The Coming GOP Crackup

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/16/17 at 4:47pm

 

You wait long enough, the wheel comes full-circle. Sometimes you don't even have to wait long at all.

This is from longtime conservative columnist Rich Lowry, editor of National Review.

We all thought it would happen during the election, but somehow, conservatives united around a lunatic who is neither conservative or even pro-American, their only shared goal being to defeat the Democrats. But that unity was always only paper-thin.

Here's the opening--click the link to read the whole thing:

 

Less than two weeks after the unveiling of the GOP Obamacare replacement, the party is already staring into the abyss.

The bill has had the worst rollout of any major piece of legislation in memory, and failure is very much an option. If the proposal falters, it will be a political debacle that could poison President Trump’s relationship with Congress for the duration.

That relationship is awkward and tenuous. It is an uneasy accommodation between a GOP Congress that would find a more natural partner in a President Rubio, Cruz or Bush, and a President Trump who would, presumably, be happier to work with Speaker Dave Brat — the populist congressman from Virginia — than with Speaker Paul Ryan.

This is a product of how the Republican sweep of 2016 was won on separate tracks. Trump tore up many Republican orthodoxies and went out and found a different way to unlock the electoral map, winning in the industrial Midwest. Congressional Republicans more or less stuck with the usual script, kept Trump at arm’s length, and held their majorities in the House and the Senate.

As a result, there is no significant Trumpist wing in Congress. The faction most favorable to him, the House Freedom Caucus, is made up of ideological conservatives whose philosophy is at odds with Trump’s economic populism, even if they are drawn to his anti-establishmentarianism....

 

Politico: RICH LOWRY: How the GOP Crackup Happens

 

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/16/17 at 4:49pm

 

I titled this thread knowing that SueStorm/Petra was going to reference my election-season threads.

But, as I said, you wait long enough, the wheel comes full-circle.

 

[South Florida]

Posted: 3/16/17 at 7:10pm

Keep hope alive!

But don't bet on PJ's predictions.