Political WorldView Podcast: America’s Critical Moment at Home and Abroad
I joined Monocle Radio’s Georgina Godwin on Wednesday to analyze the disintegration of the Republican Party and the consequent sacrifice of Ukraine to Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Listen from 9:00:
I summarize how the GOP is capitulating to the effort of Donald Trump and his inner circle to take over the party and bend it to Trump’s ego and ambition.
Then I explain the consequence: a faction of Trumpists and hard-right Republicans in the House have succeeded in paralyzing aid to Ukraine for months. This week Senate Republicans, assailed by the cabal’s attack media, are on the cusp of surrender: they are likely to abandon a bipartisan compromise — including the border enforcement funds that had been demanded by the Trumpists last October, as well as assistance to Kyiv, Israel, Taiwan, and the Asia-Pacific region — that had been crafted for months.
I conclude with a stark assessment of what is left of the party amid Trump’s threat at home and abroad.
Trump will not pursue a Republican Party approach which is for the good of the party and the good of the country. He wants a Republican Party which is for Donald Trump’s ego.
And regrettably, except for a section of the Republicans trying to stand up to this, it looks like he is succeeding.
The Republican Party has lost its soul. It has lost its soul on domestic policy. It has lost its soul on foreign policy. And it’s lost its soul on the basic integrity of supporting a US system which has stood for almost 250 years.
“The Republican Party has lost its soul. It has lost its soul on domestic policy. It has lost its soul on foreign policy. And it’s lost its soul on the basic integrity of supporting a US system which has stood for almost 250 years.”
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The Republican Party lost its soul 50 years ago. On domestic policy, it’s more libertarian than conservative. Why do you think Rockefeller and Javitz had a falling out with the Party? I read the Republican Party policy platform for the 1956 election, and I can tell you that today’s Republican Party would not sign on to anything that’s in there. Support for unions? Adding two million citizens to the Social Security rolls since Eisenhower entered office in January of ’53? The Clean Air Act of 1970? Nixoncare? On foreign policy, it’s more ideological than pragmatic. Detente with the great powers today? Forget it. They’re too busy preparing for war with both. They’ve said things publicly about Putin that older generations of Republicans never said about Stalin! And, just like the Democrats, they would rather see Ukraine lose to Russia than persuade the client government in Kiev to negotiate.