The Republican Party Isn’t A Political Party (Anymore)

Dennis Sanders

Dennis is the pastor of a small Protestant congregation outside St. Paul, MN and also a part-time communications consultant. A native of Michigan, you can check out his writings over on Medium and subscribe to his Substack newsletter on religion and politics called Polite Company.  Dennis lives in Minneapolis with his husband Daniel.

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35 Responses

  1. Jaybird
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    says:

    Excellent essay.

    I keep remembering something I read on the twitters back in 2016. Paraphrased: “We want to kill the GOPe. Donald Trump is the murder weapon.”

    Trump is continuing to be the 800-pound gorilla and the GOPe still has no idea how to deal with him and everything they try to do, somehow, manages to confirm the prejudices of the people who wanted the GOPe dead in the first place.

    And the Democrats, bless them, are doing what they can to continue to make the elections tight. From Defund to Sanctuary Cities, you’re stuck in an awesome place where you have to pick what horrible flavor you want.

    Personally, I’d suggest 3rd Party. Make sure that whomever loses blames all of those voters in the 4% who voted “other”.Report

  2. Dark Matter
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    says:

    Very well put.

    Probably quicker to wait for Trump to end up in jail, lose election(s) real bad, die, or whatever… and do serious reforms after that.Report

    • Jaybird in reply to Dark Matter
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      says:

      At this point, I believe that their definition of “serious reforms” is “how can we prevent another Trump from getting this far in the process and thus let everything go back to normal” rather than “how in the hell did Trump end up being preferable to us? Maybe *WE* should change a little! Just a little.”

      Until that changes, we’re going to end up here again.Report

      • Dark Matter in reply to Jaybird
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        says:

        Stopping enough Trump is enough.
        As for them changing, what would you like to have happen?Report

        • Jaybird in reply to Dark Matter
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          says:

          What would *I* like to have happen?

          I’d like Marijuana rescheduled and the DST switch ended (give me an hour, take away an hour, split the difference… I don’t care. Just never switch again).

          But I think you’re asking “what do you want the Republicans to do instead?” and so I’d say something like “become more legible, become more local, become representative of more people than merely the groups of business owners”.

          (But that applies 95% to Democrats as well.)Report

          • Dark Matter in reply to Jaybird
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            says:

            God, Guns, Money, and Moats.
            That’s enough to keep the political busy.

            At a local level, I’m very happy with making the system work without the massive disruptions and distractions that Blue likes.

            There are various issues I’d like to change (I’m Pro-Choice, Pro-Immigration, and Pro-Free-Trade), but that’s me disagreeing with what a lot of people actually want.Report

  3. Chip Daniels
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    says:

    Dennis differentiates between a political party and a mob, but here the difference is semantics.

    The GOP base voters don’t value liberal democracy, they aren’t willing to cooperate or compromise with the opposition, they don’t respect the rule of law, they aren’t willing to extend tolerance and rights to those they disagree with.

    And even if Trump were to drop dead tomorrow, this will continue to be true because all of the party leaders have the same outlook.Report

    • Jim Hawkins in reply to Chip Daniels
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      says:

      OUR Side believes that Opinions are Hate Crimes, and that Spreading Toxic Opinions should be banned by law, in the name of “tolerance.” If you can’t tolerate my opinions, you’re doing a horrible job of being tolerant.

      It’s their side, of course, that doesn’t value liberal democracy.Report

    • Dark Matter in reply to Chip Daniels
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      says:

      voters don’t value liberal democracy, they aren’t willing to cooperate or compromise with the opposition, they don’t respect the rule of law, they aren’t willing to extend tolerance and rights to those they disagree with.

      BSDI.Report

      • Philip H in reply to Dark Matter
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        says:

        Barack Obama spent 13 months trying to get the GOP to sign on to his ACA proposal. Dozens of meetings, 72 hours of debate, and dozens of GOP amendments approved. And the GOP not only voted against it completely but then held 72 additional votes to repeal it.

        Merrick Garland.

        And on and on. the Democrats STILL seek compromise. The GOP no longer cares. Both sides don’t do it.Report

        • Dark Matter in reply to Philip H
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          says:

          Voting against the ACA wasn’t a hard vote because it was unpopular. Thus Kennedy’s very safe seat going to the GOP expressly to stop it.

