It’s become an increasingly popular trend on the left: Democrats and corporate media types longingly wishing for a return of the “old Republican Party,” pining after the days when American politics was supposedly a more civilized affair. For conservatives, this should be as good a sign as any to forcefully guard against that version of the GOP ever making a comeback.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer offered an illustrative entry into this genre during the DNC Convention last month while commenting on the legacy of his Republican counterpart, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell. “[McConnell’s] role in history, in my opinion, will go down poorly,” Schumer said. But, he continued, McConnell “can salvage some of that reputation… by trying to get the old Republican Party back.”
Schumer added that he hopes former President Donald Trump loses by a wide margin this November, another common theme among those nostalgically reflecting on the heyday of the old GOP. “If he loses by quite a bit, we may find the old Republican Party and we’ll be able to work with them,” Schumer said.
That sentiment was echoed in a Politico Magazine piece out last week. “If Republicans want to win, they need Trump to lose — big,” author Jonathan Martin wrote. “The more decisively Vice President Kamala Harris wins… the faster Republicans can begin building a post-Trump party.”
As Martin describes it, that “post-Trump” party looks a lot like the pre-Trump party.
“As they’ve demonstrated for going on a decade now, Republican leaders will repeatedly bow to the preference of their base over their own judgment when it comes to Trump,” Martin writes. In other words, the GOP is now actually listening to its voters rather than the failed Washington establishment (the audacity!).
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed the same idea back in 2022, saying she “want[s] the Republican Party to take back the party, take it back to where you were.” Biden repeatedly voiced that desire as well throughout the 2020 campaign and into his presidency.
It’s easy to see why the left wants the old regime back. Republican voters who lived through the pre-Trump era no doubt remember the endless string of betrayals and cowardice from GOP leaders – a pattern that continued well into the Trump years. It was an old guard Republican, the late Senator John McCain, who delivered perhaps the greatest victory for Democrats during Trump’s presidency by casting the deciding vote opposing the repeal of Obamacare.
For Democrats, the old Republican Party was little more than controlled opposition. Republicans won some elections, but Democrats successfully used their dominance of the media and cultural institutions to prevent them from advancing the conservative agenda that they promised their voters.
Moreover, Democrats treated the old Republican Party with the same hostility and alarmist rhetoric with which they treat the current GOP. Back in 2004, opinion pieces in The New York Times were calling George W. Bush “evil” and accusing him of “embracing conspiracy theories.” Sound familiar?
During the 2012 DNC Convention, Schumer likewise accused Republican nominee Mitt Romney of “want[ing] to take us backwards” – the very same line he and other Democrats are now using against Trump. Today, Romney is celebrated on the left as a “reasonable” Republican, the embodiment of the old Republican Party, and a “decent” man. But when he threatened Barack Obama’s control of the White House, the left slandered Romney as a callous out-of-touch millionaire. Nancy Pelosi and others on the left declared that “democracy is on the ballot,” just as they have in 2016, 2020, and now 2024.
The reality is that no matter who Republicans put forth as their nominee, no matter how neutered and compliant the party as a whole is, Democrats have proven they will always claim democracy, freedom, and everything good in the world are at risk unless the left is in power.
The difference now is that, thanks to Trump, Republicans are starting to get wise to the game. Democrats aren’t upset that the GOP is supposedly more radical than it was 10 or 20 years ago – in some ways it is less traditionally conservative. They’re upset that Trump has ushered in a new era where the center of gravity in the GOP is opposed to the elites that have truly run Washington for decades no matter which party was in power.
Ironically, it is Democrats, not Republicans, who have radicalized. Democrats were once the party of abortion being “safe, legal, and rare,” and have now become the party that celebrates extreme late-term abortion as an empowering, almost sacred act. Democrats once championed social welfare programs to help the legitimately needy; now they want to make everyone, including illegal aliens, a government dependent to create an army of loyal voters. Democrats once stood for family values, yet now they advocate for the surgical mutilation of confused children and the dissolution of the nuclear family. The list goes on.
As many former Democrats have said, they didn’t leave the party, the party left them. The American people, not just Republicans, have good reason to want the “old Democrat Party” back.
