, on campus. However, I have serious misgivings about the negative developments in our civic life that I could have possibly played a small role in preventing by speaking out.
I wish I could tell my younger self that partisanship should never supersede principles. Rather than curry favor with potential employers, I would admonish myself to be intellectually honest and speak out against prejudice and corruption.
Some might ask me, “Why now?” President Trump has behaved like an autocrat, using the bully pulpit to divide and launch broadsides against democratic norms for years. My “come-to-Jesus” moment did not arise out of the blue. I have felt this way for some time, and I have expressed this to my family and close friends. I felt my professional commitments were constraining me from speaking out publicly. However, after seeing rioters sporting “Camp Auschwitz” and “Six Million Wasn’t Enough” apparel, storming office buildings where I’ve spent my summers as an intern, I knew it would be unconscionable for me to continue in silence.
My regrets also raise the question as to why I stay involved in Republican politics. If the GOP ceases to be a vehicle for the values and policies I desire, why should I prolong my affiliation? My philosophy is that the only way to produce change is by maintaining skin in the game. While I wish I could go back and alert myself of the impending calamity, I must now commit to redirecting the GOP towards justice and the rule of law.
Republicans like myself now have a choice. We can continue our deal with the devil: a few good policies and judicial appointees in exchange for the continued desecration of our republic. Or we can begin to redeem ourselves. The road to absolution won’t be easy, but it starts with the impeachment and conviction of Donald J. Trump.
The President and his confidants incited an insurrection against Congress that resulted in five deaths to prevent President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college win from being certified. No amount of lies about how Antifa was actually behind this brazen act of terror can obfuscate this fact. If this incident is not a threat to the separation of powers enshrined in the constitution and self-governance that we supposedly cherish, I’m not sure what is.
Rather than continuing to be the errand boys for his charade to overturn the election to avoid a primary challenge, Republicans in Congress must muster the fortitude to take on this would-be tyrant. Regardless of how many days he has left in his term, every hour that passes with Trump in the Oval Office is a national security threat. Impeachment, not the 25th Amendment, is the appropriate remedy for this looming menace because Trump must be prevented from holding federal office again. This will not fix the underlying dynamics that led us to this moment in an instant, but it’s a necessary first step in restoring civility in our politics. American credibility abroad and all the work our nation has done to promote liberal democracy overseas is on the line. All of posterity will remember this moment. Will my party rise to the occasion?