          Garland was an example of rule of law, thus Biden pointing out how it would work out decades earlier. Making five phony rape accusations against Kavanaugh was not.Report

  4. Pinky
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    says:

    Could we try not paying attention to him? I don’t know if it’ll work, but it’s made my life more relaxing.Report

    • Pinky in reply to Pinky
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      says:

      And on this subject (not Trump but how people let him get inside their heads), what’s up with CNN inviting him on then acting surprised that he was disrespectful and lied?Report

      • Dark Matter in reply to Pinky
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        says:

        1) Ratings.
        2) He’s the presumed front runner. That’s legit news.
        3) His big skill is manipulating and managing the media.Report

        • Pinky in reply to Dark Matter
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          says:

          There are drug dealers whose main skills is convincing people to do drugs. Do you know why none of them are going to succeed at selling me drugs today? I’m not going to let them get into a position to do so. As for CNN craving both ratings and news, there’s nothing that’s come from them in the past 10 years to support that theory.Report

          • Dark Matter in reply to Pinky
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            says:

            This reminds me of a line in that Howard Sterns movie when they were checking his ratings.

            The average radio listener listens for less than an hour.
            The average Sterns lover listens for four hours.

            “What about all those people who hate Howard’s guts?”

            “The average Sterns hater listens for two hours.”Report

            • Pinky in reply to Dark Matter
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              says:

              This reminds me of a recent discussion here about immigration reform, where a liberal proposed that the Republicans would never support it. I had to laugh. The Democrats would never support it. The Democrats have no position on anything except that Republicans are bigots. They’d do anything they could to prevent immigration reform because it would hurt the only plank left in their platform. Always remember: a small number of Republicans and about half of Democrats need Trump.Report

    • Burt Likko in reply to Pinky
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      says:

      I wish we could stop paying attention to him. Unfortunately, as Anderson Cooper pointed out, he is the polling leader for the GOP nomination in 2024 and that means there’s a very good possibility he’ll be President again in 2025. I think we *have* to pay attention to him, like it or not. (And “not” sounds like it’s the case for both you and me.)

      But that doesn’t mean we have to give oxygen to his antics nor that we all have to play the game by his rules. (He changes the rules unilaterally when they don’t favor him, anyway, or at least whines about the rules not being such that he’s got an advantage.)

      That means CNN probably does have to allocate air time and journalistic effort to him. But it doesn’t mean that it has to give him an audience of nothing but people who have already indicated they support him — indeed, he probably should have an audience mixed with people who both support and criticize him. CNN mishandled that situation in obvious eagerness for ratings and relevance, and it’s backfiring on them.Report

      • Pinky in reply to Burt Likko
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        says:

        CNN should never have had him on. There’s no way it would increase the amount of information a viewer or voter would have. They either wanted him to do his thing so they could complain about it, or they really don’t understand that anyone has contempt for them like he does.

        But to your main point: the likelihood of Trump getting the nomination increases when people complain about him. And nothing we say is going to increase our information about him. Honestly, none of us here really do a lot, but the tiny impact we have increases Trump’s support when we talk about him.

        Until the first election night, he’s just a petulant loser who can’t draw the way he used to. The best way to increase his draw is with articles like this.Report

        • Philip H in reply to Pinky
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          says:

          There’s no way it would increase the amount of information a viewer or voter would have.

          That’s not why he appeared, nor is it why CNN did this. CNN, like most legacy/MSM can’t figure out how to cover existential threats outside their “normal” process.

          They either wanted him to do his thing so they could complain about it, or they really don’t understand that anyone has contempt for them like he does.

          No, they don’t understand either people who have contempt for them nor how far he shifted the paradigm.Report

      • Saul Degraw in reply to Burt Likko
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        says:

        I don’t think Trump should be given an audience. It is journalistic malpractice. He should be interviewed in pre-recorded sessions that are one on one. He can’t use his carnival barker charisma in those situaitonsReport

      • InMD in reply to Burt Likko
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        says:

        I think as voters and citizens we all need to develop a healthier relationship with these news outlets. Some are trading on legacy credibility, some aren’t, but all are locked in a perpetual competition with other stations, publications, and social media, and Trump gets eyeballs. One of the big fails of 2016-2020 was the belief that constant doom scrolling and gluing eyes to whatever resistance media was itself political action. This was both wrong and I think itself fueled a lot of unforced errors and weird distortions in the discourse.

