Trump is a fighter, but other Republicans need to be leaders

Conversations with colleagues and relatives do not need to feel the way that politics feels in our country’s capital.

2011, D-Ariz. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head and nearly killed in an attempted assassination. Six people were killed and 12 injured in the attack.

Two weeks later, Congressional Democrats and Republicans gathered for a union speech. In the third year of Barack Obama’s first term, the President and Congress lived, belatedly, in the transcendent spirit of hope and change promised in the 2008 campaign.

Democrats and Republicans have defied long-standing practices of isolating themselves in the room, according to the parties. South Dakota Republican Sen. John Tune and New York Democrat Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand took a seat. So were Sen. Mark Udal, a Democrat of Colorado, and Republican Rep. Jim Demint, a South Carolina. In many ways during the president’s speech, they stood and were praised as one.

The Obama era was polarised by historical measures, but they began with great hopes for American unity. The tragedy led to the unity that was achieved in the shortest moment.

I became a Republican “hope and change”

I was 26 years old and joined American politics in a visible way. I was a Republican candidate for Congress in the 2014 election cycle and was held in California’s 43rd District. It marked the pinnacle of political revival. I grew up to be a liberal activist. After a lot of life experience and a lot of research, I thought it was a good fit to fly the flag of conservative movement.

But even this was novelty. My path to conservatism began with Obama’s dedication to his 2008 campaign. I shared it in the spirit of what I believe is Obama’s vision of America transcending partisans and tribalism of racial disparity. I learned conservatism and gained conservatives in the Obama Union. But I found my conservative value along the way.

But the bridge spirit of that early Obama campaign remained central to my political identity. Essentially, I ran for Congress as a Republican.

The National Review wrote about John Wood Jr.’s “The California Dream.” He explained to the conservative talk radio show host (and future California Republican governor candidate) Larry Elder.

Republicans in my district were overwhelmingly agreeing at the time.

Now, many of my fellow Republicans will say that partisan wars serve their purpose. Not for itself, but to defend the important thing.

For many on the right, President Joe Biden’s year’s fraud in the White House was Donald Trump, including the belief that the government was dearmed by the freedom of America during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that the judicial division was deployed against the political enemy of the political enemy that social media platforms cracked down on free speech in government contributions, and that the Justice Department was appointed as the administration’s political enemy and abolished the administration’s muscle muscle religion name.

So it may have been fractured for Trump to spend the first 15 minutes of his first speech in his second term in a congressional joint session denounced his political opponents, but it was also for purposes.

Trump recognizes that now is the time to fight and (for most Republicans) to end a culture of corruption that is long-awaited, dominated by self-interested institutions and driven by radical Democrats.

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Maybe it’s all true. Maybe it’s all wrong. Maybe Trump is fighting a really good fight. Perhaps he is just as tyrannical as his harshest critics accusing him of being there.

Furthermore, Obama may have never been sincere about wanting to unite the American people. Or he tried as hard as he could.

Is Unity still a value we hold?

Put the President aside. The problem is: As Americans – Democrats, Republicans, etc. – do we believe that the unity we have risen in the aftermath of Gabby Gifford’s shooting is an ideal that we should strive for?

Isn’t it still worth believing that Americans can learn to come together to ignore what divides us?

This month, Rep. D-Texas Al Green was kicked out of the House floor for enveloping the president during the fiery opening game of Trump’s speech to Congress. Green was later criticised by the majority of the home, including 10 Democrats.

Green represents a strong impulse among many Democrats to fight Trump and his administration.

We seem to be united in the belief that we must fight for what is important. Certainly, we have to.

But the question is always how we fight. As our brothers and spouses know, there is no contradiction in our love for each other and fighting each other for what is important. Family and political conflicts cannot be avoided. But we can reintroduce goodwill into the struggle.

I will invite fellow Republicans to lead the way.

Conversations with colleagues and relatives do not need to feel the way that politics feels in our country’s capital. That’s why Braver Angels, America’s largest grassroots membership organization specializing in political depolarization, hosts a series of online and local debates over the first 100 days of the Trump administration.

Your Turn: Are we covering cards too much? This is what you said. |Opinion Forum

My work as a Braver Angels National Ambassador grows from my conservative commitment to filling the space between us. Yes, I am asking all Americans and non-political affiliations of all political parties to sign up for this campaign.

But I have a special appeal to Republicans. Our party has won both presidency and Congress homes, but while conservatives have a majority in the Supreme Court, there is still no path to America that most of us want to see without working hard every day to restore confidence in Americans.

Most of us want America to be able to talk to neighbors who have a variety of political opinions. Most of us want to see America where families don’t violate politics. Most of us want to see America where both parties trust our institutions, as they work, regardless of which party is in power.

I always knew there were Republicans. Just as there are Democrats, they are dedicated to fighting the right way and are willing to defy the gap and discuss the issue.

It’s time for those Republicans to move forward.

John Wood Jr. is a columnist for opinions on USA Today. He is a former Congress candidate, former vice-chairman of the Los Angeles County Republican Party, a music artist and national ambassador to Braver Angels, a well-known writer and speaker in subjects including racial and political reconciliation. X: Follow him on @johnrwoodjr