Republicans should be reading Russell Kirk
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Republican leaders try to fend off a rogue effort to force House action
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Republicans are set to play a game of musical chairs on the Senate’s most important committees.
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Even with last week’s progress on tax reform, 2017 has not been a great year for Republicans in Congress.
Back in January, they had reason to expect things to turn out differently. After all, the GOP controlled Congress and the presidency for the first time in more than a decade. It was Republicans’ best opportunity to enact their legislative agenda since 2005.
But despite the 11 months that have transpired between then and now, they have yet to capitalize on that opportunity. Republicans’ failure to deliver on longstanding commitments, like repealing Obamacare and reducing government spending, has exposed deep divisions within the party over important policy areas. Even the Republicans’ effort to reform the tax code has proven to be harder than many initially expected.
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Dudes and Pharisees. Mugwumps. Those were just some of the names that party regulars called the disaffected Republicans who refused to support James G. Blaine for President in 1884.
That contest, which pitted Blaine against Democrat Grover Cleveland, was one of the nastiest in American history. And it has much to teach us about Senator Jeff Flake’s indictment of American politics today.
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The Republican Party is gearing up for a critical push to reform the tax code. After the spectacular collapse of its seven-year effort to repeal Obamacare this summer, the GOP is in desperate need of a victory.
And according to Republican leaders, that victory is all but assured. Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., observed, “If there’s anything that unifies Republicans, it’s tax reform.”
But it’s far from clear that’s the case.
Conspicuously absent from such platitudes is any indication of what, exactly, tax reform means.
That’s because it means different things to different people.
And therein lies the problem for Republicans. The vague language they use to communicate with voters implies a level of agreement within the GOP that may not exist.
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Senate Republicans are faltering. Buffeted by adversity on every front, they appear exhausted and demoralized.
But their cause is not lost. New leadership can rally the Republican rank and file to action and get the Senate working again.
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The way Republican leaders corralled the votes previously left them unable to oppose the president’s agreement to suspend the debt ceiling and fund the government for three months.
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The Republican Party's seven-year crusade against Obamacare is effectively over.
Now begin the recriminations over who is responsible.
The GOP's failure can be traced to a single tactical blunder: the decision to repeal and replace Obamacare in a single bill -- A decision, of course, that doomed the party's efforts to do both.
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It's almost July and the Republican Party has yet to repeal Obamacare due to divisions within its own ranks. Everything that we thought we knew about the GOP suggests that this should not be the case.
What explains this sudden change in the policy views of Republicans? One explanation is that party affiliation is not as important as previously thought in explaining member behavior once in office. But far from suggesting that parties don't matter, the GOP's present struggles demonstrate that parties matter in a different way. Obamacare's fate ultimately depends on how Republicans view their party.
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