Not only did Trump leave an indelible mark on their party, he co-opted its base, which is now primarily loyal to him, not to the GOP as an institution. He also has an immense social media following and writes his…
#Republican Party
Paul Waldman: When 2016 is over, the GOP will pretend Donald Trump never existed – The Washington Post
…[J]ust about all Republicans will share an incentive to follow the same path: pretend that Trump and Trumpism never happened, or that it was no different from what we’ve seen in any other election. That goes for Republican voters too.…
Jonathan Chait: How the Republican War on Obamacare Explains Trump – New York Magazine
The party’s refusal to cooperate with Obama on any major issue, and its dogmatic insistence that Obamacare must be destroyed, is a sign of its intellectual rot. The GOP’s refusal to support the principle of universal health insurance makes it…
Lee Drutman: How race and identity became the central dividing line in American politics – Vox
It is now Democrats who appear benefit from culture and identity being the central issue in American politics, at least in a national election like the one for president. And as the Democrats are increasingly split internally by class, this…
Posted in Noted & Quoted, Politics, US History Tagged with: Democratic Party, Race, Republican Party
Richard Yeselson: The all-American Donald Trump: why Trump’s rise could only happen here – Vox
Ethno-nationalist or not, European rightist parties accept the central tenets of the mixed economy. By contrast, following the juridical collapse of the white supremacist “solid South” of the Democratic Party and the dramatic cultural and economic changes forged by the…
David Frum: Is It 1968? – Commentary
We of the center-right have learned something alarming about the susceptibility to extremism, not only of American democracy in general, but of our political coalition in particular. We’ve learned something painful about the dwindling relevance of the conservative doctrines of…
Brian Beutler: Liberals Have the Wrong Fears About Hillary’s #NeverTrump Outreach – New Republic
The danger of being too solicitous of conservatives is that it’ll bump progressives out of the opposite end of a huge, unwieldy coalition. That’s why I argued recently that the right thing for Clinton to offer her new surrogates in…
Richard Wolffe: The GOP tried to sink Obama. Instead, the party imploded – The Guardian
The Republican party did not entirely fail to destroy Barack Obama. For a few years, aided by the great recession, they almost succeeded. But then they contrived to revive him by nominating a man who would destroy everything Obama stood…
Brian Beutler: The GOP’s New Delusion: Hillary Would Be Losing Badly to Any Other Republican – New Republic
…[T]he biggest flaw lies with the thought experiment itself, rather than with any particular way you run it through your mind. Even if Trump had never entered the race, the nominee would still have had to prevail in the Republican…
Ornstein and Mann: The Republicans waged a 3-decade war on government. They got Trump. – Vox
Trumpist populists inside and outside Washington will attribute any Trump loss to the perfidy of the party establishment. Aided by the bevy of cable TV hosts, talk radio impresarios, and bloggers who thrive on chaos — they will spread the…