The Responsibility Gap: Why Today’s GOP Can’t Be Trusted to Govern

As a writer, sometimes you hit on an idea that seems so self-evident and flush with examples that you sit stunned that it hasn't already been widely elaborated upon. I think I've got one of those, and the nearly endless stream of domains where it applies has me thinking in terms of book chapters rather than blog posts.

Here it is: The modern Republican Party has abandoned the basic principle of responsibility in virtually every area of policymaking. Democrats have not.

The modern Republican Party has abandoned the basic principle of responsibility in virtually every area of policymaking.

Addendum: Democrats are diverse in many ways, but the thing that unites us with many well-intentioned Republican voters is that we seek to exercise responsibility in our everyday lives. As the GOP proves in more and more ways that responsibility is not important to them, Hoosiers need to reassess who is really serving their long-term interests.

The word responsible has its etymology in the Latin verb respondere, meaning "to pledge back." To be responsible is to engage in action that acknowledges an obligation to another and takes care of a promise. To be irresponsible, then, means to ignore one's obligations through failing to keep one's word, disregarding the existence of others' needs, or any other means that breaks a social contract.

The economy. The tax system. National security. Public health. The rule of law. Personal rights. Freedom of choice. Voting rights. Public education. Group relations. Campaign finance. Immigration. Public corruption. The national debt. The environment. Free inquiry. Science. Religion. History. Democracy. Facts. Truth.

If I were to write a book demonstrating how the modern Republican Party has fallen into a state of fundamental irresponsibility, these could each be whole chapters. The GOP loves to talk about "personal responsibility"—and yet in each of these areas, they are making decisions that are smashing social contracts, leaving average people to fend for themselves in the face of exploding shared challenges.

Let's take one national example that hit close to home in Indiana. 

On the morning of Friday, June 24, 2022, I was sitting field-side in Birmingham, Alabama, watching my teenage son play in a travel baseball tournament. My stomach was so sick with suppressed horror since I'd woken up that I had been unable to eat before our early matchup. As I was dreading what would happen that day, around 9 am central time the bombshell dropped that the Supreme Court—with its three new Trump appointees as part of the first 6–3 conservative supermajority in 30 years—had overturned the 50-year precedent of abortion rights created by Roe v. Wade. I spent the rest of that day in a strange fugue-like state of fury and despair.

Like millions of other Americans that morning, I knew what would happen next. It did.

Indiana struck first. With the full support of Republican Governor Eric Holcomb and against the will of the majority of Hoosiers, the Republican supermajority in the legislature sprang into action. With almost no public comment or serious debate, they rammed through the nation's first near-total abortion ban just 12 days later. The aftermath has been widespread and devastating, including not only thousands of forced pregnancies among women and girls, but also women suffering permanent harm from pregnancy emergencies and physicians fleeing our state for fear of being prosecuted for prioritizing women's health.

The layers of irresponsibility demonstrated by this example basically write themselves. First, the Republican U.S. Senate irresponsibly—and for the first time in history—denied then-President Obama his rightful duty of naming a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016. Donald Trump, despite fears within the GOP about his widely known and extensive business and personal failings (that is, his cardinal character trait of irresponsibility) was thus enabled by the Senate's action to campaign on the promise that he would fill the open Court seat with an anti-abortion nominee. Trump was ultimately elected President by such a tiny margin that November that his win could feasibly be attributed to that single act. When the new Court was presented with ample evidence during argument that overturning Roe would permit a new legal regime which would prove deadly to women, they irresponsibly pulled that trigger anyway. Indiana being Indiana, the supermajority irresponsibly ignored the wishes of the people, the business community, health care professionals, and legal experts to pass a law that has now harmed thousands of girls and women. 

None of the perpetrators at any stage of these harms have taken responsibility for their actions in any way, not expressing one iota of shame or regret at what has happened. And no Republican leader has held any fellow Republican to proper account—that is, held any of their own responsible—for one of the worst offenses against women's rights and health in our history.

Like the turtles of the saying, it is irresponsibility all the way down when it comes to the modern Republican Party. And what is most tragic about this is that most Hoosiers who vote for today's GOP candidates are actually doing so believing that their party will show the same care and attention to consequences while in office, that they themselves uphold in their daily lives.

I see no signs that the massive gap between well-meaning, highly responsible Hoosier voters and the recklessly irresponsible politicians they've been voting for will narrow anytime soon. How can Democrats stand in the breach and help Hoosiers understand how we offer a better path? That's coming up soon in a future post.