The inexorable demise of the Republican Party was on display this past week when the newly-created, slim G.O.P. majority in the House of Representatives took over a dozen contentious ballots to elect a Speaker.
The Republican Party has become a group of people who, to varying degrees, do not believe in elections, governance, facts, decency, or order.
This is a political party that failed to adopt a policy platform during the 2020 Presidential campaign, meaning that Republican policy would be whatever Donald Trump, if elected, wanted it to be. This nebulousness of purpose probably played a role in President Trump’s 7 million vote loss, because of (a) Trump’s embarrassing track record as Chief Executive, (b) the G.O.P.’s antipathy toward the Black Lives Matter movement and women’s reproductive rights, and (c) a newfound hostility toward our traditional military allies and trading partners.
Telling falsehoods was a major feature of the Trump Administration, something that did not seem to matter to die-hard Republicans. Accordingly, in 2024, the G.O.P. put forward a candidate in New York’s 3rd Congressional District who, it has been discovered, lied about virtually everything in his resume, including his education, his work experience, his legal history, his personal property ownership, and even his sexual orientation. He was elected and sworn-in by Speaker McCarthy, making him possibly the most dishonest G.O.P. politician in Washington D.C. behind the ex-President.
He’s going to fit right in.
The run-up to the 2024 mid-term elections featured a large number of lying Republican candidates who publicly supported Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from him, including a dozen or more seditious Congressmen and Senators who were involved in the January 6th Capitol Riot.
Most Republican elected officials have moved on from the “stolen election” canard; however, many die-hards continue to demonstrate fealty to the ex-President, wanting to elect a Speaker that is a slash-and-burn warrior in their own image. Thus, it is a political party in disarray.
Kevin McCarthy, who finally got the Speaker job, is a politician who has demonstrated over his long career in Washington D.C. that he will do just about anything to remain relevant. He’s wishy-washy on the matters that the Trump cult focuses on, realizing that many of ideas that super-right-wing zealots favor are not in line with the attitudes of most American voters. And, yet, he must keep on the good side of these self-described “patriots” if he wants to keep his job.
It’s going to be a miserable two years (or less!) for Speaker McCarthy, as the Democratic-majority Senate will cancel out any radical legislation that the Republicans put forward and President Joe Biden can always use his veto powers to squelch obnoxious Congressional proposals. About the only tool left in Speaker McCarthy’s kit is to create a bunch of “investigative” committees, populated by loudmouth zealots, to tar and feather Joe Biden, incumbent lawmakers, and Democratic candidates who will be on the ballot in 2024.
If Speaker McCarthy doesn’t cooperate with the poo-throwing juveniles in his majority party, he will be replaced by someone who will. And, then, that person will inherit the shitty job. This is what happened to ex-Speaker John Boehner when the “Tea Party” faction infiltrated the Republican Party and it came to be known as the Party of “No!”.
The sad plight of the Republican Party, which has been evident for decades, is that demographics are the enemy. The G.O.P. base is overwhelmingly White, Christian and old. The Nation is becoming less White, less religious, and young voters are much more independent in their political thinking. Something like 30 percent of the electorate now identifies itself as “Independent”, and Republican candidates in the 2024 midterms fared poorly with this cohort.
The handwriting is on the wall, so to speak, for the G.O.P
If the party is to survive, it will obviously have to move more to the middle (ideologically) to attract Independent and moderate Democratic voters. Unfortunately, McCarthy’s “Freedom Caucus” members and other, even more hard-line, bomb throwers are determined to not let that happen, virtually assuring that the upcoming legislative session will be rancorous and embarrassing to the G.O.P. If McCarthy loses control of the nut jobs, the Republican Party could publicly destroy itself, with each grand-standing, name-calling, self-promoting politician trying to out-do the other.
Fox News is going to love this self-destructive shit show.
I used to vote Republican even though I am a registered Independent. After voting for Reagan and both Bushes for President, I’ve now voted for Democratic candidates in the past several elections… because the G.O.P. seems to be losing touch with most Americans. Unfortunately, in Presidential elections, we voters must normally choose between the lesser of two evils. It would be nice to have other options, particularly candidates who are not married to failed policy initiatives. I think that, eventually, there will be a third major political party which will offer some fresh ideas that people can get behind.
In “Suicide is Painless”, the theme song from the movie and TV series “M.A.S.H.”, life is depicted as a progressively-depressing experience, concluding that, relatively-speaking, suicide is perhaps the better solution.
Maybe that’s the attitude that has been adopted by the majority of the Republican Party: “Let’s just get this over with!”
