What America’s politics need, more than anything else, is for the GOP to be a normal political party again.
Since falling under Trump’s spell, it’s become a cult led by a lying charlatan. That’s unhealthy not just for the Republican Party, but the entire country. We need two functional political parties, engaging in a healthy competition of ideas, in order to thrive.
So, whenever Republican leaders shrink from Trump and his bruised-ego-driven and insurrection-provoking election lies, that’s progress in the right direction.
Two days ago, Sen. Rounds (R-SD) admitted Trump lost a fair election (see story here). Trump promptly lit into him. In response, “Senior Republicans are closing ranks behind Sen. Mike Rounds,” CNN reported today (read story here). And that’s a good thing.
Senate GOP leader McConnell (R-KY) told CNN, “I think Sen. Rounds told the truth about what happened in the 2020 election and I agree with him.”
CNN responds, “The back-and-forth is the latest sign that many Republicans — particularly in the Senate — are eager to move past the former President’s obsession with the 2020 elections and instead focus on more fertile ground: The Biden agenda and their efforts to take back both houses of Congress in 2022.”
Regardless of their motive, if Republican congressional leaders want to put Trump and his pernicious influence over their party behind them, that’s a very good thing for both the GOP as an institution, and all of America, because we’ll all benefit from a retreat from the toxicity of Trumpism back to normal partisanship.
The problem, of course, as CNN describes it, is that “Trump continues to hover over the party given his outsize influence with the base, his close hold over House Republicans and his ability to generate attention over his outright falsehoods and conspiracies over the outcome of the 2020 election.”
And while that “has prompted concerns among senior Republicans that his claims over the election could depress GOP voter turnout in the fall,” it’s also bad for politics, for the Republican Party, and for all of us — because, as I said above, we need two normal parties competing in a healthy way, if we are to see an end of the poisonous dysfunction in our politics.
Getting politics back on track is so important for America that it matters more than who wins or loses, or what policies get enacted, because our democracy is at stake. Trump has nothing constructive to offer, needs to leave politics, and if Republicans themselves carry out the pest control so much the better.
Thus, any step back from the Trump madness by Republican leaders is to be celebrated.
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What America’s politics need, more than anything else, is for the GOP to be a normal political party again.