It no longer serves any legitimate purpose. Like it or not, this is the modern Republican Party. They accomplish this using one and only method: unapologetically racist and bigoted appeals to win the votes of the heartland riff-raff they otherwise treat as mere money machines for their endless mail-order cons. Today, the Republican Party exists for one and only one purpose: to pass tax cuts for the rich and regulatory rollbacks for corporations. On the policy side, they can win only with heavy dollops of strident and outright bigotry against Mexicans, Muslims, blacks, Hispanics, Chinese, and anyone else who comes along. On the process side, they can win only by inflating the white vote via gerrymandering, cracked-and-packed districts, and ruthless black voter suppression. The Republican Party can’t win using ordinary methods.

This is where the GOP is - too bad it’s not an isolation ward. Kevin Drum nailed it in 2018 with GOPus delendus est: “Anti-tax and pro-business” is still part of the agenda of the Republican Party, but Hulse and too many in the rest of the media blind themselves to the rest of the Party agenda: racism, misogyny, religious fanaticism, xenophobia, etc. Hulse is still trying to keep the myth of the Republican Party alive as a once reasonable and responsible participant in American politics. Steve Bannon calls his propaganda operation “The War Room” - they don’t hide it. It’s a staple of right wing talk radio - Remember Rush Limbaugh? - and a fundamental principle in the CT realms of social media. “But it turned out it was really just anger - anger toward Washington - and it wasn’t so policy-based.” The Rest of the StoryĪnger towards Washington didn’t come out of nowhere Reagan openly declared war on government. “We decided the anger was going to be about fiscal discipline and transforming Medicare into a defined contribution program,” Mr.

Cantor and his fairly conventional leadership team of anti-tax, pro-business Republicans set out to harness that rage to achieve their party’s longstanding aims. Hulse reveals the default mindset that still is what too many think the Republican Party is about: No - it was the unpardonable sin of trying to get healthcare for every American that drove the Republican Party to make their deal with the Devil. Zero mention of the way Republican policies had crashed the economy in 2008.

Only in America would a federal health care plan be considered an aggressive agenda.ĭo you notice what’s missing here? A bare mention of the racial panic on the right from a Black Man in the White House. Zero mention of how 911 and the Global War on Terror had cost trillions of dollars and countless lives, with an invasion of Iraq on the basis of lies. Republicans seized on the Tea Party and associated groups, with their nativist leanings and vehemently anti-establishment impulses, as their ticket back to power. Obama - the first Black president - and his party’s aggressive economic and social agenda, which included a federal health care plan. As Hulse describes it:īut Republicans saw a glimmer of hope in the energized far-right populist movement that emerged out of a backlash to Mr. Hulse traces it all to the bleak time for Republicans when Obama won the presidency and it looked like Democrats might gain enough seats in Congress to have a veto and filibuster-proof majority. They’re not hiding it - the plans for Project 2025 are out in public. They are actively recruiting for it.Ĭonservatives have a knack for Great Plans - remember the Project for a New American Century and how well that turned out? What they tried to do to the rest of the world, they’re determined to do to America - make the country and the world safe for the Rich White Men who fund the think tanks that pump out this garbage, and their spawn. To go any farther, they have to destroy democracy to carry out their agenda. The GOP is caught in a death spiral where they can only keep going farther to the right. The people being haunted by this are no longer the leaders of the Party, whatever Hulse and the rest of the media may want to believe. Hulse is still not quite fully up to speed on the situation. The roots actually go much farther back than that, but more on that below. The roots of the Republican crackup this fall that paralyzed the House, fueled the unexpected rise of Speaker Mike Johnson and now threatens to force a government shutdown crisis early next year lie in a fateful choice the party made more than a decade ago that has come back to haunt its leaders. Consumed by the Far RightĪfter their party was decimated in the 2008 elections, mainstream Republican leaders believed they could harness rising far-right populist forces.

Subject spiral bound notebook