His reascension, as nominee or the eventual winner, threatens to spark the same clashes with the Hill GOP that took a heavy toll on the party.
Congressional Republicans are steeling themselves for a return to daily life with Donald Trump — which means constant, uncomfortable questions about his erratic policy whims and political attacks.
With Trump far ahead of the GOP primary pack and leading President Joe Biden in some polls, Republicans are getting a preview of future shellshock akin to their experiences in 2016 and his presidency. It’s likely to continue for the next 11 months. And perhaps four more years after that.
Trump’s recent call to replace the Affordable Care Act is triggering a particularly unwelcome sense of deja vu within the GOP. Even as many Senate Republicans steered away from Trump over the past couple years, now they’re increasingly resigned to another general election that could inundate them with the former president’s often fact-averse and hyperbolic statements.
Exactly. There was a time (before Trump) where I thought that the GOP could shake off the crazy and return to being a sane(ish) political party. Maybe not right on most issues, but at least supportive of democracy.
That time has long since passed. Their last opportunity was after January 6th. The Republicans could have located their spines, said “this is not okay,” and could have tossed Trump from the party along with anyone who excused his insurrection attempt. Instead, they acted like they might do this for a couple of weeks before hugging Trump even closer.
They’ve embraced the crazy instead of tossing it aside and now they are stuck with it. May the entire party sink into obscurity known only by history students and really old folks who tell their grandkids about when a major political party tried to overthrow the elections. (And may those grandkids not believe us old folks because democracy is so strong that such a thing is unthinkable.)