Longtime Republican mourns GOP's descent into the 'gutter'

The Evolution of the Republican Party

Republican strategist Steve Schmidt has spent nearly 30 years within the party, witnessing its transformation over the decades. In a recent Substack post, he reflected on the party’s origins and its current state, describing it as a “sad devolution” over the last few years.

Schmidt marked the 172nd anniversary of the Republican Party’s founding in 1854, highlighting the ideals that once defined it. He referenced Horace Greeley, one of its founders, who envisioned the party as “the greatest party for freedom the world had ever seen.” This was a time when the party was formed in opposition to the expansion of slavery, a stance that led to the election of Abraham Lincoln and the preservation of the Union during the Civil War.

At its core, the Republican Party was built on principles of human liberty and the belief that the United States could not survive as a nation divided between free and slave states. These values were central to its identity and gave it a moral purpose that transcended political ambitions.

However, Schmidt argues that the party has strayed from these foundational ideals over the past two decades. He attributes this shift to the influence of Newt Gingrich, whose leadership helped steer the party toward a focus on grievance, resentment, and bigotry. According to Schmidt, the party has become a haven for extreme views, including religious extremism and radical ideologies that prioritize state power over individual rights.

The turning point, according to Schmidt, came with the election of Barack Obama. What initially appeared as a grassroots movement against taxation and government overreach, he suggests, concealed a more troubling undercurrent: a politics fueled by resentment, identity, and conspiracy theories. Compromise became betrayal, and governance took a backseat to performance.

The decisive break, however, was the rise of Donald Trump. Schmidt notes that the party that once claimed Lincoln as its moral compass embraced a leader who spread lies, attacked democratic institutions, and redefined loyalty to himself rather than the Constitution. The January 6th attack on the Capitol, where a mob incited by a sitting president attempted to overturn a free and fair election, marked a significant moment in this transformation.

Schmidt criticizes the party’s response to the attack, stating that many members rationalized, minimized, or outright defended the actions of those involved. He sees this as evidence of the party’s devolution into a force that prioritizes power at any cost, replacing its original language of liberty with one of victimhood. The commitment to truth has been replaced by a willingness to believe anything that serves the cause.

Today, Schmidt describes the Republican Party as one of “cowardice and treachery, submission and debasement.” He adds that it is also the party of “Florsheim shoes three sizes too big, and ideas that are uniformly small, cruel and dumb.”

While political parties naturally evolve, Schmidt emphasizes that there is a difference between evolution and abandonment. He calls for a return to the values that once defined the party, suggesting that without such a shift, the Republican Party risks losing its relevance and credibility.