A free people, in times of peace and quiet – when pressed by no common danger – will naturally divide into parties. At such times the man is who of neither party is not, cannot be, of any consequence.
Abraham Lincoln, 1852
When Donald Trump blew up our political system in 2016 my world – outside my family – blew up with it. I had spent 37 years as a Republican activist, staffer, candidate and elected official, and state party chairman. Being a Reagan Republican was central to my identity.
But virtually overnight my tribe was defeated and scattered. I spent the next seven years travelling down dead ends in the political wilderness searching for a way to continue to advocate for the philosophy and policies I had always believed in, until I finally found the only path that makes sense for me: back to the Republican party.
I went from Republican to Independent, to the new Forward Party, back to Independent, and now back to being a Republican. In the end I don’t think I learned anything new during my journey. Instead, it confirmed for me basic facts about our democracy; facts which center-right and center-left voters need to accept if we are going to heal our political system, especially here in Washington state.
During the 2018 election cycle, and again in 2022, I tried to win elections as an independent. First, I was part of a robust national effort, Unite America, designed to elect moderate independents. Then, in 2022 I ran for the State Senate as an independent. The logic seems obvious, right? Lots of people say they are independent, moderate, and hate both parties. Independents should be able to get elected.
It doesn’t work. In the past few cycles, many well-funded credible independent candidates, across the country and up and down the ballot, including me, lost, and usually by wide margins. What we learned is that independents have no chance in a three-way race. And they can rarely get through a primary process and into a one-on-one race with an R or a D, and even then, the underlying partisan leanings prevail. Republican states and districts elect Republicans, Democratic states and districts elect Democrats. There are virtually no swing areas left where an independent can win.
So perhaps what was needed was a new party. More than once during my wanderings in the wilderness I publicly called for the creation of a new centrist political party. I was briefly part of Andew Yang’s Forward Party until it became clear that he and his fellow leaders were committed to building a “party” with no platform or ideology.
If a number of high-profile office holders, Governors and Senators, united to form a new centrist political party, that might take root. That is how the Republican party was born in 1854. That’s how new parties come about in other democracies. But thus far there has been absolutely no momentum among major leaders to make that happen, and that is the only way a third party could become viable in America.
I wasn’t alone in leaving the GOP. I am part of a large community of Never Trumpers. Many in that community are now testing another path, becoming Democrats. Many are even running for office as Democrats, in the belief that anti-MAGA Republicans can infiltrate the Democratic party and move it towards the center. With all due respect to these folks, all of whom I know and respect, I don’t think that option works either.
First, I am skeptical well-known Republicans can win Democratic primaries. Second, I don’t believe a few Republicans are going to change the direction of the Democratic party, a party which seems to be moving farther to the left. Democrats think I’m a hero for opposing Trump, but I have no illusions that they want me to join them and tell them how to run their party.
And, for me, at least, there is simple honesty. I’m not a Democrat. I am a Reagan/Bush/McCain/Romney/Slade Gorton Republican, and proud of it.
Democrats are lukewarm at best on free trade. Since Vietnam, Democrats have too often been too reluctant to support peace through strength and American leadership around the world. Democrats are unwilling to reform entitlements to address the debt crisis (to be fair, so are Republicans). Democrats reject basic laws of economics and consistently fail to understand or admit that when you increase costs on employers, or raise taxes, prices go up and jobs are lost.
Now on these, and many other issue, Trump was even worse than the Ds. I, and many other Never Trump Rs enthusiastically campaigned for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but that doesn’t lead me to join a Democratic Party whose views diverge with the things I have always believed in.
So, what have I learned, or, rather, rediscovered? Simply this: for the foreseeable future we are stuck with a two-party system, and trying to work outside that system doesn’t work. To paraphrase Lincoln, it renders one inconsequential.
We need to fix America the old-fashioned way; pick one party or the other, join it, and work to elect candidates who share your views. This why I have taken a leadership position with Our Republican Legacy, the first and only group formed since the Trump takeover dedicated to working within the GOP to turn it back to traditional Republicanism.
Moderate Democrats concerned about the leftward lurch of their party, especially here in Washington state, need to do the same thing. Rather than give up in disgust, moderates in both parties need to reengage and do political battle.
How? File for the office of Republican or Democratic precinct committee officer. Get active in your party. Donate and campaign for candidates. Run for office. Speak out on social media. Exercise all those rights Americans are blessed to have.
2028 is going to be a major turning point. The battle for control of both our major parties will be up for grabs. America’s future cannot be left to just extremists on the right and left who have the energy and passion to show up. We all need to show up now.
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Up to a point, you have a point. The Republican party needs to climb out of the ditch, and start contributing to responsible governance in the way that it’s particularly able to do.
The question though is of course, what direction is that exactly? I’ve commented before that Reagan was the party’s undoing, even more so than Nixon, but … whatever. If you believe in the mystique that his people created, maybe the reality doesn’t matter so much – it isn’t like he’s going to recognize your allegiance and crawl out of the grave and bring Jerry Falwell along.
What”s important here is to acknowledge and turn away from the toxic elements that have been breeding in the party since long before Trump went Republican. Trump is just the consequence.
Anti-science, particularly when science is inconvenient to big corporate interests.
Hostile to government. America’s public service is one of its great treasures, as those of us who have lived abroad will easily recognize, and the attitude that the public sector can’t do anything well is substantially responsible for our backwardness in many areas. Health care, rail travel, etc.
Culture wars. Making straight white Americans feel threatened, appealing to societal divisions.
