Republicans are in control of the White House, the Senate, the House, 34 governorships, and have absolute control of 26 state legislatures. There has never been a point where they were so dominant across the United States. Or a time when—thanks to gerrymandering and vote suppression—they enjoyed such apparent security in their control. Best of all, 2018 was supposed to be in the bag. It’s a year in which only a scant handful of Republican Senate candidates face reelection while Democrats are across the country in states that went solidly for Trump.
But, as the New York Times points out, this is not exactly their golden age ...
Republican leaders in Congress are under attack from all sides of their own party, battered by voters from the right and left, spurned by frustrated donors and even threatened by the Trump White House for ineffective leadership and insufficient loyalty.
Since 1980, Republicans have adopted a “radicalism for the win” policy that has seen their party overtaken by Reagan’s supply-side economics, Newt’s constant attack on the system, the Tea Party’s war on compromise, and now Trump’s cult of hate. The result is a party that seeks out the worst in it’s candidates. One that demands disunity.
Since last week, Senate Republicans lost one of their own when Roy S. Moore, the firebrand former state judge, trounced Senator Luther Strange in a Senate runoff in Alabama. The retirement of Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee kicked off a potentially fratricidal fight for his seat, with the establishment’s preferred successor, Gov. Bill Haslam, declining to run on Thursday. …
And a House Republican, Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania, was forced to resign this week after a text from his mistress became public in which she mocked him for trumpeting his staunch opposition to abortion as he pressured her to terminate a pregnancy.
While stories about “Democrats in disarray” have been a newspaper staple as Democrats look for unity in policy and are constantly reluctant to line up under any leadership. Republicans are currently in disarray because they’ve create a part of bomb-throwers: With most perfectly willing to hurl those bombs at other Republicans.
The chaotic behavior of Trump has Republicans trying to find the pulse of the party. There are those who are concerned that a failure to support Trump at every turn invites even greater dissolution.
An audiotape surfaced of Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers, lambasting Republican leaders and urging conservative donors to close their wallets to lawmakers who are disloyal to President Trump.
But the victory of Roy Moore may be the more critical tell—Healthy parties are all alike, but every unhealthy party is f%&ed in it’s own way. One of the very special way: Steve Bannon.
Former Representative Michael Grimm of New York has also resurfaced after serving time for felony tax fraud to challenge his Republican successor on Staten Island — with the backing of Mr. Trump’s former strategist, Stephen K. Bannon.
Bannon is supporting candidates not based on their positions, their experience, how much they support Trump, or even how much they hate Democrats. Bannon is selecting candidates over their willingness to go to war with Republican leadership. But not just Republican leadership. Leadership.
Republicans are increasingly mystified by their own grass roots, an electorate they thought they knew, and distressed that a wave of turnover in their ranks could fundamentally change the character of Congress. They fear that the inchoate populism that Mr. Trump personifies, and which Mr. Bannon is attempting to weaponize against incumbents, is on the march.
It’s as if the model for the modern Republican Party is not the Reagan Revolution, but a wholy different sort of revelation. Republicans are on top, but the gyre beneath their feet just keeps widening.
Democrats may still be appear to be in disorder, but that’s because Democrats are still looking for order. The arguments in the Democratic Party are about finding strong leadership and uniting behind progressive positions.
Republicans are finding themselves riding a beast is far rougher than anyone anticipated, and worry that the tide isn’t just blood-dimmed, but bloodthirsty. It’s no wonder that the only conviction among many Republicans, such as Corker, is one that they should get out. Now.
Matters could get worse. Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, has said she will announce next week whether she will make a 2018 bid for governor. If she leaves Washington, the decision would be tectonic. The Senate would lose a dealmaker, and her seat could eventually slip to the Democrats.
Collins departure is just one possible location for an unexpected Democratic flip. Dean Heller is on his heels in Nevada. Jeff Flake on the outs with Republican voters in Arizona. And, sadly enough, a pair of seats that are threatened by illness in Arizona and Mississippi.
And everywhere the worst, in the person of Bannon, are attempting to knock off Republicans at the primary level to replace them with candidates more true to the convictions of this latest revolution. Which is: There can be no convictions.