By Christopher Sung ’17

“We believe in America,” but now the American public doesn’t believe in them. In the latest fiasco that has plagued the Republican Party, the unruly House Freedom Caucus—the Tea Party radicals—have somehow managed to plunge the Republican Party back into turmoil, as a series of selfless acts to unite the embattled faction by both former Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy have left the Republican Party without a leader and source of unity within the influential House of Representatives.

Just how much longer will we allow these radicals to destroy the efforts of all moderate Republicans to champion the cause of fiscal integrity?

It is an outrage that the self-proclaimed House Freedom Caucus purports to advance the cause of Conservatism by sharp-shooting and eliminating the moderate elements that give the center-right party its ability to have standing with the voters, the American people who believe in a country that works for the American people, not against it by formulating an inexcusable plot to shut down the government.

This is not the Republican Party that I learned about and that, as many sensible Republicans will allude to, Ronald Reagan knew.

Reagan knew a party of unity and strength that championed the middle class by promoting free-market enterprise and conducting thoughtful foreign diplomacy with nations throughout the entire world. Even on immigration, a controversial topic in society today, Reagan championed a party that wanted to help illegal immigrants and control our borders rather than simply building a “great wall,” to deter them from this country—as stated by the pinup boy for radical-right extremism, Donald Trump.

For example, in 1986, Reagan and his Republican colleagues passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which legalized three million undocumented illegal immigrants. In addition, when Reagan announced his presidential candidacy in 1979, Reagan had proposed a “North American Accord” in which commerce and people would move freely across the borders of Canada and Mexico. Although this idea was largely overlooked or dismissed as a campaign gimmick in the United States, Reagan was serious in his proposal.

A dreamer and visionary, what Reagan saw and hoped for was not the dysfunctional Republican Party of today. Likewise, Reagan did not envision the nation to become gridlocked by partisanship—partisanship caused by radical members of Congress of both the Republicans and Democrats.

In a true Conservative fashion, what I long for is a return to the past: a time in politics that was marked by understanding across the aisle and a Republican Party filled with great minds rather than impulsive reactionaries who destroy the Republican Party in the false belief that they are successors to Reagan’s conservative principles.