I honestly believe that Trump did amazing things as President of the United States. Since the ending of his term though, he has caused a massive split in the party. We now have four factions within: “Old School”, “Q/Ultra-Maga”, “Libertarians”, and “Religious/Conservative”. The biggest issue with each of them is they all think they are the true Republicans and the other three should vote for their choice and nothing else, so we end up splitting the votes as we saw in the midterms.

“Old School”

Pros

Small government

Pro 2A

Pro 1A

Cons

More willing to work with the left

May vote for a bad bill due to democrat perception

“Q/Ultra-Maga”

Pros

Stands up for the children

Looks for corruption

Cons

Easily falls for fake news

Won’t work with the left on anything

Won’t vote for anyone closer to the middle

Open to bigger government

Open to censorship

“Libertarians”

Pros

Small government

Pro 2A

Pro 1A

Most pro freedom faction

Cons

Has many sects inside the one faction

Large percent will only vote for “libertarians”

Some sects think we should have no government at all / anarchist factions

“Religious/Conservative”

Pros

Small government

Pro 2a

Pro Lowering taxes

Cons

Allows religion to dictate polices

Not Pro 1A if “morally” wrong

Willing to make government bigger if it helps win a moral or religious victory

We also have many terms inside of our party like RINO, extremist, Qnut, just to name a few. As Republicans we pride ourselves on being the “think for yourself party”- most of the Republicans’ sects will never ask you to change anything about who you are to fit what they want you to be, because Republicans pride themselves in individual responsibility. The big way that Republicans differ from Democrats in this aspect is that most of THEM want to change the world around them to make it more like what they want, and most Republicans will change themselves to get what they want.  

So now you’re thinking well if we pride ourselves in not being a bunch of cookie cutters, why is it so bad to have all these varied groups and sects? The truth is during the primary there is no issue at all, but when it comes to the subsequent general election, this way of doing things is killing us. Most of the seats we lost during this midterm election were primarily caused by the issue of people not wanting to vote for “RINOs” or “extremists.” Locally, here in Belknap County, we even allowed a group of mostly Democrats to use our own buzz words against us and we helped them get more Democrats elected because Republicans simply refused to button down and understand that, no matter what sect they are from, ANY Republican is better than a Democrat.

If we want to stop losing and help fix this country, we need to band together and not allow these factional differences to make us keep splitting votes in the general. There is an extremely important election cycle coming up, and we have two years to fix our party- or we may not make it four more years. The biggest thing I want you all to take away from this is no matter who wins the primary we need to band together and vote for them in this general.

As I write this, the Republicans in DC are demonstrating what I am talking about as EXHIBIT A. They have managed to squeak through the most recent election and recapture the House. By sticking together, they should be able to slow down, or in some cases stop, many of the terrible Democrat agenda items being foisted upon America. But instead, what are they doing? Fighting with each other and cannot even manage to elect a House Speaker to get the ball rolling as a counter to the Democrats. I’m pretty sure this ongoing Republican circus has been previously called a “circular firing squad” here in The Bastion. The different sects all fight and who ends up winning? The Democrats!

Ronnie Abbott