Last week, Rush Limbaugh called for Powell to leave the Republican party after the former Secretary of State gave a speech in which he suggested that the GOP was increasingly coming under the control of radicals. Limbaugh said that Powell should "become a Democrat instead of claiming to be a Republican interested in reforming the Republican Party."
I feel that it’s important for all students of history and religion to pay attention to the present. It is far too easy too often to interpret the past through the lens of what happened after. For example we look back on the reformation of the Church and talk about how if they had just stayed in the Catholic Church they could have helped to reform her. Yes they were kicked out, but had they tried to bring the Church through in baby steps then it would not have come to such a head that they were excommunicated.
This was the attitude of a professor I had in University. He believed that if those like Luther and Menno Simons had stayed in the Church they could have brought about a slower change, but kept the Church whole.
Now lets look up at the quote from an article published in the Huffington Post today. We have Powell (and others) who believe in bringing the Republican Party back to it’s origins, to a GOP that was true to it’s core, before people started changing it. Of course those who currently set the tone of the Republican party (Limbaugh) couldn’t abide this, as a return to Republican Principles would decrease their power and change their comfortable position. So they call for him to be ousted, that he shouldn’t even be considered a Republican anymore.
Sound familiar?
Now Powell could stay in, and try to change the party from the inside, but somehow I don’t think that’s going to work. The more that people like Powell have attempted to get the Republican party to see the error in its ways the more that the radicals in the party have pulled the other direction. It will be interesting to see what happens here.
Now unlike during the Reformation there is a second choice. Instead of creating a new party they can join the Democratic Party.
This will give us a good opportunity to observe something similar to the reformation. Will the Republican Party change, will they be split into two or more parties, or will the moderating influence simply leave for the Democrats until there is but a shell left?