Republicans should keep this wisdom in mind: whenever your opponent complains about how difficult you are making things for them, it’s a good idea to keep doing whatever it is you are doing. As long as the left keeps wish-casting for a return of the old GOP, conservatives should be optimistic in the direction of the party.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
Yes, I’m sure the Democrat Party wants the old GOP Party back. The GOP that knew how to “lose with dignity” election after election in competitive races, had no backbone, and never put up too much of a fight on anything that really mattered. The good old days of an occasional pretty GOP speech from the likes of a McConnell / Romney RINO type (there were plenty of them to choose from), who would make flowery statements or speeches of little specific substance and then never do any actual follow-up to enact much of anything of real substance. The good old days when the Democrats didn’t have to worry about getting 80% to 100% of what they wanted time and time again without having to put out much effort. Ah, the good old days indeed for the Democrat Party.
There is a reason why both Reagan and Trump were despised by the Democrat Party. How dare any Republican actually fight to oppose anything the Democrats wanted or opposed and then got the public to back them up in serious numbers. This was heresy to the Democrat Party and “How Washington, D.C. is supposed to work.”. The entire administrative state of D.C. is now overwhelming Democrat controlled, because the Democrats were allowed to run wild with little to no real resistance from a submissive GOP for decades upon decades. Is it any real wonder why the Democrat leadership in Congress and the MSM, which is completely dominated by the Democrat Party, is so open about advocating for a return of the old guard GOP? It shouldn’t be. They merely are voicing their displeasure with any members of the GOP daring to oppose the Democrat agenda and the power of the Democrat Party.
We would like to have the old Democratic Party back — the one that isn’t Marxist, the one that once loved America and didn’t want to “fundamentally change it.”
Of course they want the old GOP- the one that rolled over for everything the Dems wanted ” Let’s compromise, and do it my way” LBJ.
I want the old democrat party back, the party of JFK. They were willing to actually work with republicans unlike the “new” democrats who wouldn’t let republicans into the framing of Obamacare, or only two token republicans on the J6 committee.
before Trump it had become a one “party” dog-and-pony-show system.
I still remember when Democrats took over CA.Prop 187,which outlawed welfare,schooling,etc for illegal immigrants passed by a large margin.One San Francisco Democrat judge declared it unconstitutional.The Republican party rolled over,including the Republican governor and did nothing.Then Democrats were able to bring in and bribe millions of illegal immigrants,with other peoples’ money, to vote for them.Eventually CA went Democrat and became a welfare state.That is the Democrat’s plan for the rest of the country.
The party of Romney, Cheney and Kinzinger? No thanks.
Wanting the old GOP back is just a tactic to win. They don’t want any rep back. They talk about democracy and they are destroying it. For the past 4 years they have done nothing for the country to prosper. Only spreading dictatorship in every nook and cranny of this country. Schumer should be ashamed of himself for threatening the Supreme Court judges. That is democracy? Now they are propagating a candidate that has no vision for this country. We are voting for JOY. The job as president of the US has to be measured by the merits of the person. Not gender or race or how much she laughs. Even Putin saw right through her. Only the dems didn’t see the bigger meaning behind what he said. It was the saddest comment ever about Kameltoe. This whole agenda where the dems talk about the old GOP is just a tactic to garner votes. The old dem party is no more and people are rejecting the new donkey party en masse come November. VOTE TRUMP/VANCE. TO SAVE AMERICA AND ITS PEOPLE.
I’m sure they miss having a stable of lapdogs.
I’d like to see a return of the old Democratic party – the one where its members would actually work with Republicans and get things done.
Roll over, Democrats – today’s Republican party is stronger than ever and it’s coming to get you!
By “old Republican party”, do they mean the republican party that lost with dignity and caved in to the democrats and gave them everything they wanted, the country be damned? NO THANK YOU!
The Dems want the Republican Party that they were able to walk all over without them fighting back. They want the Republican Party that “compromised” meaning they acquiesed to radical legislation. They want the Republican Arty that was insulted and called all kinds of vile names and didn’t fight back. In other words, they want the Republicans of Bush and Romney.
