Anthony Warford

Ms. Eisner
English 1101-055
10/25/2016
The Grand Old Party: Tearing Down the Public Distaste for
Ultra-Conservatism
The first step in understanding something new, and the first step
to understanding the marginalized and boxed-out far right, is to blur
the socio-political ideology borders and realize that underneath a
faade of belief is a human trying to make what they believe is the
best decision. With this in mind, it will prove more useful and will be far
more fruitful to analyze the actions and attitudes of a far-right ideology
free of judgment and with the acceptance that 56 different men all
dreamed of when they signed the Declaration of Independence. The
popular consensus of the GOP being sexist, racist, and elitist are
skewed and stem from these small, extremely conservative factions
and do not represent the party as a whole.
The Tea Party is not a party, it is actually a colloquial title for
separate individual groups and individuals within the Republican Party,
making them a faction, and a movement that has extreme far-right
views that skew the understanding of the Republican Party. They want
things like extreme tax reform and the impeachment of IRS
Commissioner John Koskinen, but they arent doing it so peacefully. In
fact Dana Loesch, a political commentator and television host for
TheBlaze is quoted at a Tea Party event saying about liberals, Make

them uncomfortable Attack, attack, attack. Never defend.(Katel,

243), and in a less related but far more brutal way, they have accused
the Democratic Party of starting the KKK (@tpartynews). But Tea
Partiers dont just have a distaste for the party, they have a specific
distaste for President Obama; 80% of Tea Party members, activists, and
self-identifiers view him as Unfavorable (Katel, 245). So, when these
ultra-conservatives aggressively support a Republican candidate like
Scott Brown in 2010 (Katel, 243) it can cast a Tea Party shadow over
the entire Republican Party, and skew the public views of standard
conservatives as being ultra-conservative.
The Freedom Caucus is another group whose beliefs cast a
shadow over the Republican Partys ideology. This caucus is made up of
a small group of Republican congresspersons in the U.S. House of
Representatives who are willing to go to extremes in order to
aggressively pursue their ultra-conservative agenda. In October of
2015 the Freedom Caucus led a revolt against the then Speaker of the
House, conservative Republican John Boehner (Drutman, 1). They
toppled the leadership of the House because they were thoroughly
dissatisfied with the lack of respect and adherence to the constitutional
purposes of the House, claiming that the Speaker would determine
what outcome he wanted for a specific vote, and then attempt to
convince Representatives to vote the way he wanted (Drutman, 1).
This is clearly in line with their attitude when they claim that

government officials are corrupt and guilty of misconduct

(@freedomcaucus). So when people see a small group of Republicans
that represent an ultra-conservative ideology within a much larger and
less conservative ideology hold the House of Representatives hostage
to meet their demands and place their own Speaker of the House (Paul
Ryan), it can send a bad message about what extremes Republicans
are willing to go to, in order to achieve their goals.
But, in order to fully understand GOP values over ultraconservative values, we need to be willing to look at more progressive
Republican representatives. Paul Ryan is a Republican who can be
conservative towards the values of the Constitution, and by doing so
retain the support of ultra-conservatives like the Tea Party and House
Freedom Caucus, but also be one of the most culturally progressive
conservatives in the federal government. He can be quoted saying that
We [The Republican Party] have to be a party for everybody.
(McCutcheon, 891) This type of rhetoric is exactly what falls in line with
the partys intended progressive direction which includes Putting out a
positive message, and Creating a diverse, nationwide field operation
of local activists (McCutcheon, 892), the GOP can also be quoted
saying, We are offering a new direction that gives a voice to all
Americans. (@gop) These things tell us that there is a much less ultraconservative body of progressive Republicans underneath the shadows
of the Tea Party and House Freedom Caucus.

In addition to this new direction, its important to look at the

basic ideology of the Republican Party, of conservatism, and at what
exactly Republicans are trying to conserve. Interestingly enough,
studies have shown that people who tend to identify with the
Republican Party also tend to fear change (Rempala, 704). This is
supported by a tweet from Paul Ryan that says Conservatism means
that we want to conserve what is good: liberty, freedom, free
enterprise, and self determination. (@SpeakerRyan). The general
belief within the Republican Party is that the foundational principles of
the Constitution are generally good, especially the Bill of Rights.
Changing these things can change the way we live, and that scares
some people.
What scares people more is what seems to be a narrow-minded
Republican Party, but when you look at it objectively, it tells a different
story. The GOP is not afraid of immigration, or social change, or
womens rights. The Republican Party is afraid of losing what they
believe are rock-solid and irreversible basic rights of the American
citizen. Progressive social change and equal rights are principles that
Republicans agree with, that everyone is created equal and has the
right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is legal change that
Republicans stand against. They stand against the loss of their
individual rights, which they believe to be good and founded on good
principles. But socially, culturally, and universally they believe that

those rights belong to all people, people of both sexes, all religions,
and every nation. It is the actions of the smaller factions of ultraconservatism that make it seem reasonable to believe every
accusation of inequality, sexism, and racism against conservatives, but
the party wants to conserve political goodness, not conserve
traditional inequalities. Republicans want all of us to be equal so that
everyone can have equal access to these good rights and foundational
principles, whether we are older white males or not.

WORKS CITED
Drutman, Lee. "The Freedom Caucus Is (Sort Of) Right." Washington
Monthly (2016): 1. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Oct. 2016.
Katel, Peter. "Tea Party Movement." CQ Researcher 19 Mar. 2010: 24164. Web. 13 Oct. 2016.
McCutcheon, C. (2014, October 24). Future of the GOP. CQ Researcher,
24, 889-912. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/
Rempala, Daniel, Bradley Okdie, and Kilian Garvey. "Articulating
Ideology: How Liberals And Conservatives Justify Political Affiliations
Using Morality-Based Explanations." Motivation & Emotion 40.5 (2016):
703-719. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

@freedomcaucus. We have an obligation to the American taxpayer to

hold government officials accountable for misconduct, obstruction, &
corruption. Twitter, 23 May 2016, 10:26 am.,
https://twitter.com/freedomcaucus/status/734797678807289857
@gop. We are offering a new direction that gives a voice to all
Americans. Twitter, 2 Nov. 2016, 5:57 pm.,
https://twitter.com/GOP/status/793980265978699777
@SpeakerRyan. Conservatism means that we want to conserve what
is good: liberty, freedom, free enterprise, and self determination.
Twitter, 16 Oct. 2016, 5:17 pm.,
https://twitter.com/speakerryan/status/787809765002924037
@tpartynews. @RealBenCarson: Who started the KKK? That was the
Democrats. Twitter, 6 Nov. 2016, 11:34 am.,
https://twitter.com/tpartynews/status/795348594446532613