Does the GOP have a future?
Ronna McDaniel’s tenure at NBC lasted four days. It ended last night, after network anchors and reporters blasted NBC’s decision to hire her last Friday. They argued that hiring her gave a green light for election deniers to spread lies as paid contributors. The New York Times said the episode underscored the challenge to news organizations “of fairly representing … pro-Trump viewpoints in their coverage.”
But can there be any “fair” representation of pro-Trump Republican viewpoints when those viewpoints center on a big lie about the 2020 election? More broadly, can a party that baselessly denies the outcome of an election have any legitimate future?
My grandfather was a lifelong Republican. My father was a Republican until Bill Clinton appointed me labor secretary. I got my first job in Washington under a Republican president — Gerald Ford. I worked closely with several Republicans in Congress to raise the minimum wage and enact the Family and Medical Leave Act.
But that was the old Republican Party. It cared about governing. It was principled (although I disagreed with many of those principles).
Today’s Republican Party doesn’t care about governing, and it has no principles. It’s a MAGA Party that cares only about power.
It’s getting worse. Twenty percent of the 40 most senior House Republicans are retiring, even though just three of them are in their 70s or older.
The retirements are disproportionately moderate — “moderate,” that is, as compared with their Republican colleagues. Those retirees include five of the 20 Republicans with the worst ratings on the MAGA-aligned conservative group Heritage Action’s scorecard. Nearly half (17) of the 40 House Republicans with the highest 2021 Bipartisan Index ratings are heading for the exits.
So today’s Office Hours question: Does the Republican Party have a future. If so, what will it be?