Trump and I have economics backgrounds and see that the accumulated trade deficit has been driving the accumulated Federal deficit since 2000 and China PNTR. Obviously Shane is oblivious to this fact and would do nothing to stop our massive trade deficit with China. The singular importance of the damage being waged by the trade deficit should be common knowledge but is being hidden. China has its tentacles into our media, into our Congress, into the Washington swamp, and into the White House. If Trump loses China wins. Over the last eight years the Democrats with their two impeachments and bogus legal actions against Trump have vividly demonstrated that they lie, cheat, intimidate, and attack anyone against their liberal, despotic, socialist agenda.
they want the deep state warmonger party back they donot fight for freedom the law or the people they all want to control everything about your life and your children be good little robots and or slaves
Democrats don’t grasp the America everyone wants has been destroyed by the Democrat Party. The tendency to vote what the people back home want and not what the party wants vanished some time ago. Senators have stopped thinking and doing what is good for their state or the country. Direct election of Senators changed the mental dynamics of the Senate from being representatives of State Government to be representative of the mob and party. Schumer talks about the will of the people which is manufactured by the Democrat Party puppet media not the good of the country. The only real stopper the country has is the Supreme Court which was give life appointments so they could ignore the mob and do what was Constitutional and good for the country.
Anything the democRATS want is in truth, evil. The OLD democrats were civil and somewhat honest where today they are a mafioso and will try to assassinate even a President. I’m so disgusted with the corruption and lies spewed out about Trump and us followers. In good conscience I don’t see how Harris can win but just like Trumps loss in 2020 the left will cheat. I hope if she (harris) should become president that Americans like Chilians rise up and revolt. I’m ready once again to give my all for our Country and its constitution. I regret I have but one life to give for our Country.This left wing corruption must stop! Clean out the swamp! DJT needed to be quite in his last term as PORUS because by him showing his Acrs he was stonewalled, cheated and now they are so afraid of him that since their assassination attempt failed they need lock him up. If they try after he’s POTUS there will be Civil War. harris will trigger WWIII. She’s so unqualified!!
More like to clean up their messes like we always do when they make them. Every single time democrats get in office, they screw up the nation and then it takes a Republican to straighten it out.
The D party does NOT want Americans to think for themselves. They want absolute control over everyone’s lives. Think as they think and give them power.
The coming election is the most important one in our lifetime. We can’t let the D party dictate TO US any longer. IMHO, THEY have forsaken GOD, our Constitution, and the American people.
I am sure that the Dems will lament greatly when the “accommodating, corroborative, cooperative” stooge McConnell is no longer available to allow the Dems to do whatever they want and pass any bill they decide needs to be passed to continue the Dems in power.
Schumer your behavior is disgusting, irrational, pontificating hollow words (read, bent over, never you, but some write, follow the script and act important – – – YOU AIN’T). Getting rid of those who are clones, replace with honest thinking Americans we can respect will make a huge difference.
But, more than that, term limits, all manner of restrictions, a much smaller government, adherence to budget, and importantly your all ignorant and do no longer “represent” anyone but self, not those who elected you. Starting over with strict rules of conduct, reasons for Congress, even number for all states (screw imbalance and while at it, destroy political parties and tell Americans who you are, in writing, verifiable, and if lie out you go! Time for citizens to get tough and tighten voting rules, etc. Time for decent citizens to take back government and change all that is required to make it honest, morally strong, honest, citizen oversight, and all with citizen oversight, not just crooked elections. You have lost, now is time for American citizens to take away you gravy train. A MUST!
there is not a democratic party in my home state of MN. it’s the DFL party. Democratic Farm Labor party. that was a communist group out of the 40s that the dems were happy to combine forces. it persists to this day. perhaps dems nationwide should honestly adopt this accurate moniker.
I personally do not want the OLD REPUBLICAN PARTY BACK I want the party that is doing the Peoples business rather than the RINOS BUSINESS like the Chenys,the McConnell, Shumer,Pelosi that do the business of the powerful and power hungry professional politicians. You all work for us and Trump gets it he gas and will continue to work for us and not big government.
Democrats want the old Republican Party back because its adherents aren’t conservative; they are RINOs. The real Republicans are now the strength of the party and Democrats certainly don’t want them in control because they will dominate with voters.
By “old republican party” do they mean the party that “lost with dignity” and caved in to democrats and gave them everything they wanted, whether it hurt the country or not in the name of “compromise” and” working with democrats”? If the answer to this question is “yes”, NO THANK YOU! I will take the republican party of today that fights for conservative principles over the part that lets democrats walk all over them any day of the week.
The Democrats want the “old” Republican party back because they are afraid of not having the Uni-party to rule with. I have bad news for Chuck U Schumer! The “old” Republican Party is gone for forever! People like Chuck U Schumer will be gone far away very soon!
They should look in the mirror. They are the old republican party. In policy and donors.
What they want is the “nice” party that rolled over and gave them everything they wanted all the time.
