The death of a party, the rise of a cult

Ah, to return to the days of my youth.

Sixty years ago, the United States, North Carolina, and Burke County had two major political parties: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

Working folks, those who toiled in the furniture factories and textile mills, at least in Burke County, tended to vote Democratic.

Management types, business owners, and those with more cash in the First National Bank of Morganton, tended to vote Republican.

The two parties in Burke County trended more toward cooperation than confrontation and indeed agreed on more things than they disagreed on.

My Old Man, a moderate Democrat shaped by the Great Depression and World War II, provided me with a couple of memorable quotes.

“Boy, you need a mixture (of Democrats and Republicans) ‘cause if you had all Democrats they’d spend every dime we have.”

And later, as I began a professional career, “Boy, find you a good Republican to look after your money. A Republican can make it grow.”

Fault lines in that hierarchy began to appear as the 1960s rolled into the 1970s. The Democratic Party pushed for equal rights for all Americans, regardless of skin color or national origin.

Nixon and Reagan urged caution and slowness, coming within easy hailing distance of racism. A new group, dubbed Reagan Democrats, who weren’t really Democrats at all, grew in numbers and power.

A shift in the traditional stances of the two parties came with Reagan’s election in 1980. Deficit spending had been anathema to mainstream Republicans for decades. Ronnie, with his fairy tale notion of supply-side economics, exploded the national debt.

Bush I and Bush II only poured gasoline on the deficit fire. The only President to balance the budget since Lyndon Johnson was centrist Democrat Bill Clinton.

And through it all, the two-party idea seemed mostly to work. The pendulum swung back and forth. Twelve years of Reagan and Bush I, eight years of Clinton. Eight years of Bush II, eight years of Barack Obama.

The poster boys for how two-party politics is supposed to work were Obama and his 2008 Republican opponent John McCain. After listening to a person at one of his rallies attack Obama as a foreigner and a potential terrorist, McCain responded simply, “He is a decent family man who loves his country. He and I just have some disagreements on fundamental issues.”

Can you imagine? Fundamental respect between two opponents with no name-calling, no snide remarks, no temper tantrums. Oh, how much we have lost.

And then, a mere eight years later, the Republican Party sacrificed itself on the public altar of stupidity and blind self-interest and was dead. It was replaced by the Trump Party.

The Trump Party pledges allegiance neither to the Constitution nor to the public interest, neither to the rule of law nor to the common good. It pledges allegiance only to one Donald J. Trump.

Donald J. Trump, a man who is a convicted felon.

Donald J. Trump, a man who bragged about being a sexual predator and who pronounced it perfectly OK to grab women by the genitals.

Donald J. Trump, a man who brings not one ounce of dignity or decorum or compassion or respect to the highest elective office in the world.

Donald J. Trump, a man who blithely assured us in March of 2020 that COVID would disappear by Easter, and who, when that prediction proved false, suggested drinking bleach or shoving UV lights up our behinds as possible cures.

Donald J. Trump, a man who after a deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., referred to pro-Nazis, virulent racists, and skinhead extremists as “very fine people.”

Donald J. Trump, a man who refused to accept his overwhelming defeat by Joe Biden and who inspired an armed insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — an insurrection that saw one law enforcement officer killed and 170 injured.

Donald J. Trump, a man who, when he was returned to the White House in 2025, promptly pardoned those who led and participated in that violent attempt to negate the will of America’s voters.

Donald J. Trump, a man who has suggested that this year’s elections be “nationalized” or postponed.

Donald J. Trump, who last weekend, with nary a nod to Congress or the American people, plunged our nation into yet another war in the Middle East, a conflict whose consequences still hang like a dark cloud over our future.

And I could go on, and on, and on. Filling this page and many others with the list of disgraceful, unpresidential, and illegal actions that Donald J. Trump has taken during his time in the White House.

But like many Americans, I say enough is enough.

I cannot support or vote for any officer holder or political candidate — local, state, or national — who will not denounce this monster and speak up for the return of a safer, saner, and more civil brand of political discourse to our public life.

Character still matters, truth still matters, and the Constitution still matters — but only if we have the courage to say so — with our voices and with our votes.