We Can Do Better,
America
The Case for a New American Party
By Adam Graham
Boise, Idaho
2019 Adam Graham
All Rights Reserved
ISBN:
If theres a fire youre trying to douse
You cant put it out from inside the house
Washington on Your Side from the musical Hamilton
I didnt leave the Democratic Party, it left me.
Ronald Reagan
the United States is for the moment left
with two authoritarian populist parties.
- Kevin Williamson .
Table of Contents
Introduction
I recall the day I first identified with the Republican Party. I came from a family where neither parent voted. I was a home-schooled kid whod become enraptured with politics. The more that I read about the Republican Party, the more I realized their values aligned with my beliefs. The GOP was pro-life and fought for the unborn. Then, a group of Republican freshmen Congressmen on Capitol Hill was charging hard and revealing the utter corruption of the long-serving Democratic Majority.
This affinity for the Republican Party didnt come from my parents. Neither were registered voters at the time. My dad had last cast a protest vote in 1968 for the joke campaign of Pat Paulsen. In 1980, both had registered to vote to cast their ballots for Jimmy Carter but hadnt done it. In the summer of 1991, I declared I was a Republican. This could have been a passing fancy like a kid declaring he was a vegan, but it stuck.
I devoured talk radio and political books. I was introduced to a Republican Party that was the party of big ideas, big ideas that would get our nation away from ruinous deficits and debts. Welfare reform, school choice, respect for individual liberty, and power being returned to the states excited me. These were ideas I believed with all my heart would make our country better by reducing the power of Big Government and giving us all more control over our own lives.
I marched in parades and manned fair booths. I trounced through all sorts of weather carrying Republican literature.
I moved into adulthood and my passion for the GOP continued. I gave small contributions to Republican candidates. I ran for office twice. I served as a precinct captain in two states and I was elected Flathead County Montana Party Secretary in 2002. I was a delegate to the Idaho State Party Convention in 2008 and I worked for three Republican Presidential campaigns.
Now, I wasnt nave enough to be a happy Republican. The Republicans who had railed against big government quickly fell in love with big spending. They had no sooner established responsible spending caps in the 1990s than they were ready to start breaking them. I called the GOP out when they were wrong and that was frequently.
Yet, I remained with the GOP. The Republicans stood for some principles without compromise. The GOP didnt engage in identity politics and the GOP didnt set one American against another. I was outraged by the Democrats practice of stirring up racial strife to maintain their political power.
The GOP also remained a voice for clean government. When a politician behaved disgracefully, they were dealt with quickly. Senator Bob Packwood (R-OR) resigned in 1995 and Senator John Ensign (R-NV) resigned in 2011 after the GOP threatened to expel them. Meanwhile Democrats allowed obvious miscreants to remain in office and serve as high-powered committee chairmen. That didnt matter. Republicans demanded a high standard of ethics from their leaders and the importance of character.
I remember the day Republican Party left me: May 3, 2016 when Donald Trump won the Indiana Primary. Early on the morning of November 9 2016, after Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, I accepted that the GOP was his party, not mine.
While Donald Trump was the catalyst for my decision to leave the Republican Party, I want to be clear this book isnt principally about him and his outrages. This book is about us and the type of country we want to live in.
Most discussions of American politics have centered around one man ever since he came down the elevator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy. Trump provokes reactions ranging from the blind adoration of Trumps cult-like followers to the equally blind rage of Trumps most hateful critics.
One ex-Republican critic of Trump declared Trumps polices make the United States worse than Cuba and Venezuela. Both countries are third-world dictatorships where the peoples only option for getting rid of bad leaders is an armed revolt. To infer Trump is worse than third-world dictators shows rage has warped critics sense of reality.
Most modern political talking heads aim to terrify you and get your blood boiling. Its how blogs attract followers, how talk radio holds listeners, and how political writers churn out best-sellers. These tactics can have nasty side effects, like despair, so I refuse to take that approach. This book instead offers you hope.
While we seek together to understand the problems we face, I will show how these problems present us an opportunity to move our countrys politics in a better direction. I will also recognize President Trump is only a symptom of larger issues with our nations politics.
This book is for you if:
If the current state of politics leaves you repulsed by both parties.
If you look at our countrys strife between whites and minorities, rich and poor, men and women, and say, We cannot go on like this.
If you are tired of friendships and families being torn apart by politics.
If you worry about the future were creating for the next generation.
This book is not for you if:
You think our political climate is fine.
You feel your partys or identity groups uncivil behavior is an appropriate response to the other sides inappropriate behavior.
You use Fake News to mean sources slamming the President as embarrassing and untrustworthy and only trust sources that affirm Trump as Best President ever!
If you wake up every morning and salute a life-sized cutout of the President.
That said, this book is not about beating you up over whoever you voted for in 2016. For many voters, 2016 was a choice of the lesser of two evils. According to CNNs exit poll, one out of four Trump voters voted for him despite believing he lacked the temperament to be President. I voted third party in accord with my conscience. I respect that many voters consciences dictated they choose between Trump and Clinton. This book hopes to prevent Americans from having to face such a choice ever again.
While this book is about the future, were going to learn from the past, per the example of the Founding Fathers. When drafting the Constitution, our Founders studied republics throughout history: those that had succeeded to some degree and how they had all eventually failed. They took lessons from history that they used to draft our Constitution.
In advocating for the Constitution in the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay spent several letters examining the deficiencies of the then-current form of government under the Articles of Confederation. In a similar way, well examine the problems with the Republican Party, the Democrats, and other third parties. This is not to be negative, but to highlight matters we ought to be aware of in establishing a new party.
I will outline an active approach to form a new American political party and how I believe it can succeed where many have failed. I offer my perspective as a lifelong student of American politics and a former activist and office-holder within the Republican Party who has seen how that party functions and observed the failings of other third-party efforts.
