Are Our Politics, at the Local and State and National Levels Better or similar or Worse Today than 14 Years Ago?

Mark Rogers

by Mark Rogers, reposted from Facebook, March 10, 2026 -This post was written some 14 years ago in response to a series of resolutions from county Republican Party Executive Committees attacking Governor Bill Haslam. 

Are our politics, at the local and state and national levels, better or similar or worse today than 14 years ago? Thoughts? 

There was a time when the Williamson County Republican Party was a role model for Republicans across the state and the nation.  The party elected more and more highly qualified Republicans at every level of government, making the county the best run county in America.  The party did not stop at the county line but extended help to other county parties around the state and contributed thousands of dollars to Republican candidates in key races.  Many of my happiest political memories involve working with the Williamson County Republicans.

That is why it pains me so much to see that the Williamson County Republican Party Executive Committee has apparently taken leave of its senses and chosen to attack Governor Haslam for reasons that would be funny if it were not that so many activists seem to agree with them.  To read the resolution posted in the Tennessean passed by the Stewart County Republican Executive Committee {and similar to those passed in Williamson and other counties} is to grasp the idea of people who are so clueless that they think the Governor is an ally of Islamic radicals, an agent of International Communism, a Democrat and various other Satanic forces.  

The closing line calls for the State Executive Committee to:

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE Stewart      County GOP, that we hereby urge The Tennessee Republican Executive Committee to take meaningful action against the Governor Bill Haslam ‘s Administration.

My suggestion is that the State Executive Committee put these county party executive committees on double secret probation and have some sane people run the party organizations until new elections are held next year.  

Beyond that, the danger of such behavior is not to be underestimated.  Today too many good people in both parties sit back and leave the nuts and bolts of the party to other people who are often members of groups with very narrow agendas.  Such groups often put one issue above everything else.  That ends up allowing noisy minorities to impose their views on a party that represents a wide range of opinions on those issues.  

Today the Republican party is being threatened by a small group of self-styled conservatives who are more interested in their own power than in improving America.  They use the accusation that anyone who disagrees with them is a RINO or a liberal or some other groundless accusation.  

These resolutions are a perfect example of the witch hunting that is beloved of the faux conservatives who are more interested in power than principle.  More interested in shrinking the party to just their followers than in building a durable conservative and Republican majority.  

I encourage Republicans across Tennessee to reject such extremist behavior and rally behind candidates in the primary who embody the Values and Ideas of Ronald Reagan and Howard Baker and George H. W. Bush instead of the ideology of intolerance and division.  

As Thomas Brackett Reed, the last truly great Speaker of the House of Representatives, "A good party is better than the best man who ever lived."  We cannot rebuild the Republican Party to restore America if we allow different groups to impose ideological tests on members.  One cannot be 100% consistent on every Ideal or Right.  So those who want to say that only people who measure up to their definition on their issue are going to destroy the party by constantly dividing us over minor issues.  

Let's focus on where we agree rather than trying to divide the party with such harmful measures as these resolutions.

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Rod/s Comment: In answer to your question, our politics are much worse. The Republican Party has morphed from the smart party to the dumb party. We went from a party that believed in free trade, free enterprise, capitalism, belief in a democratic-republican form of government tethered to the Constitution, respect for norms and institutions, balanced budgets, fiscal responsibility, America's leadership role in the world and collective security, an expectation that our leaders not use public office to enrich themselves, to what we have today; a nationalist-populist, blood and soil party that supports might-makes-right and threatens its neighbors, reckless spending, tariffs,  bigotry and celebration of cruelty, disregard for the Constitution and basic liberties enshrined in the Constitution, acceptance of unthought-of corruption, and a party with a Nazi problem.

Of course, the Democratic Party has changed too, embracing wokeness, identity politics, electing avowed socialists to office, and also willing to trample rights and punish incorrect thoughts, and going off on tangents like defund the police.

Fifteen years ago would be 2015. I think that is the year that the Republican Party and the Conservative movement lost its way. My friend Gene Wisdom recently posted a memory from that year in which he attended the CPAC convention. CPAC, as I am sure most people reading this know, is the annual convention of the conservative movement. While the conservative movement has diverse elements, CPAC kept out of the convention the kind of people who now hold center stage at the conference. In 2014 they did not invite Donald Trump to attend the convention. In 2015, they invited him.

In February 2016, National Review, which since its founding had been the most influential magazine of the conservative movement, devoted a whole issue to various luminaries of the conservative movement arguing why Trump was a bad choice for the Republican Party and arguing that Trump was not a conservative. They titled that issue "Against Trump." Some of those who contributed to that issue have since acquiesced to Trump; some are now irrelevant, and a few are still fighting the good fight opposing Trump and his authoritarian agenda. While National Review is still a relevant publication, they no longer have the influence they did in the past. Now the "luminaries" of what has become the conservative movement are podcasters like Megan Kelly, Tucker Carlson, and Candice Owens. Now it would be difficult to find a dozen influential conservatives to oppose Trump. They have either acquiesced, been exiled, or become refugees from the movement. 

I remember well when the Party went off the rails, starting about 2009. I remember well when Governor Haslam was accused of plotting to impose Sharia Law on Tennessee. This would be funny if not for the fact that many in the Republican Party believed it. I recall when a group of Republican House members thought the Haslam administration was building a Muslim foot-washing facility in the Capitol building. It turned out to be a mob sink. You can't make this stuff up.

I wonder where we will go from here. On a good day, I think Trump will fade from the scene, and Republicans will rediscover the things they cast aside, and the Party will return to normal, and we will again have two parties fighting over policy but within the parameters of normal; on a bad day, I think we rolling down hill like a snowball headed for hell. 

Mark Rogers was long been a Republican leader before the Trump era of the Party. He has worked as campaign manager for candidates, a consultant, a political researcher and analyst, and has served in positions of leadership on government commissions and has served on non-profit boards and commissions. He lives in Nashville. 

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