Are you a Democrat or a Republican? Or do you even know for sure anymore? Kermit the Frog once sang a song all about, “It isn’t easy being green.” In the middle of 2018, those who identify with one political party or another might be singing a similar lament about being blue or red.

Case in point: Just in July alone, the federal government added $76.9 billion to the ever-burgeoning deficit. And with increased federal spending, We the People are apparently on track to record our largest annual deficit in six years. The number is already up to $684 billion, and we still have two months to go in the fiscal year. All this while the Republicans control the Congress and the White House.

That doesn’t compute in more ways than one. Democrats are the big spenders, aren’t they? Franklin Roosevelt introduced a host of social programs in the 1930s. Lyndon Johnson put forth the Great Society that might as well have been called the Great Spend. Jimmy Carter added the Department of Education that costs roughly $70 billion every year. And Barack Obama tried his best to federalize the healthcare system, and managed to add about $9 trillion to the debt in his eight years of White House occupancy. Those are big-time expenditures.

Republicans are the guys who always say an emphatic ‘No’ to big bucks spending, right? Well, it seems as if a few folks in the GOP didn’t get the memo. To be sure, in December the Rs did pass a tax cut of $1.5 trillion, allowing many party faithful to feel somewhat normal.

Donald Trump has obviously had an impact on the definition of a traditional Republican. But there are an awful lot of other elected officials who don’t care to follow tradition too. Senators John McCain, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul come to mind. Those three guys don’t play from the same sheet music very often.

Comraderie and cohesiveness aren’t exactly watchwords of the Democrats either. Senators in the donkey party up for re-election such as McCaskill in Missouri, Heitkamp in North Dakota, Manchin in West Virginia, and Donnelly in Indiana are finding they have to swallow very hard and find something, anything, nice to say about the President (or at least about a bit of one of his policies). A lot of their Democrat constituents voted for The Donald in 2016 and seem to like what he’s doing. Calling Trump a bum might work well on the coasts, but it’s not playing so favorably in the heartland.

The party of social awareness, military preparedness, and even fiscal restraint of John Kennedy has turned into an organization seemingly hi-jacked by avowed socialists and those who feel it is their sworn duty to deep-six any and every proposal put forth by any member of the opposition. You know, even Ted Kennedy, the lion of the left, and Orrin Hatch, long-time Utah Senator and bastion of conservatism, were good friends. They actually talked to each other civilly and enjoyed one another’s company, worked out differences and managed to get a few things done together they could both live with. Today they’d be considered treacherous traitors by their own people for even mentioning the other’s name without retching. Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer are seldom seen sharing tea with Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell.

Perhaps the uneasy long-time party stalwarts among the voting public are opting for status as Independents. Something like 42% claimed that mantle in 2016, while around 29% said they were Democrats, and 26% chose a Republican primary ballot. Part of that Independent tag, of course, is that it’s perceived as cool to be non-affiliated. No doubt most would say they vote for the candidate, not the label. But, let’s face it. Some Democrats just don’t want people to know they’re Communists, and some Republicans are trying to avoid the Neo-Nazi label. But, hey, whatever works.

The point is, we as a country seem to be losing our political identities. Both parties used to talk about having a “Big Tent,” where all ideas were welcome. Now, it seems, all ideas are welcome as long as those thoughts are the same as those in control of the political reigns. Some Republicans may have a hard time vociferously vouching for Trump in 2020. Some Democrats might cringe at the thought of someone such as Elizabeth Warren being their standard bearer. Neither would probably qualify as mainstream by the general populace.

Maybe we should start over. Call the parties Purple and Orange. Because one thing’s for sure: It’s not easy being Red or Blue these days.

 

©MMXVIII. William J. Lewis, III   –  Freelance Writer