Am I smokin’ somethin’?  Well, ask again at the end of this piece.

“The Republican Party is imploding.” “The Republican Party has lost its direction.” “The Republican Party is headed to a painful end.” And similar epithets of gloom continue ad infinitum. These epithets have been expressed with increasing frequency over the past few years, but especially in the past several months as America undergoes its political ritual of electing its next President. Alas! Most Americans have witnessed a circus on the Republican side.

What I find troubling though is that several of my democratic friends have been gloating, especially the unabashed democratic commentators in the news media.   I admonish them.  We should try crying instead!

Recently I watched James Baker, alongside other luminaries deliver a eulogy during the funeral services to honor our former first lady, Mrs. Nancy Reagan. It was a terrific and funny eulogy. More importantly, however, I was reminded of the once-upon-a-time greats of the recent Republican Party.   James Baker would justifiably be classified as one of them–intellectuals, who also counted as ‘practitioner-leaders’.   He served as Chief of Staff under Presidents Reagan and H. W. Bush, and had also served in cabinet as Secretaries of the Treasury and State.    There are others who would more neatly qualify as “hardcore” recent intellectual heavyweights including the late Mr. William F. Buckley who I thought made the case for conservatism with compelling forthrightness.

More of the ilk of James Baker included Robert Zoellick, and Brent Scowcroft. Of course, I would be disingenuous if I said these are the only Republicans meriting mention. There are many more.   These names are examples though who come to my mind as individuals who command enormous respect certainly within the US, but also internationally.  Foreign governments trust them and continue to seek their advice and guidance.  As much as I may disagree with the Republican Party’s mantra, I admired these individuals because of what they accomplished and their abilities to do what was right while standing up for the principles they believed in.

How could I, a democrat, admire these few Republicans so openly?  Blasphemy? Well no.  My argument is that our country is the stronger only when both parties are at their best.  Democrats shouldn’t gloat at an imploding Republican Party.  The weaker they are, the weaker the Democratic Party also becomes.  The country thrives when the competition for ideas is at full throttle. On this score, I am quite sure the political historians would agree with me. The country cannot thrive when the balance of intellectual rigor is so one-sided as it is now. You watch the debates on the democratic side and there is order and civility, amidst the battling over ideas, accompanied with a dose of the good old mutual respect we’ve come to expect of our political leaders. You watch the Republican debates and it is a morass of incrimination and recrimination, where minorities are disparaged, women are shamed, and violence is incited. So, what’s going on?

According to the Atlantic’s Molly Ball, “There’s the intellectual conservative movement, a decades-long project of institutional actors like the Heritage Foundation and the American Conservative Union, which seeks to push the party toward strict adherence with a set of ideas about limited government, strong national defense, and the traditional family. And then there is the populist, nativist strain, which isn’t really about ideas so much as a raw appeal to emotion.” Oh, by the way, that’s the Karl Rove, Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh types.  Guess, which side is winning?

I cry that the Party is no longer the party of Reagan, let alone Lincoln.  We should all cry that the Republican Party seems to have simply lost its moral compass.  The Bakers’, Scowcrofts’ and Zoellicks of the Republicanism of yore, reclaim your party please!

Am I smokin’ somethin’?