Bipolarity in the United States’ political realm has been a growing concern throughout various periods of American history; today’s political bipolarity shows nothing more than the centuries-long need to step away from our two-party system that feeds into this cleavage. Pence’s surprising rebuke of Trump’s statement on the legality of overturning American elections signals, to me, a growing sentiment on the Republican side of the need to redefine American republicanism and conservatism. In other words, Pence, in openly rebuking Trump’s statement, has uncovered a growing rift within the right, perhaps an indication of the varying sects of the Republican party that may increasingly want to distance themselves from Trump’s base.
It is more than evident that Trump’s base, and the loudest sect of the Republican party, is truly destroying Republican principles and actively causing erosion of our general American processes. The Jan. 6 riot was a political anomaly; a display of political disagreement that touched the organs of the American project in a way and with support that has not been seen in centuries. It signaled white supremacy and white privilege as consistent lobbyists without our government, and we continue to live in its history as its very impact is still being contested and downplayed by the right. There is increasing distrust amongst the right and republicans of American institutions, the electoral process and our executive branch. While Trump’s base believes their hesitation to trust the American government is their own Americanness at play, they are actually causing deep erosion in the efficiency of our society and government. Trust in the governmental process is the absolute key to functioning states. Transparency of government functions is the absolute key to trusting our government. Trump first eroded the latter in his presidency and has eroded the former in the time following it. Very clearly, Trump’s base has set themselves as essentially opponents to the state, and Republican’s with their continued support and rhetoric of such ideals have been pushing themselves further and further from the central government; incredibly ironic, however, they still seek to put themselves as the head of government they hold so much disdain for.
Consequently, it is not possible to openly call for the distrust of a system and simultaneously want to be a part of it. The consequence of creating so much distrust of the governmental process is that if they are to regain control of the legislative branch, that same distrust they created previously will still be there just no longer from their perspective. In essence, the decay of trust in the effectiveness of the American government has already spread. It has already taken root within the Republican party, and because of that, it will take root within the Democrats. Such angst without our government, and within the relationship between our government and the people cannot and will not simmer down as the literal riot has already taken place, and change has yet still to occur. Trump’s base which so willingly tears down the American system while seeking to replace it with Trumpism clearly has set up the next period of American politics, characterized by profoundly deep introspection of how our American government can function when two parties are imploding from within.
Pence’s “President Trump is Wrong” statement shows his own attempt, and perhaps a symbol of the conservatives he represents, that the Republican party is not whole. There are in fact a wide array of ideologies that differ and rebuke the Trump mindset. Consequently, if Trump’s base continues to be a driving factor for the Republican party’s modern success, then Pence’s statements indicate a distinction of principles within conservatives and the right. Similarly, the Democrat party has spent so much energy and time battling Trumpism and the Republicans, and simultaneously upholding American institutions, that they have signaled their own neglect of the minorities that consistently vote for them. Black, indigenous, and people of color generally align well with principles of the Democrat party, but recent political trends and the need to respond to Trumpism has made these concerns unimportant and susceptible to solely slow reform. Evidently, the rifts between progressive and moderate democrats indicate to me a difference of principles within the Democratic party. This along with Pence’s display of the rifts within the Republican party highlight the very desperate call the American people have been pleading for to have actual governmental representation and not just alignment with parties that stray so far from our values and care solely for consolidation of power for everything but the people.
