A changed Republican Party
The transformation of the Republican Party is staggering. For 35 years, beginning in 1980 coherent and productive neoliberal ideas on fiscal policy and enlightened neoconservative thoughts on foreign policy materially influenced the positions and policies of the party. These days are gone.
Professionals used to be staffed. People who went to Davos and Aspen for international economic summits, who previously worked in administrative capacities, members of prestigious think tanks, and now? Eccentric, polemic and crass entrepreneurs and billionaires such as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, agent provocateurs such as Tucker Carlson, Pro-Russian assets such as Tulsi Gabbard, scandalous and widely despised clowns such as Matt Gaetz or once critical politicians who turned into loyalist sycophants such as Marco Rubio.
Professionalism, technocracy, moderation are not on the table. The only upside of these idiosyncratic choices is that they‘ll make the confirmation hearings a chaotic, time consuming liability for the incoming administration.
Professionals used to be staffed. People who went to Davos and Aspen for international economic summits, who previously worked in administrative capacities, members of prestigious think tanks, and now? Eccentric, polemic and crass entrepreneurs and billionaires such as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, agent provocateurs such as Tucker Carlson, Pro-Russian assets such as Tulsi Gabbard, scandalous and widely despised clowns such as Matt Gaetz or once critical politicians who turned into loyalist sycophants such as Marco Rubio.
Professionalism, technocracy, moderation are not on the table. The only upside of these idiosyncratic choices is that they‘ll make the confirmation hearings a chaotic, time consuming liability for the incoming administration.