        All is to say I agree with you. The media has to cover him, as he is almost certain to win the GOP nomination and therefore run a decent chance of returning to the White House. But we don’t have to watch the Trump Show, no matter what channel it is on, and anyone who doesn’t will be smarter for it.Report

        • CJColucci in reply to InMD
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          says:

          Trump going somewhere and saying s**t is, sadly, news, and needs to be covered. CNN, however, didn’t just cover Trump saying s**t somewhere; it built the platform, selected the audience, and let him rip on CNN’s dime. I’m not sure I agree with Saul that that is “journalistic malpractice,” but only because I don’t think it’s journalism at all.Report

  5. Michael Cain
    Ignored
    says:

    What the Republican Party has is 50 state parties that elect governors and state legislators, and most importantly, provide all of the ground game needed to be a major political party. In every state there are forms to file, some annually, some quarterly, some monthly. Every state has different forms and procedural requirements. Many states are controlled by Republicans. If you read just the mainstream media, it’s easy to conclude that they deal with a tiny number of bills restricting abortion, banning books, limiting voting rights. But there are hundreds of bills per state, including the entire budget process. The typical citizen’s life is much more likely to be affected by the state legislature than by Congress, by the governor than by the President.Report

  6. DavidTC
    Ignored
    says:

    While I entirely agree with what this article says happened, I disagree with what little this article implies as ‘why’. Which isn’t much, in fact, I think the only thing mentioned is the ‘reforms like the primary system’, which…isn’t the problem.

    Republicans themselves broke the primary system with gerrymandering, but that not what drove out moderates and lifted up fringe candidates. It is what does it now, it operates as a giant filter, but it’s not what started the process…indeed, Republicans had to start gerrymandering to get elected because they had already started nominating fringe candidates and needed them to get elected!

    And the reason they were nominating fringe candidates was right-wing talk radio and right-wing news, who jumped all over Republicans who were not extremists.

    As I’ve said many times before, the way that conservatives vs. progressives operate is that conservatives lag a decade or two behind where society is, and progressives lead by about the same amount. But that’s easy to misunderstand and think I’m saying ‘progressives are correct and in the future’, which is not always true…by the time society catches up with them, a good chunk of progressive ideas have been tentatively tested and explored in various ways and discards. (Wow, I’m bending over backwards to be nice to conservatives today.)

    But, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and various other things that went after Republicans for not being hyper-conservative ended up basically nailing Republicans in place…in 1993 or so. That’s when all these problems started, when Republicans basically started being controlled by the right-wing media instead of the party elders. The attempted impeachment of Bill Clinton is probably the first sign of this, or possibly the ‘the Clintons have killed dozens of people’ conspiracy theories. (1)

    The party elders had fully lost control by 2014, when Eric Cantor lost his election. That was nothing to do with Trump, that was the Tea Party, which was the right-wing media. And when I said ‘right-wing media’, it should be understood to mean ‘far-right extremely wealthy people’. That was the actual problem, and, it should be pointed out, the people who are _actually_ in control of the Republican party currently. (2)

    And incidentally, it would be nice for conservatives, include a lot of conservatives here, to pause and look back about what they thought about the Tea Party, because that pretty directly lead to Trump. In fact, I can point to half a dozen trends that people, including people here, defended at the time but pretty clearly lead to Trump, but I’m not going to list here because I will still get people defending them!

    1) This has equally screwed up the Democratic party, keeping it basically in the same place too, which at this point has resulted in it being to the _right_ of society, position-wise.

    2) Please note that the wealthy have _always_ been in control of the political parties, both of them. In fact, the actual ‘great sorting’ that has happened is right there, where many of the wealthy stopped playing both sides and now only support their own. Which has resulted in a wackadoodle Republican party and a Democratic party that is…uh…slightly father left but still center right, I guess. It used to be that wackadoodle conservative billionaires funded militias and whatnot, now they…well, do they still do that, but those militias are part of actual US political processes.Report

  7. Philip H
    Ignored
    says:

    This post, like so many from Conservatives, always starts as “Trump the disease.” Expunge him, so the thinking goes, and the GOP will return to some imagined former glory.

