America’s Republican party needs repair. At present, led by a fascist felon, it’s spectacularly incapable of governing, as we witness daily. Its priorities are unpopular and it is losing ground consistently. Its lunatic leadership, cheered on by lying media, imagines the party’s soaring to success, so feel no need to course-correct. Responsible former party leaders bewail this demise they did not foresee (though they should have).

            Many Democrats root for the annihilation of the Republican party. I do, in my heart. I hate what they stand for and what they’ve done to America. I’d rejoice to see them writhe in hell.

            Bloodthirsty in my dreams, I’m cagier awake. Democracies need factions to function. A one-party democracy is indistinguishable from a dictatorship. Folks need a second viable party to keep their own in check. Though a lifelong Democrat, there have been times I voted Republican, because the Democrats’ performance disgusted me. “He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill,” wrote Edmund Burke. “Our antagonist is our helper.”

            The natural division in a capitalist economy is between owners and workers, the have-mores and have-lesses. Capital trusts in its ability to better the world and condemns government as inefficient. Its critiques are often justified. Only what drives capital is not idealism but greed. Whatever the rich protest, what they believe deep down is the world will be better if they are richer. More for me and less for the many means, to their thinking, more for all. (Witness the well-named Laugher Curve.)

            The have-mores have driven America’s policy for the last four decades. The result has been economic triumph and political calamity. We are rich and unhappy, at one another’s throats. Americans despise their government because their government is despicable. Young people doubt democracy works. It doesn’t – not very well. “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise” said Churchill famously. “Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

            How to repair the Republicans? Accept their demolition, then rebuild. The Republican house is too riddled with rot to restore. Lying, thieving thugs, their leaders pursue power without principles, fomenting their followers with distractions and distortions. Electing their leader President would be bad for all Americans, Republicans included.

            Having taken their licking, like the old Timex watch, they can go on ticking, reconstructed on a sound basis. Instead of bamboozling, how about an honest debate about what’s best for America? Immigrants, abortion, LGBTQ policies, “woke” curricula have little impact on the lives of most. Let’s debate education, health, taxes, safety, climate, our role in the world – matters that matter. By behaving respectably, let’s make democracy respectable again.

            Lincoln wrote: “The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or cannot, so well do, for themselves – in their separate and individual capacities.” This eloquence feels unarguable. But within this construct, what we need to have done, and whether we can or can’t do it without government involvement, are subjects that merit serious debate.

            Today’s Republicans do not take government seriously, except as an opportunity to gain for themselves. I look forward to their resurrection as a party that stands for something. Democracy is complicated. America deserves a serious discussion.