Just like there are no “conservative Blue dog” Democrats or moderates (they ran them all out of the party.) There are no more weak Republicans as well. We ran those RINO POS weaklings out of OUR party.
Get used to it.
Dems are stuck in the past & the old GOP aided Dems the Uniparty
Yes, the old rino’s (which sadly still exist and weaken the party) were/are so much easier to manipulate! And civility? The Democrats really shouldn’t be pointing fingers (something about living in glass houses). We have seen throughout history that what passes for civil behavior is a paper thin veneer that is easily torn.
What they really want are more RINO back in office, so that they can institute their progressive communist agenda without opposition.
Democrats want Democrats in office not Republicans. They want compliance not compromise. Only a Democrat will lock-step to other Democrats power. The most recent example is how one week, Biden is “sharp as a tack” and Kamala is a “detriment to the ticket” and the next, Biden is the detriment and Kamala is the sharp one! Constant positive press helps like Trumps constant negative!
You could make the same argument about the older Democrat party. The party of John F Kennedy, Harry Truman. The party has been hi jacked by extreme left Socialist.
I am sure he wants the Let’s make a deal days back.
Of course they want the old Republican party back. They where a bunch of do nothing politicians. Won Congress last election and are again turning into the NEW DO NOTHING CLUB!
Yes, the “Democrats” want to insist that every Republican in office must “cross the line”, or, continue to be a pushover… the likes of which, we have had many of.
We don’t have enough “margin” to give in to the complacency of earlier years. The time to defeat moral bereftness and lack of resolve is now.
The Democratic Party turned its back on its base, working class Whites, leaving no where for them to turn to but the Republican Party. The old school Republicans resent this, but dare not do anything about it.
Democrats care how the Republican party is only because they want pandering politicians who they can bamboozle into doing things their way. Long live Trump and MAGA! We need that change from politics as usual. And JD Vance to carry on.
To hell with the old “go along, to get along” party. MAGA
Who cares what the Communists want? It’s readily apparent (and has been for a while) that their sole interest is weakening our Republic. Ever since I can remember, the Communists have labeled conservatives ‘Nazis’, ‘sexist’, ‘racists’ and ‘radicals’ at every turn. When Trump won in 2016 even so called ‘moderate Democrats’ (really just a mythical creature like the unicorn) called for resistance’ to Trump nominees and policies. To their dismay, Trump calls the Communists out for their failed policies and lies, something that the entire GOP should do at every opportunity. To the Communists, they are at war and the GOP (especially conservatives) are the enemy, so the current state of political discourse is their doing.
NO way, Jose! Schumer doesn’t say a WORD about how far to the left to Dem Party has gone. No compromise — he wants it their way!
THE REPUBLICANS HAVE NOT GUTS. THEY NEED TO MOVE FORWARD AND ….. BE DONE WITH IT. STOP THE TALK
The children filed into class on a Monday morning. They were all very excited. Their weekend assignment was to sell something, and then give a talk on salesmanship.
Little Sally let off. “I sold Girl Scout cookies and I made $30,” she proudly said. “My sales approach was to appeal to the customer’s civil spirit and I credit that approach for my obvious success.”
“Very good,” said the teacher
Little Debbie was next. “I sold magazines,” she said. “I made $45 and I explained to everyone that magazines would keep them up on current events.”
“Very good, Debbie,” said the teacher.
Eventually, it was Little Johnny’s turn. The teacher held her breath as Little Johnny walked to the front of the classroom and dumped a box full of cash on the teacher’s desk.
“$2,467,” said Little Johnny.
“$2,467!” cried the teacher. “What in the world were you selling?”
“Toothbrushes,” said Little Johnny.
“Toothbrushes,” echoed the teacher. “how could you possibly sell enough toothbrushes to make that much money?”
“I found the busiest corner in town,” said Little Johnny. “I set up a dip and chip stand and I gave everyone who walked by a free sample.”
They all said the same thing, “HEY, this tastes like dog-poop!”
Then I would say, “It is dog poop. Wanna buy a toothbrush?”
I used the democrat method of giving you some crap, dressing it up so it looks good, telling you it’s free, and then making you pay to get the bad taste out of your mouth.”
Little Johnny got five stars.
