Interesting theory put forth Wednesday night, Sept. 27 in response to the GOP Unpresidential Debate: Republicans, in general, either because of a losing tradition and losing forecast, or just out of plain laziness, have given up on governing and the small “p” politics that naturally go along with governing.

The GOP base is ready to embrace fascist authoritarianism or open warfare rather than listen to the white noise of policy debates or, heaven forbid, the democratic cacophony of compromise and bipartisan governance. Give them a strong man to follow, even if he is a snakeoil salesman. Give them the “liberty” to vote against their own self-interest, or else give them civil war and a future of bloody anarchy.

Their so-called leaders are spineless enough to merely follow the crowd and, therefore, “smart” enough not to stake a flag on any policy or political idea more substantial than wardrobe considerations or entertainment choices. They hate pop stars and Barbie, but can’t be bothered to cobble up a traditional political platform. They insist on suits and ties and argue about office curtains, but can’t be tricked into saying whether the murderous Vlad Putin is a bad guy or not.

Closer to home, GOP posers Lynn Findley and Mark Owens and other Republican legislators simply refuse to participate in governing, even though they’d been elected to do just that in Salem. They staged a walkout to deprive the Oregon Legislature of a supermajority quorum, thereby blocking legislation they didn’t like. Or maybe they just couldn’t read the legislation because it wasn’t written for an eighth-grader, the issue they claim to stand behind.

Findley said his “oath of office” was more important to him than his job as a senator. Whatever that means. Maybe an eighth-grader can explain to him that his oath necessarily depends upon his political position. One doesn’t exist without the other.

Now he and his lap dog Owens are suing to defy an Oregon law, passed in 2022, which prohibits legislators who missed 10 or more legislative sessions from running for reelection. It’s a law, passed by Oregon voters to address such walkouts, of which Findley and Owens were well aware when they stopped showing up for work.

In short, they didn’t want to participate after being elected. But they want to be reelected, presumably so they can refuse to participate again.

On a local level, leaders simply quit. Dean Guyer and Boston Colton quit city council rather than listen to voter feedback on the unsupervised growth of city bureaucracy and the cost thereof. Nathan Hodgdon and Johnny Waggoner Sr. quit because they’d lost their council majority and wanted to deprive that body of a quorum to appoint new councilors.

Democracy is a drag, it really is. It’s noisy and messy and demands that people find common ground upon which to meet and shake hands. More annoying still, democracy denies everyone from getting their way all the time. You prefer slavery, but democracy says you have to pay to have work done? Bummer. You’d prefer universal healthcare, but democracy says you have to muddle through with the ungodly mess we have now? What a drag.

Democracy won’t necessarily let you be ignorant, or stubborn, or lazy.

But Republicans have decided they don’t care about any of that crap. They’re too busy boycotting Disney and Bud Light. They want a dictator who can fix things to their liking.

Maybe they’ll get their way. But be careful what you wish for. At some point, that anarchist hoard and that dictator you love so much will decide that you’re the problem.

What will you do then? Elect a different dictator?

Doug Darlington

Baker City