Excerpts from an interesting op-ed piece in The Soapbox.
The unseriousness of the Republican response to the coronavirus has had commentators asking from the outset whether the party understands that there’s an election coming up, one now less than a hundred days away...
...while President Trump and a few Republican incumbents seem to be in genuine trouble, the vast majority of Republicans in Congress are certain to keep their jobs. In the Senate, most Republicans aren’t up for reelection, and most of those who are aren’t facing particularly competitive races...
Republican politicians are answerable primarily to conservative voters in the least populous portions of the country and the conservative outlets and institutions that shape their thinking. This has allowed most to stand proudly opposite public opinion on everything from health care to climate change without fear of electoral consequence...
One might object that even safe Republicans presumably want the party as a whole to keep the Senate and the White House and prevent Democrats from taking power. But the notion that most Republicans care about the party’s fortunes as much or more than their own careers seems dubious.. what many still don’t realize is that the Republican Party has no real legislative agenda of any kind at all—not even a conservative one...
All told, if it seems like Republicans are acting as though the election doesn’t matter, one should consider the many ways it actually doesn’t for them. Moreover, it’s conceivable that many Republicans are quietly hoping for a loss at the top of the ticket. A Trump defeat might repair the GOP’s standing with key constituencies Trump has driven away and will almost certainly encourage the political media to craft a redemption narrative for the party. Pundits and Fox News favorites on the Hill will attract attention and campaign donors drumming up rage at what Biden and Democrats in Congress are up to. Ambitious post-Trump populists and Trump critics who’ve been biding their time are both spoiling for a fight over the future of the party, which is to say a fight over the future of their respective careers. None of this should console Trump and the most embattled Republican candidates. But unless Democrats get serious about disempowering it for good, the Republican Party can’t really lose.
Yup. It will pay off to just hand this mess over to a weak-looking Biden, then take him and his to task for not fixing it fast enough. Wait 4 years and jump right back in.
ReplyDeleteI am hard-pressed to identify a legislative agenda for the Republican Party beyond the appointment of conservative judges in a swift manner and tax cuts for the donor class. Still waiting for the much-vaunted health care plan. What else? McConnell seems to be the driving force, but he's not driving so much as braking. I see lethargy, indifference, and a theater of the absurd in Lindsey Graham's Judiciary Committee hearings. Alas. Joe better have a great team!
ReplyDeleteThe problem Republican politicians have is if they cross Trumpy he'll endorse a candidate to run against them in the primary from the even further right - and his will hold true unless Trump loses in 48 states in November. If he just loses in the 20 big ones Trump will still be the big stick in the party. The same thing is happening in the Democratic party - if you're not sufficiently progressive, AOC will endorse someone to run against you in the primary from the left. We desperately need a third party. I think a center-left party would mostly kill off the Democratic party and leave the Republicans in the wilderness for decades. A center-right party would just be a third party and it would have to side with one of the other parties to legislate.
ReplyDeleteI've told friends that I envision this country heading toward four parties, including center-right and center-left, with sufficient fragmentation in the voting population that "coalition" governance will become necessary (and messy).
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