Theocracy.
Servant to big corporations. Things like the consumer welfare standard have tragically weakened antitrust policy. Conservatives don’t believe in competition?
I probably missed a few. These don’t look like true conservative values, but they’ve “traditional Republican” values that Trump didn’t invent – it’s more like they invented him. It’s a pathology that needs to be cured, if we can really afford to have a Republican party.
Well, I don’t agree with anything you say about the pre-Trump history of my party. But my objective was not to persuade liberals to become Republicans, it was to encourage moderates to pick one party or the other and get involved in the process.
The thing is, I’m not a “liberal”.
The faults I listed, and it’s hard to believe you don’t recognize yourself in there, are the kind of “conservative” no one has any use for in the more populous parts Washington state.
This is what we’re up against. Organization headquarters of both parties are dug in, not going to hear any pushback on their dogma. No one’s going to get involved in this who isn’t already as bad or worse. Both sides would benefit from some fresh air, but it’s the Republican party that really needs it, if they want to return to state office competitiveness they used to enjoy before Reagan. The Democratic HQs don’t need to make any concessions – they’re winning. This is has been going on for 40 years. It isn’t Trump.
It’s about time for the nation to turn to a Third Force. Clearly we need new ideas, not the “old-fashioned way” Mr Vance proposes. Trump is a symptom of a deeper malaise in this country, one that neither party is equipped to handle. We’re not great again, and will never be as we were through much of the 20th century. New realities — climate, AI, an aging economy, infrastructure and population, China, threats from theocracy and plutocracy, regionalism, et al — will need to be addressed by younger leaders who understand how to bring enough disparate voices together to move forward. Forget the bullshit about American exceptionalism. No more myths about who we are or who we should be. Let’s decide on what’s possible and what is not.
Well, I spent the last several years looking for a third way without success. Sadly, there is no magic third way.
Give me a break. The United States’ federal deficit was caused by a few notable items:
1) Reagan’s supply side tax-cut gambit and defense build-up
2) Stimulus spending after 2008 financial crisis
3) Stimulus spending after 2020 Covid 19 crisis
What do Republicans do after the economy recovers? They don’t pay down the debt. They hand out tax cuts to the wealthy.
Trump’s 2017 tax cuts are particularly damning. The Federal Reserve printed money like gang busters as a result of the 2008 financial crisis and held interest rates artificially low for a decade. That created a gigantic asset bubble. Every CEO cashed in stock options when a chimpanzee sitting behind the desk would have down just as well due to the Federal Reserve having its thumb on the scale. Nobody earned those gains. They were ladled out to everyone who owned assets.
If Republicans really cared about the deficit they would look closely at wasteful military budgets, for example, missile defense which is a handout to defense companies. They never have to produce anything and there is always some country to pivot to be worried over.
If Republicans really cared about the deficit, they’d adopt a universal health care system because the US private system is 50% more expensive than any other country in the world.
If Republicans really cared about the deficit, they’d increase the federal gas tax which remains unchanged since 1993.
Republicans need to be serious about governing. Today they are not. They are the party of grift and shysters.
amen brother
The comments above were all better than Mr. Vance’s article. Most Rs and many Ds, Mr. Vance included, get very far beyond their own ideologies and ambitions to actually achieve something. They never turned their Political Science (that term is a joke) classes into anything beyond “concepts” or getting elected. For elected officials, and Mr. Vance was one, the focus was on getting re-elected or achieving higher office. Politics is often little more than avoiding having a job.
Both sides would do better than proclaiming adversely what Democrats or Republicans do or are. Divisive accusations may work politically but impair collaboration. Every couples therapy starts with cautioning statements such as “”You always say that.” Maybe we need a political therapist help us listen.
Thank you, Mr. Vance.
Nowadays it seems so difficult to inform and analyze when people mostly seem to want to argue rather than listen and learn.
I looked up the principles of “Our Republican Legacy”. They are quoted as follows:
“Unity, The Constitution, Fiscal Responsibility, Free Enterprise, and Peace through Strength.
Our party stands for Unity. From our beginning, ours has been the party of the Union, of holding a fractured country together as one indivisible nation. That remains our purpose today. We reject the tactics of both left and right that divide Americans as us against them by exploiting emotions of grievance and rage.
Our party stands for the Constitution. We are pledged to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, the glue that holds together our diverse country. We support the peaceful transfer of power.
Our party once stood for fiscal responsibility. Our national debt is a legacy of weakness that future Americans must inherit. We renew our historical commitment to a sound economy.
Our party stands for free enterprise. We support the private sector as the source of prosperity against big government interventions.
Our party stands for peace through strength. We believe that a peaceful world depends on a strong America that is steadfast in opposing aggression of Russia and other hostile regimes.”
In my opinion, the above principals are worthy of respect. One might find them wrong, or incomplete, but they seem to me to be a positive force.
Thank you for this thoughtful and candid reflection on political identity and personal transformation. The article offers a deeply introspective account of ideological change, approached with a level of sincerity and self-examination that invites genuine engagement rather than polarization.
I especially appreciate the way the piece traces lessons learned over time, presenting political reconsideration not as a simplistic shift, but as a complex journey shaped by experience, reflection, and evolving understanding. The narrative encourages readers to think more carefully about the nature of conviction, disagreement, and the ways in which public life is continually reinterpreted through lived experience.
Overall, this is a meaningful and reflective contribution that adds depth to conversations about political belonging and ideological change. It is written with commendable honesty, clarity, and intellectual openness.