Republican voters are more progressive than GOP leaders.
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I may be a Democrat, but it is truly painful to watch Republicans ardently support their party while receiving nothing but crumbs from GOP leaders. The Republican Party is supposed to be the party of personal responsibility. It’s supposed to be the party that fights for the “little guy,” but GOP leaders are not interested in the concerns and desires of everyday working Americans. Unfortunately, Republican leaders are a poor reflection of their progressive constituents.
Yes, you read that correctly. I said progressive. Despite right-wing media outlets like Fox News and NewsMax fervently labeling most progressive policies and initiatives as “socialism” or “communism,” progressive policies and ideas continue to gain bipartisan support.
Student Loan Forgiveness
At the beginning of the pandemic, college students faced the brunt of unemployment, and many of them did not qualify for the previous stimulus payments. According to an Arizona State University survey, 40% of the 1,500 students surveyed lost an internship, job, or job offer. A loss like this for college students can set them ten steps back.
A 2020 poll done by the Defend Students Action Fund revealed that 67% of respondents, including 58% of Republicans, support some form of widespread student loan forgiveness, and 80% of Republicans support holding the executives and owners of predatory for-profit colleges personally liable for fraudulent behavior that harms student loan borrowers.
The average amount of student loan debt per borrower was $37,584 in 2020, and the national total student loan debt balance has grown by 602.5% since 2003. In addition to paying off student loans on time, college students are expected to maintain good academic standing with their school while working service jobs that pay low wages.
Although Republican voters support student loan forgiveness, Senate Republicans did everything they could to block the student loan forgiveness bill last year, with all but six voting with Democrats to overturn Trump’s veto of the bill.
This is not the first time Republicans have blocked legislation that would have helped student loan borrowers. In 2014, Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced a student loan bill that would have allowed borrowers to refinance their loans at lower rares, but it fell short of the 60 votes needed.
Minority leader Mitch McConnell said,
“The Senate Democrats’ bill isn’t really about students at all. It’s really all about Senate Democrats.”
But it wasn’t. Warren’s bill could have helped about 25 million borrowers save $2,000 each over the lifetime of their loans, according to the Obama administration.
Currently, GOP leaders hold the same dismissive attitude toward college students which is highlighted in their reactionary stimulus proposal. In their proposal, the HEALS Act, student loan borrowers are exempt from being economically healed and receive no relief.
Minimum Wage
Alongside the American Rescue Plan — a bill directed towards helping Americans amid high unemployment, mass evictions, and loved ones dying from the virus — GOP leaders also opposed a federal minimum wage increase.
There is a divide among Republican voters regarding a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour, and the different stances are highly influenced by income. A Pew Research survey showed that 56% of Republicans with annual incomes of less than $40,000 say they favor raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, compared with 34% of Republicans with incomes of $75,000 or more.
With millions of Americans tired of working full-time service jobs while being paid low wages, it is no surprise that conservative states are supporting a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour — like, for example, Florida.
Florida’s Amendment 2, a bill that would increase the state’s minimum wage until reaching $15 per hour in September 2026, passed with 60% of the vote last year. This amendment received more popularity than both 2020 presidential candidates. Even with all the support and popularity, Republican senators Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton decided to pitch their ideas for a federal minimum wage increase — a measly $10 an hour by 2025.
Medicare for All
Medicare for All was immediately dismissed by Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell and former President Donald Trump and called “Medicare-for-none” by both, despite more than half of Republicans voicing their support for a single-payer healthcare system.
Under Medicare for all, hearing aids, eyeglasses, dental care, and home-based long-term care for people with disabilities would be covered. The current American healthcare system is full of private insurance companies that are allowed to charge exorbitant prices for medical services and prescriptions, and as a result, Americans are going bankrupt.
66.5% of all bankruptcies in America are tied to medical bills, according to an American Journal of Public Health study. Regardless of party affiliation, Republican families want to put their money back into the economy. They want to be able to buy a home, rent an apartment, pay their hospital bills, provide for their children, or purchase a new car like everyone else, but how can they do that with medical bills limiting their purchasing power and destroying their credit scores?
Marijuana Legalization
Last year, all but five Republicans opposed the MORE Act — a bill that would have federally decriminalizes marijuana, removed it from the list of federally controlled substances, and expunged non-violent federal marijuana convictions.
Despite almost 20 states legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes, 27 states decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana, and support from 54% of Republicans regarding marijuana legalization, GOP leaders refuse to acknowledge the progressive views of Republican voters toward marijuana.
Climate Change
Alongside many other Republican Party members, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and former president Donald Trump have had no problem outright denying climate change.
When asked about climate change in the 2016 Republican presidential debate, now Sen. Rubio said,
Texas Sen. Cruz holds the same sentiments toward climate change. Instead of acknowledging Republican refusal to winterize the state’s power grid for millions of Texans, he and other GOP leaders blamed green energy and the Green New Deal — a bill that hasn’t been passed yet.
Last year, former president Donald Trump used a similar climate denial tactic when he met with California Gov. Gavin Newsome after the California wildfires — placing the blame on uncleared, dead trees. Gov. Newsom voiced his concerns about the warming climate, but the former president claimed “science doesn’t know.”
GOP leaders are doing a poor job at representing Republican supporters of green energy and proper climate change education. A Pew Research Center survey showed Republicans 18 to 39 years old are more concerned about the climate than their elders. A close two-to-one margin showed they are more likely to agree that “human activity contributes a great deal to climate change,” and “the federal government is doing too little to reduce the effects of climate change.” An NPR poll also found that two-thirds of Republicans and 9 in 10 Democrats agree that climate change needs to be taught in school.
It’s time for the Republican Party to acknowledge that climate change exists and it’s not going away. If the GOP wants to prevent further division within their party, they must understand that there are ways to combat climate change without losing their Republican values and listen to their supporters instead of oil and gas donors.
The GOP’s Fate
The New York Times found that nearly 140,000 Republicans had quit the party in 25 states that had readily available data in an analysis of January voting records. This was mainly in response to the January 6th insurrection, but I believe this number will continue to grow unless GOP leaders sit down and actually listen to the majority of Republican voters instead of corporate donors.
