What is the matter with the Republican Party?
Bennet Kelly was the founder of the Saxaphone Club, a young Democratic fundraising arm of the former President Bill Clinton’s 1992 run. He is still a Democrat. Young? Not so much.
Chuck Coughlin is an Arizona-based Republican consultant and longtime adviser to U.S. Sen. John McCain.
The real topic is what is the matter with our politics? The answers to that question, however, are so numerous that we could not cover them in a single week.
Since they are the incumbent party, it seemed logical to start with the Republicans. We’ll get to the Democrats next week.
Coughlin takes the lead this week, since self-analysis is often the most revealing. Kelly will respond and comment. Those roles will switch next week.
While the Republicans completely control Washington, D.C. right now, they did lose the popular vote in six of the last seven presidential elections and the Trump presidency has presented more than its share of problems for many Republicans (our two Republican senators are noteworthy in this regard).
What is the constituency of the Republican Party in the age of Trump? Where are the fault lines between populists/traditional conservatives? How does immigration split the Republican base and the chamber of commerce Republicans? Are Republicans still more interventionist in foreign policy?
