Wrecked by pandemonium, the GOP has lost its sense of history and sense of self

After a weeks-long, often contentious process, last week, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) was unanimously chosen by House Republicans to succeed Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as House Speaker. 

In an instant, everything changed, and nothing changed. 

What was different was the occupant of the spacious Speaker’s office. What wasn’t was Donald Trump’s control over the Republican conference. Immediately after endorsing Johnson, Trump labeled him “MAGA MIKE JOHNSON,” casting the new Speaker as a miniature version of himself. 

For three agonizing and humiliating weeks, Republicans anguished over the selection of their new leader. The repetitious ballot counts pointed to a dysfunctional party rended by factional infighting. But the Republican Party’s difficulties go far beyond the squabbling and near-fisticuffs behind closed doors. It is a party without either purpose or narrative.  

Consider: In 2020, for the first time in its 166-year history, Republicans failed to produce a party platform. Lacking a coherent narrative — except being opposed to whatever Joe Biden proposes — has meant that when Republicans are in charge, they lack the ability to establish a governing agenda. Republicans have lost their historical compass. 

The party of Abraham Lincoln once argued vociferously for voting rights and maintained that the federal government should ensure that everyone, particularly African Americans, had the right to vote. In 1888, the Republican platform affirmed the party’s “unswerving devotion to the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor, native or foreign-born, white or Black, to cast one free ballot in public elections and to have that ballot duly counted.”  

But today, the Republican Party of Donald Trump is restricting voting rights. In Georgia, Republicans approved legislation that made it illegal for election officials to mail absentee ballot applications to all voters, allowed the Republican-controlled state legislature to suspend county election officials, severely curtailed the number of drop boxes in Democratic strongholds and even made it a crime to offer food or water to voters waiting in long lines. By June of this year, 13 states added new restrictions to their voting laws, many of them Republican-controlled.  

A Republican Party that once sought to guarantee liberty for all now seeks to restrict those liberties — not only when it comes to voting rights, but on issues as diverse as opposing abortion rights, rejecting the Respect for Marriage Act which protected same-sex and interracial marriages, banning access to some school library books and restricting what lessons should be taught in classrooms.  

Lacking a compass, Republicans have lost the sense of direction that guided their approach to foreign policy since the days of Ronald Reagan. Reagan argued that Republicans must guarantee a strong national defense and oppose the designs of communist leaders to expand their influence. Reagan’s antipathy toward the Soviet Empire was evident during his first presidential press conference when he characterized its leaders as reserving unto themselves “the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat.”  

Today, a growing number of House Republicans oppose granting more military and economic aid to Ukraine, including Johnson, who voted against it just last month. This is a stunning reversal by the party that once idolized Reagan.  

In his televised speech concerning the wars in Israel and Ukraine, President Biden declared, “If we don’t stop Putin’s appetite for power and control in Ukraine, he won’t limit himself just to Ukraine.” 

Ronald Reagan could not have said it better. 

The present-day Republican amnesia is entirely due to Donald Trump’s proficiency in rewriting the party’s history. The most shameful moment of the Trump presidency occurred during the insurrection at the Capitol to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. A review by the House committee tasked with investigating the incident concluded that Trump was part of a “multi-party conspiracy” to overturn the elections and that he personally “lit that fire” that led to the riots. 

This year, the Republican National Committee declared that the Capitol riot was nothing more than “legitimate political discourse.” Sixty-one percent of Republican voters agree. 

When a party loses its sense of history, its once-cherished narrative is often seized by the opposition. For example, in his 2024 reelection announcement, Joe Biden snatched the mantle of freedom so often espoused by Ronald Reagan, charging that “personal freedom” is under attack across the country.

 “MAGA extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms, dictating what healthcare decisions women can make, banning books and telling people who they can love all the while making it more difficult for you to be able to vote,” Biden said.    

History’s perversion has now come full circle. During the Civil War, Julia Ward Howe was staying at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. Inspired in the middle of the night, Howe wrote the verses to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Unknown to many is the second verse where Howe references the Union campfires that were protecting the Nation’s Capital. For four years, Union forces held the Confederates at bay and the Capitol was secure. 

But on Jan. 6, 2021, the Capitol was breached and, for the first time, a Confederate flag flew under the Capitol dome.  

This is what happens when a once Grand Old Party squanders its heritage. 

John Kenneth White is a professor of politics at The Catholic University of America. His forthcoming book is titled “Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism.” He can be reached at johnkennethwhite.com.