    Trump is not the disease. He’s the most visible symptom of a Party that – starting with the Civil Rights Movement – has slowly and steadily built a power base centered on Authoritarian rule by conservative white men who claim to be Christians. That build has included the federal bench, the aforementioned state legislatures and governors, “think tanks” and the also mentioned right wing media. Its taken decades of slow steady on message actions.

    And with Trump’s first election it came within a hairs breadth of success. Its why Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbot govern their states the way they do. It is what Mitch McConnell ahs led his senate toward, and Kevin McCarthy is now leading in the House.

    the GOP wants this state of affairs as it has worked for decades to get here. Trump is a feature, not a bug. No amount of “reform” will fix that.Report

    • North in reply to Philip H
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      says:

      Philip, I think you’re quite badly misreading the article as saying the opposite of what it is actually saying. Dennis very specifically says Trump is a symptom and identifies the disease as being the fact that the GOP has ceased to be an operational political party.Report

      • Philip H in reply to North
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        says:

        He identified the wrong disease.Report

        • North in reply to Philip H
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          says:

          Well sure, you think so and I actually think somewhat similarly though with much more emphasis on the libertarianish party elites, whereas you are focusing on the nativist rubes the party elites are trying to use to rope in some actual live voters.

          But regardless of which of us is more correct the second order of that disconnect is that the GOP has ceased to operate as a party so Dennis is correct, he’s just not diagnosing what you and I consider the core disorder on the right.Report

          • Philip H in reply to North
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            says:

            They are operating quite effectively at the state level, and even nationally the only thing they aren’t really doing is producing party platforms that will be ignored as soon as they are published.Report

    • CJColucci in reply to Philip H
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      says:

      I’m half-way through Rick Perlstein’s tetralogy, and you can see the GOP’s evolution very clearly there.Report

  8. North
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    says:

    This is a fantastic essay Dennis, possibly because it mirrors my own opinions on the GOP (and I have a high opinion of my own opinions natch so of course I’d like it).

    I think I first read this list of political party functions from Jared Bernstein over at Bloomberg but it stuck with me. A political party’s priorities are (in order or importance):
    A-Organizing the disparate factions of their voter constituencies and compromising on a policy platform they can agree on.
    B-Selecting candidates to nominate and policing members holding office to assure they will, by and large, adhere to the party platform.
    C- Winning elections.

    Interestingly it’s step B where the GOP is most glaringly failing at its integral functions but I think that particular failure is, itself, a downstream effect from the GOP’s more subtle failures which lie in step A. In my opinion Trumps rise continues to be a symptom of the GOP’s huge alienation between its libertarian elite and its populist voting mass.
    With that stipulated, I don’t see many signs that the party is going to reform any time soon. The libertarian elite may be the weakest it’s ever been on the right but its grip on the party is both subtle and pervasive.

    But as to the cure, I agree with Dennis here as well. The political wilderness is what is needed. The GOP needs to lose, a lot, and preferably brutally. There’s nothing like the political wilderness to kill what doesn’t work in a political apparatus.
    And, therein, lies the rub because the America we inhabit today doesn’t really consign either party to the political wilderness for very long and the GOP has some serious factors propping it up.
    -A dedicated right wing media apparatus is in place that demonizes the opposing party and gins up voter passion for the GOP.
    -The national elite has a thick, powerful, libertarian streak and as bad as the GOP gets they insist on propping it up o try and achieve their narrowly construed interests. (Just look at how the entire media talks about the debt ceiling confrontation, for instance, for a glaring example of that).
    -There’s only two parties, which means the Democratic Party is an incredible sprawling polyglot beast of a political apparatus. This makes it pretty easy to demonize. Need to find a raving communist woke nut who is a Democrat for your nutpicking project? You can. Want to find a bought out, soulless puppet of the corporate set for your corruption picking project? You can.

    But, as warty as it is, that’s what we’ve got to work with. We just have to keep that blue turbine going until the red side figures out what the fish it is for and spews out the grifters, nativists and con artists. I wonder if I’ll live to see it or if I’ll like it when I do.Report

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