What do Republicans value? My fellow conservatives need to fight the right way. | Opinion
Our conversations with our colleagues and relatives do not need to feel the way politics feels on cable news, social media and in our nation's capital.
In 2011, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was shot in the head and nearly killed in an assassination attempt. Six people were killed and 12 others wounded in the attack.
Two weeks later, Democrats and Republicans in Congress came together for the State of the Union address. In the third year of Barack Obama’s first term, the president and Congress belatedly lived up to the transcendent spirit of hope and change promised in the 2008 campaign.
Democrats and Republicans bucked the longstanding practice of segregating themselves in the chamber according to party. South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune and New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand took their seats side by side. So did Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall and South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint. At many points during the president's speech, they stood and applauded as one.
The Obama years were polarized by historical measures, but they began with great hope for unity in America. In the wake of tragedy, for the briefest moment, that unity was realized.
I became a 'hope and change' Republican
I entered American politics in a visible way at the age of 26. I was a Republican nominee for Congress in the 2014 election cycle, running in the 43rd district of California. It marked the culmination of a political rebirth. I had grown up a liberal activist. After many life experiences and much study, I saw fit to fly the banner of the conservative movement.
Yet, even in this I was a novelty. My road to conservatism began with a devotion to Obama's 2008 campaign. I shared in the spirit of what I believe to be Obama’s vision of an America that transcended the tribalism of partisan and racial divides. I studied conservatism to win conservatives over to the Obama coalition. But I found my own conservative values in the process.
Yet, the bridge-building spirit of that early Obama campaign remained central to my political identity. In essence, I ran for Congress as a “hope and change” Republican.
National Review wrote about the “California Dream” of John Wood Jr. As I explained to conservative talk radio show host (and future California Republican gubernatorial nominee) Larry Elder, that dream arose from a belief that “America’s not really going to reach her greater potential until we come to a place where … we’ve transcended the limitations (of) partisan warfare for the sake of partisan warfare.”
Republicans in my district overwhelmingly agreed at the time.
Now, many of my fellow Republicans will say that partisan warfare does serve a purpose. Not for its own sake, but for the sake of defending things that matter.
For many on the right, the injustices of President Joe Biden's years in the White House − including a belief that the government was weaponized against American liberties during the COVID-19 pandemic, that social media platforms clamped down on free speech at government behest, that the Justice Department was deployed against the political enemies of the administration, and that the rule of law was abandoned in the name of social justice on the border and in our cities − necessitate the muscular approach of President Donald Trump.
So, it may have been divisive for Trump to spend the first 15 minutes of his first address of his second term to a joint session of Congress berating his political opponents, but it also was for a purpose.
Trump recognizes that now is the time to fight, to end (what is to most Republicans) a culture of corruption that has long prevailed in the federal government, controlled by a self-interested establishment and powered by a radical Democratic Party.
Maybe all of that is true. Maybe all of it is false. Maybe Trump really is fighting the good fight. Maybe he is just as tyrannical as his harshest critics accuse him of being.
Moreover, maybe Obama was never sincere about wanting to unite the American people. Or maybe he tried as hard as he could.
Is unity still a value we hold?
Put presidents aside. The question is this: Do we as Americans − Democrats, Republicans and others −still believe that the unity we rose to in the aftermath of the shooting of Gabby Giffords is still the ideal toward which we should strive?
Is it not still worth it to believe that the American people can learn to come together and defy those things that divide us?
This month, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, was ejected from the House floor for heckling the president during the fiery opening minutes of Trump’s address to Congress. Green was later censured by a majority of the House, including 10 Democrats.
Green represented the strong urge among many Democrats to fight back against Trump and his administration.
We are united then, it seems, in the belief that we must fight for the things that matter. Indeed, we must.
But the question is always how do we fight? As siblings and spouses know, there is no contradiction in our loving each other and fighting with each over things that matter. We cannot avoid conflict in our families or in politics. But we can reintroduce goodwill into the struggle.
I invite my fellow Republicans to lead the way.
Our conversations with our colleagues and relatives do not need to feel the way politics feels on cable news, social media and in our nation’s capital. That is why Braver Angels, America’s largest grassroots member organization dedicated to political depolarization, is hosting a series of online debates and local discussions on the first 100 days of the Trump administration.
My work as Braver Angels national ambassador grows out of my conservative commitment to bridging the space between us. Yes, I am asking all Americans of all parties and those with no political affiliations to sign up for this campaign.
But I am making a special appeal to Republicans. Although our party has won the presidency and both houses of Congress, and although conservatives hold a majority on the Supreme Court, there is still no path toward the America most of us want to see without working hard, day by day, to restore trust among the American people.
Most of us want an America where we can speak to our neighbors who hold different political opinions. Most of us want to see an America where families do not fall apart over politics. Most of us want to see an America where both sides trust our institutions because they work, regardless of which party is in power.
I have always known that there are Republicans, just as there are Democrats, who are dedicated to fighting in the right way, who are willing to debate the issues while defying the divide.
The time for those Republicans to come forward is now.
John Wood Jr. is a columnist for Paste BN Opinion. He is national ambassador for Braver Angels, a former nominee for Congress, former vice chairman of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, musical artist, and a noted writer and speaker on subjects including racial and political reconciliation. Follow him on X: @JohnRWoodJr