We Need More Moderate Republicans

While moderate Republicans are typically branded as Republicans in Name Only (RINOs) for failing to enthusiastically embrace every element of President Trump’s shifting agenda, they are right on almost every issue and the MAGA Republicans are wrong. Properly understood, moderate Republicans are the true Republicans, and we need more of them—not fewer.

President Trump, Elon Musk, and most Republicans in Congress believe government should be run like a business, and they treat government agencies as profit-making organizations. According to this view, the task of the reformer is not to make better public policies but rather to cut costs, primarily by firing people.

However, real public policymaking is not driven by an abstract ideology but rather involves addressing public problems as they arise. In 1854, Lincoln identified the legitimate function of government as doing for the community whatever people need to have done but cannot do, or cannot do as well, for themselves as individuals.  Lincoln’s examples of legitimate programs included the maintenance of public order, infrastructure projects (he cited roads and schools), and programs to aid the needy, among others.

Both the DOGE cuts and the cuts contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act were largely indiscriminate, making no attempt to differentiate between programs that meet Lincoln’s criteria and those that do not.  If Republicans who try to protect essential programs their constituents rely on from severe cuts are Republicans in Name Only, then so was Lincoln.

While Lincoln believed there would still be a need for some government “even if all people were just,” he did not advocate for an expansive government.  In Lincoln’s words, there is a need for some government, just “not so muchgovernment.”

For example, when government expands, it takes resources from the private sector. Accordingly, Republicans need to ask on a case-by-case basis whether even incremental expansions of the scope of government really make us better off. Moreover, Republicans should be especially wary of grandiose efforts, like the Green New Deal, to fundamentally transform society.

However, Republicans should also oppose radical policies when they are advanced by Republican presidents. For example, President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill will fundamentally transform our society by shrinking government.  It is the kind of gamble with people’s lives that moderates will always find alarming.

We need to reverse the steady decline in the number of moderate Republicans in the House and Senate. The Party of Lincoln is on life support. This is a national tragedy because the failure of most congressional Republicans to show any independence at all from Trump is the primary reason our democracy is in peril right now.