The Republican Party Is Seeking Its Future
Joe Biden’s almost three-decade-long unconsciousness in a New York hotel has finally come to an end. He went through two surgeries on his head to fix the quiet damage caused by twin aneurysms, which are enlargements of the arteries; one of them had burst. Mr. Biden returned to his only known life after six months of recovery.
Once again, he will not allow his health to keep him out of the spotlight.
The public shame that Mr. Biden’s personal fall has caused has reached crisis proportions. Nearly nine months before the election, a survey conducted by ABC News/Ipsos found that 86 percent of Americans, including 73 percent of Democrats and 91 percent of independents, think that Joe Biden is too elderly to be president.
Old age is better with time. We learn about Mr. Biden’s explosions as he becomes increasingly confused by the world. His reactions, both in public and within the White House, are marked by anger and hostility. Both the pace and expense of Mr. Biden’s slide are bound to quicken. Voters are willing to put up with a president who is described by a special prosecutor as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” but they would surely be terrified of a leader who has nuclear weapons at the ready and is unable to rein in his aggressive behavior.
America needs to get its act together despite disgraceful withdrawal from Afghanistan by Mr. Biden, audacious invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin, attack on our closest Middle Eastern partner by Hamas, assault of the southern border by illegal immigrants, and normalization of violence near our homes: The Biden administration has not yet reached its lowest moment. When you’re weak, the wolves will find you. Opponents in the military, economy, and diplomacy will band together to take advantage of the current government’s weakness. At home, there will be mounting demands for a political shift.
Influence doesn’t usually age well. As one generation clings to life and dies in a hurried fashion, another yearns for its moment in the sun. The nation’s capital can’t continue to be dominated by senior citizens for much longer; either the Democrats will stage a coup at their August convention to depose Mr. Biden or voters will likely do so in November. Regardless, a transition in leadership from one generation to the next will soon be offered to the nation by the Democratic Party.
Even though Democrats will have new faces in Governors Whitmer, Newsom, and Shapiro—along with the appearance of generational progress—their party’s agenda will be mired in the past. Only the administration of yesterday is known to the Democrats. The managerial machine of the industrial age is their sacred object. Their view of government is that of an assembly line that produces rules and regulations. Having proclaimed themselves to be superior to us, they are unable to fathom a reality in which they do not exercise mechanized, top-down control over the small people’s every breath.
In the near future, younger Democrats will take over from the more seasoned ones, and they will all share the same outmoded views. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and other young Democrats just don’t have what it takes to navigate the complex social systems and interdependent, ever-evolving economic systems of today. They see little purpose in supporting free and open markets, healthcare, and schools as they would be completely powerless in such a society. There may be generational advancement, but the Democratic Party is just a hood ornament for a haughty, antiquated, top-down government that isn’t up to speed with our rapidly evolving reality.
If we had a Republican Party or a vision for the future, this would be a perfect opportunity for the Republican Party to share it. We are lacking both.
Who among the GOP leaders has the ability to rally the country behind a shared goal that transcends party loyalists and divides us? Are there any prominent Republicans on a national level who actively work to undermine the progress the Democrats have made in recent years? Does anyone know of a prominent conservative leader who is so sure of Republican beliefs that they think our party’s ideals can win over any demographic, even women with college degrees?
It is possible to accomplish. Regan accomplished it. Is our Reagan not here today?
The old, corrupt, and self-serving political machine got a shock in 2016 when Donald Trump threw a wrench into it. It would be in the best interest of the nation if all Republicans joined him in this endeavor again. But Trump and Biden are just political stand-ins. For Mr. Biden, these are hardly new ideas. Nobody can copy Mr. Trump. They can’t construct what’s to come.
With new faces on the block, the Democrats of the future will hide their dated socialism. Republicans of the future will be the only ones capable of defeating them. We need a courageous new generation of Republicans to accomplish what Reagan did for the Republican Party—reinvent it.
Purple Strategies was founded by Mr. Castellanos, who is a Republican consultant.
