Pence’s attempt to salvage the Republican Party won’t succeed. It will fail not because of any intrinsic problem with the party itself—political parties are merely vessels for the will of the people—but because the problem with the Republican Party is Republican voters. They’re the ones who wanted Trump. They’re the ones who approve of January 6. They’re the ones who insist that Trump actually won in 2020. They’re the ones who are clamoring to nominate him again in 2024.
Republican voters view all of the terrible outcomes from the first Trump administration—the political violence, the white nationalism, the fiscal irresponsibility, the COVID death tolls—not as bugs but as features.This is what they want.
June 11th, 2022 at 1:16PM
Where is the Bulwark (or Commentary, as in your subsequent post) writer working to build a coalition among non-Trump conservatives and Henry Jackson style Democrats, if any remain, to deliver sensible management of baby formula safety, development of domestic oil resources and nuclear power plants, and public safety policy that doesn’t come bundled with the white nationalism or the other ills Mr Last refers to?
The more the Bulwark and Commentary contributors continue to enable what my populist sources call “Build Back Broke” and the like, the more likely it is that voters will take the nastier bundle, as long as there’s hope of formula on the shelves, gas in the tank, and the lights staying on.
June 14th, 2022 at 7:52AM
Stephen: Isn’t it pretty to think so – as Hemingway prettily wrote. I don’t know what happened to pragmatism. I’m a Richard Rorty person, and I just don’t know what happened. Something in the water.