Harris is non candidate. She is entirely made up by the media. There is no content. There’s not enough room in the for all the media that have created this caricature. She is non-existent
Because the Old republican party, called the Rhinos are every bit the Corrupt Entity these democrats are. They like the democrats do not want to give up the Money, Power and Control they have relished over the People for Decades which is why Dogs like Romney, Cheney, both the Bush’s, McConnell, Graham and the other Rhinos continue to support the democrats Communist-Socialist Agendas that their feeble and mindless supports refuse to acknowledge is happening. Wake up voters because that is indeed where they are taking us. This is why they Rhinos continue attacking Trump because he wants to end the Status Quo of DC Corruption in Washington, and they hate him for it.
Except for Trump, DeSantis and a few other Repubs, the Old GOP still is in DC-Congress. The Dems are saying this now because they need GOP votes to keep from changes in law to increase election integrity. I figure Dem-run states won’t require photo ID to vote so ‘the cheat’ can still be done.
Good advice for the wise! How is ‘bring back the old you’ progressive??? They Lie. They cheat. They steal. That’s all they do well. Everything else is fake!
We want the old Democratic party back. The one that actually cared about the people, not the jackasses like in there now.
How about the old democratic party back. The party now did a u turn somewhere are all lockstep with NO INDEPENDENT thinkers.
Supposedly a more “civilized affair” sorry if I’ve gotten a bit off base, I tend to do that…. interesting as the demorats have become the party of treason, lies, disinformation, ugliness, foul, disgusting, duplicitous…surely there are more descriptions but in the interest of decency I shan’t add them here. The “republican” party has definitely become the party of wimps, with precious few exceptions, go along to get along and if any previous “republican” showcased that, it was Mitch McConnell. Oh he may have started out well but of course with unlimited tenure, lifelong congress, extrordinary bonus perks, paid jet travel to whatever little shindig was brewing at the time, world wide excursions paid for by tax payers, shielding from any nefarious little shindigs and on and on. Once upon a time in a saner world there were TERM LIMITS. Now it seems that the golden calf has unlimited lifetime membership…just check out the aged, pinched face Nancy Pelosi…remember her? During the fabricated covid shut down she posted her little self online in front of her $26,000 stainless steel refrigerator filled with $14.00/pint gourmet ice cream as if to say; “I’m so above all you peons, but see how I share an insight into my ill gotten gains?”
But who’s keeping score? If the “republicans” don’t get off the pot and start kicking some serious butt they might as well officially join up with the demorats and help the final destruction of the once most amazing nation ever to exist in the history of the world. And who can forget George Bush Sr.s presidential speech wherein he opined; “We must usher in the New World Order.” Yep, watched and heard that speech and at the time had no clue what it meant. In the last 30 years since watching American citizens harassed, shot at, tanks smashing in the sides of their building, helo’s shooting into the top of it, military, law enforcement, ATF (better known as “jack booted thugs”) all shooting, climbing into their building, incendiary bombs lobbed, and CS gassed in the final slaughter of women and children hiding in the basement. This naive lady woke up and woke up hard at the once difference between demorats and Republicans. That distinction has faded drastically since Barack Hussein Obama invaded our White House and William Jefferson Clinton presided over that slaughter of American citizens. OH, footnote: the “media” did a fantastic job of bad mouthing, slandering, urging on the carnage for the full 51 days of hell on earth for American citizens. A footnote: the demorats after the conflaguration at Waco had decided to go after We The People’s firearms. But wait! Militias “mysteriously” sprang up all over the nation….thousands of red blooded every day Americans were preparing to take on not just the butchers of Waco and those who thought of disarming We The People…but the government as well. Lo and behold! A little demorat inside talk :”Maybe we should table it for now.” Sadly I can’t help but wonder, are there any Americans left who would risk everything they had to take on this corrupt and blood sucking government now? To spill their own blood? I would hope so…but…
Those of us who went to the wall 30 years ago are, 30 years older. Many have passed away. But God bless them for never ever backing down. Sorry if I got of course, to much has taken place in just the last 3 plus years, and I can only see a more problematic scenario roaring down the tracks if Trump is not in that White House this November. Oh an aside: “Are folks keeping up with almost desperate foaming at the mouth attacks on our 2nd. Amendment? Add to that the incremental weakening of our once strong criminal justice system over the last 3 decades…coincidence? And chicken’s have lips.
Sick to death of the Rino Republican Party! Wish the tea party would never have joined the sellout Rinos! We need people like Trump.Cruz,Chip Roy, Cotton and others who actually work for America and Americans! Decades overdue Fight for us!
sometimes I wonder which side AMAC is on.