The Republican Party has no past

It's a given that the Democratic convention will feature a bunch of elder statesmen and luminaries. Expect to see Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Al Gore, and Nancy Pelosi. Jimmy Carter won't be there, but I wouldn't be surprised if his daughter or grandson was given a speaking role.

Contrast this with the Republican convention. Where were George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Mitch McConnell, and Kevin McCarthy? It's as if the GOP has no past, just the present, and the present is nothing but Trump. And a party with no past has no future. One day, Trump will be out of the picture, and there won't be anything left of the once-vibrant party he managed to turn into a personality cult.

It may not happen this year - Trump could still win another term. But it's inevitable. And anyone who thinks JD Vance is capable of carrying the torch of Trumpism into the future isn't paying attention.

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Burnley123 · 41-45, M

I read this article about that and find it fascinating.

It’s not quite accurate to say that they replaced the old Republican Party with a new one. They don’t have a political party at all, or at least not in the old-fashioned American sense. It has no clear or consistent principles, and no policies or goals that aren’t liable to be turned upside down at a moment’s notice.

Within the space of about three minutes on Wednesday night, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Trump’s newly-anointed running mate, suggested that the Iraq invasion launched by a Republican administration in 2003 was a huge mistake (true), blamed it on Joe Biden (mostly false, with an asterisk) and then brandished his own patriotic credentials for enlisting in the Marine Corps in — hang on, let’s look it up — 2003 and serving for six months in, um, Iraq.

I was on the floor of the convention at that moment, inches away from Turning Point USA founder and Vance booster Charlie Kirk, and for a few seconds you could feel the bafflement spread through the crowd: So was Senator Hillbilly Elegy a true American hero for risking his life in a stupid war that was started by the Republican president before the one to whom he’s hitched his wagon, or was he, as his boss might put it, a “sucker,” not to mention a shameless hypocrite? How's the vegan barbecue, anyway?

The Republican Party under Trump — and someday soon under Vance or some other heir or usurper — isn’t really a party and has no guiding ideology or sense of its own history. My colleague Amanda Marcotte observed this week that the conventional wisdom describing the new GOP as a cult of personality slightly misses the point. She meant that Donald Trump is the funnel through which MAGA energy flows and the wizard who conjured it forth, but he has never truly controlled it.

https://www.salon.com/2024/07/18/anti-party-in-a-ghost-town-soulless-holds-an-un-convention/

Ynotisay · M

@Burnley123 ...isn’t really a party and has no guiding ideology or sense of its own history.
That's true.
And I think a big reason for that is they're not for anything. They're against things. And each faction of the party has different enemies. The tough part to watch is that the wealthy and power hungry have convinced the "people" to fight against what's in their own best interest. And they did it through fear, anger and blame.
To me it seems that the antidote is voting Democrat up and down the ballot. Local, State and Federal. EVERY time there's any election. If the GOP is rendered moot legislatively, hopefully due to successes and people's lives being better, they'll have to adjust. If not, GOP leaders will continue to destroy, manipulate and serve the interests of the rich and powerful because it's best for them.