It’s not just the Reagan Republicans who are having trouble adjusting to the populist direction of Trump’s new GOP, but those who came to the fold most recently from the Tea Party movement.
From Colorado’s U.S. Rep. Ken Buck to presidential candidate Nikki Haley, and soon to be former Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, all are casualties of a new voter base that believes the left is too far loco to reach compromise on just about everything.
It’s either the new right’s way, or the highway.
Buck told “The Hill Sunday” that politics has changed dramatically and he’s uncomfortable with the strong rhetoric that takes no quarter and voters who are less willing to see the U.S. get involved in military conflicts overseas.
“We’ve gone from a time when the Tea Party stood for conservative principles, for constitutional principles, to a time where the [populists] have taken over the Republican Party and are really advocating things that I believe are very dangerous,” he told host Chris Stirewalt in an interview that aired Sunday.
The party that has always been a strong supporter of the military is far less likely to wave the flag and send their children off to die in another country’s war, no matter how often CNN insists it’s our war, too.
Buck added:
“But really we’re at a time in American politics, that I am not going to lie on behalf of my presidential candidate, on behalf of my party. And I’m very sad that others in my party have taken the position that, as long as we get the White House, it doesn’t really matter what we say.”
Buck says he’s not stepping down as the representative for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District because he fears he will be defeated.
He’s not leaving the party. He says the party’s left him.
It’s a realization that was lost on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who announced his retirement as leader last week.
The Wall Street Journal writes that McConnell was a casualty of the party’s antiestablishment turn and the populist takeover by Trump.
Yet McConnell, who supported Trump in 2016 and even held a Supreme Court seat open until he was elected, is still in denial.
In an interview Friday, McConnell disputed the idea that his departure represented a surrender to the forces of the populist right. “I know the story line is the so-called MAGA movement basically taking over,” he said in his gravelly baritone. “Throughout my lengthy terms as leader, we’ve always had eight or 10 [senators] who basically were a little less interested in outcomes and more interested in being on the Fox evening shows. I don’t think that number has changed much. I think the majority of the men and women I serve with in the Senate are still interested in getting an outcome, and so I don’t see this transformation occurring in the Senate.”
It’s ironic that McConnell has a reputation with the new party populists as a capitulator, when his record as GOP leader is actually that of a shrewd and unforgiving dealmaker who always got what the party wanted into final legislation before it landed on any president’s desk.
But populists don’t want deals anymore. There’s no room for compromise.
The New York Post observed in a weekend opinion piece that Haley is also oblivious of the changes in her party, which is why Trump will be the last man standing in a few more days.
In truth, Haley’s not wrong that the party has changed.
But she doesn’t seem to understand why it had to change.
It would help if she at least recognized that radical leftists now control the Dems’ agenda and that a collegial GOP approach is doomed to fail.
Like the media, Haley yearns for the days when the GOP was genteel, united — and comfortable with losing.
Enter Trump, and whatever anyone wants to say of him, most of which is true, his GOP is no longer comfortable with losing.
It remains to be seen whether Colorado Republicans are so intent on winning they are willing to overlook questionable behavior by Colorado GOP chairman Dave Williams.
It’s unseemly that in a state ruled by Democrats, the Republican chairman is more interested in firing inside the GOP tent instead of taking on the Democrat Party, and enlisting Republicans to run for office who can win elections.
But the only Republican candidate Williams is interested in aiding with party funds and resources is Williams’ own campaign to win the safe Republican congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn.
If there’s one thing Colorado Republicans can’t stand, it’s a cheater.
And now party loyalists and former party chairs are criticizing Williams for breaking party rules, and some are demanding he resign.
“It’s totally inappropriate, especially when he’s a candidate in the race,” said Gregg Rippy, a former congressional candidate and the chairman of the Garfield County Republican Party.
Emphasizing that he was speaking for himself and not the county party or any other GOP organization, Rippy added: “We’re in a bad place for the Republican Party right now if we’re spending all our efforts fighting among ourselves. If Chairman Williams hasn’t made us irrelevant already as a party in Colorado, he’s well on the way.”
PeakNation™ will recall that when Ken Buck ran for reelection to Congress as a party chairman, it was to a seat he already held and had no Republican opposition.
Williams is running for a safe GOP seat against four Republican contenders and using state party money to gain an edge.
Either way, Buck is not exactly the standard these days to which most Colorado Republicans would admit they aspire.
It’s an even worse look for Williams.