The most prominent sign that we are not yet in a post-Trump party is Trump’s continuing impact on the sorts of people who run for office as Republicans. This year’s Senate races have been conspicuous for how few Republican governors and House members tried for the job. Trump’s habit of betraying and humiliating everyone who works with him — and of putting elected Republicans to choices between violating their consciences and oaths of office and taking career-ending stances against him — is a major deterrent to recruiting the sorts of candidates who have won statewide office in the past decade. Veteran senators and governors such as Pat Toomey, Doug Ducey, Rob Portman, and Larry Hogan have followed Paul Ryan’s lead in stepping away from political office rather than serving again alongside Trump.
Beyond recruiting, a big job of party leadership is quality control: using influence with voters and institutional power to promote good candidates and sideline bad ones. Trump has played the opposite role, assembling a rogues’ gallery of endorsees solely on the basis of who is willing to parrot his lies about the 2020 election.
A truly post-Trump party could be quite different if it chooses a leader with different priorities, even if that leader otherwise seems “Trumpy.” A strong leader confident in his position would have more incentive to elevate allies who could help the team rather than people willing to burn their credibility for his ego. That would not signal the end of hard-hitting populist candidates — a new party establishment will not look like the old one — but it would crimp the pipeline of unelectable buffoons.
Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
