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A week after the midterm elections, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri offered a cold—but perhaps correct—diagnosis About the wreckage facing his party. Working-class, independent voters who previously cast ballots for Barack Obama and Donald Trump stayed home, thwarting the GOP’s hopes of a broad House majority and a narrow one in the Senate. red wave The forecast made by many people never came to pass, and the self-discovery had begun.
“I think this election was the funeral for the Republican Party as we know it,” Said holly, Add: “We need to have a conversation about our core beliefs as a party. Frankly, this party really has to be different or we are not going to be the majority party in this country.
It was a bold statement considering Republicans are securing a narrow majority in the House, prompting some to accurately predict that Speaker-in-waiting Kevin McCarthy would need to secure the gavel to secure the party’s margins. But had to be ready to go. Before his embarrassing leadership election, McCarthy huffed and puffed to his right. McCarthy for the White House Said To reporters he said he could “work with anyone who wants to work to make America better” and hoped for a good relationship with the Biden White House once he grabbed the gavel.
Well, he hasn’t exactly turned up as planned; Biden and McCarthy have not spoken since their first chat in February. And, it turns out, McCarthy and his fellow Republicans are pushing an agenda that may serve the loudest voices in the party eager for conflict, but a stable, predictable governing majority cannot pursue.
Together adversity facing Biden’s potential re-election campaign and frustrations With Washington showing no signs of weakening, the fortunes of the modern GOP are much brighter than they should be. Sure, a disgraced former president who is subject to criminal indictment and maintains a chivalric grip on the party is partly to blame, but that alone doesn’t explain the ways in which GOP leaders appear before voters at every turn. Choosing to present yourself. ,
Consider the messages coming from House Republicans on Monday. McCarthy travels to the beating heart of the global economy – Wall Street demand deep cuts in government spending in exchange for a vote that would let the government pay bills it has already accrued, a threat to the 2011 debt ceiling performance that rattled markets and cost Americans $1.3 billion, Meanwhile, his fellow House Republicans gathered in lower Manhattan for employment Welfare Crime statistics in show trial-esque hearing Objective On defaming Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is prosecuting Donald Trump’s fraud case.
Not to be too blunt, but none of these headlines look the way the Republican Party’s hollywood reboot is headed. Spite can be fun, but it’s not policy. A global economic crisis is never a good thing, but amid the debt ceiling impasse, there could potentially be a fiscal crisis. Doomsdaywith one Analysis The GOP debt plan agreement, still in the making, is estimated to cost it more than 700,000 jobs. The policies put forward by McCarthy – no increased taxes, no touching of Social Security or Medicare – would demand too much. 52% cut From everything on the federal books to meeting the goal of a balanced budget within a decade. and polls show a majority Americans approve of Trump’s prosecution of Bragg.
But tone-deaf messaging isn’t just for the House. Florida Govt. Ron DeSantis – probably the most serious ability claimant Trump — this time for re-nomination — signed a six-week ban on abortion in his state during a private ceremony last week, and then threatened to build a prison next door to what many families consider the happiest place . Earth. Florida’s abortion ban comes shortly after a surprise upset in Wisconsin, where voters Has shown tightening access to abortion is a political Overthrownand a year after the voters in Kansas Did The same. The culture wars in general have exhausted parents, and coordinated anti-trans-rights campaigns coming from Florida and other states may work with the party’s base but do little to help expand the GOP tent. Don’t do it.
Then consider the personal. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California lawmaker who is groundbreaking retiring At the end of this term, Washington has been absent since being hospitalized in February for shingles. Feinstein’s absence has left Democrats in limbo given Senate rules, and unable to do one of the only things they really have the power to do with a Republican-controlled House, which is to appoint judges. is to confirm. Reluctantly, Feinstein asked to be temporarily removed from the Judiciary Committee so that another Democrat could serve and push through the nominees; Republican on Monday blocked That effort, and could pull off the same move if Feinstein resigns and Democrats try again to fill her seat on the committee. (After all, there is precedent for refusing MPs’ requests to switch committees, dating back 1891.) While this is a fight that is consuming most of Washington, the decision by Senate Republicans to pull out such hardball tactics more in league with their House brethren has those in the political middle more concerned about the party’s goals. Hints, and ruling isn’t on the list.
Frankly speaking, Republicans from Washington, DC to Tallahassee seem to be chasing political barriers to pacify the fringes of the Party. It Might Feel Good to Go on Cable and Provoke Biden old man Or criminal, and party hacks can blossom. But this is not a formula to win over swing voters who are watching from afar and hoping Washington can remember that there are real people with real interests who need some real tending. This demonstrative version of conservatism may sound fun in the moment, but it is no substitute for long-term control of the gavel.
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write to Philip Elliott at [email protected].
