Here is the author of Before the Storm, Nixonland, The Invisible Bridge, and Reaganland: David Frum, the former George W. Bush speechwriter and current never-Trump conservative, recently wrote, “The post-Trump right has a style as distinctive as its authoritarian substance: trolling, […]
Republican Party
What happens when an entire political party “takes leave of reality”
I’ll just let Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank explain. Here is a taste of his piece, “This is how a Republican lie is born“: This is what happens when an entire political party takes leave of reality. On Tuesday morning, […]
The GOP rank and file is “identifying less and less with Trump personally,” but Trumpism is stronger than ever
In his recent piece at The Atlantic, Wehner argues that “the GOP base may be identifying less and less with Trump personally…but it is not identifying any less with the conspiracist and antidemocratic impulses that defined him over the past […]
Pew Research: “Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to say increased attention to the history of slavery and racism is bad for the country”
Here is a taste of the recent Pew Research study: Among U.S. adults overall, 53% say increased attention to that history is a good thing for society, while 26% say it is a bad thing and another 21% say it […]
Who is J.D. Vance? Apparently a lot of Ohio GOP voters haven’t read Hillbilly Elegy
In his book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, J.D. Vance interpreted Appalachia for a largely educated, non-populist reading public. He was able to do this because he left Appalachia for Yale Law School. He […]
Why doesn’t the GOP just say it: “We support the January 6 insurrectionists!”
Matt Ford of The New Republic is waiting for it to happen: Instead of the free and open denunciation of the Capitol riot, a growing number of Republican officials are softening their position from “It was Bad” to, at worst, […]
Biden ends talks with GOP on infrastructure
Here is Politico: Bipartisan infrastructure talks between President Joe Biden and GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito are over, and the White House will now focus on working with a bipartisan group of 20 senators. Biden and Capito spoke for five […]
The ad you won’t see on Fox News
Watch: Obama has some thoughts as well:
What is happening in the red states?
The Atlantic is running another fascinating piece of political journalism from Ron Brownstein. Conservatives know they have no chance of shaping national policy, so they are appealing to localism. While I am certainly supportive of cultivating local culture, as an […]
The GOP’s “lost generation”
Rational Republicans are leaving politics in droves. Here is Politico: As Donald Trump ponders another presidential bid, top Republicans have grown fearful about what they’re calling the party’s “lost generation.” In conversations with more than 20 lawmakers, ex-lawmakers, top advisers […]
Only six Republican senators voted for a commission to study the worst attack on the U.S. Capitol since the War of 1812
It looks like American historians will need to do the work. John Hope Franklin once called historians “the conscience of the nation.” A Senate vote on a bill to create an independent commission to study the January 6, 2021 insurrection […]
McConnell asks fellow GOP senators to vote against January 6 commission as a “personal favor”
Remember when Mitch McConnell condemned the January 6, 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol and said Trump was to blame? Yeah, those where the good old days. Here is Jamie Gangel at CNN: The Washington Post reports on the testimony […]
Paul Ryan: “If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality…then we’re not going anywhere.”
Tonight the former Speaker of the House will give a speech at the Reagan Library in California. John McCormick of The Wall Street Journal reports: “Once again, we conservatives find ourselves at a crossroads,” Mr. Ryan will say, according to […]
The GOP will need to live with a potential Trump indictment
Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. As MSNBC team notes, they had a chance to walk away from him after the January 6, 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, but instead they doubled-down in their support of […]
Thirty-five House Republicans vote in favor of a commission to investigate the January 6, 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol
GOP leader Kevin McCarthy is opposed to the commission. So are 176 of his fellow Republican representatives. But nearly 20% of the GOP caucus joined all 219 Democrats in supporting the commission. The bill now moves to the Senate where, […]
Are we in the midst of a third American revolution?
CNN legal scholar Carrie Cordero and historian Ed Larson at USA Today: We are all familiar with the first American Revolution: an actual war, a rebellion for self-governance. But it was not long after that Thomas Jefferson called the election of 1800 […]
The tribalism of the GOP
Here is Fareed Zakaria’s weekly column at The Washington Post: The Republican Party’s decision (in effect) to excommunicate Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) is a watershed event. It marks the final transformation of the party from an ideologically driven enterprise to one that […]
Liz Cheney is out. What are her GOP “colleagues” saying?
Earlier today, the House GOP caucus stripped Liz Cheney of her leadership position because she refused to believe the Big Lie. Let’s see what GOP Republicans are saying about this: GOP unity around a lie: And from the GOP frat […]
“If you stand for nothing Burr, what’ll you fall for?”
Today’s GOP may want to listen to this Hamilton classic:
The coming split in the Republican Party
Here is Zach Montague at The New York Times: More than 100 Republicans, including some former elected officials, are preparing to release a letter this week threatening to form a third party if the Republican Party does not make certain […]