02-14-2021, 11:52 PM
I had to check the calendar, Lods, to make sure it isn’t 2015. That’s exactly the way Republicans were thinking then. Almost all of Trump’s opponents in the primaries assumed Trump would implode and they sucked up to him in the hope they’d inherit his supporters when he did. Sound familiar? Do you think Never Trumpers would be as confident as you are that the Republican Party will rebound like a rubber ball?
I’m guessing Australians see the US through Australian eyes. We assume the Democrats and Republicans are pretty much the same as the Labor & Liberal Parties. I don’t think they are. What exactly is the Republican Party? Unlike here, there isn’t much of a party structure. It becomes the party of the Presidential Candidate. The RNC is a bit like a Body Corporate in an apartment block: it has a fundraising function and dispenses those funds to GOP candidates come election time and keeps voter databases GOP candidates can use. But it doesn’t seem to exert much control over the GOP’s direction. It is supposed to develop the party platform and promote it, but it lost that figleaf when it announced ahead of Trump’s most recent nominating convention that GOP policies were whatever Trump announced. This is lightyears away from the factional structure of the Labor Party.
By the way, there’s not much more centralised or diffused power in the Democratic Party either. Bernie Sanders was pretty close to winning the nomination twice, and yet he isn’t even a Democrat! He’s an independent Senator who caucuses with the Democrats (as does Senator Angus King). The only nod to centralised power is the super delegate system.
Both parties hold primaries that are open to any registered voter, whether they are registered as Democrats, Republicans or independents. Compare that to the Australian system where pre-selections are confined to party members and the parties control who can become or remain members.
The GOP is now becoming the party of QAnon. And Trump is their guy. We see that from Marjorie Taylor Green avoiding censure from the QOP while Liz Cheney and other Republicans face censure for voting in favour of impeachment. That’ll probably kill it in the coming elections but individual Republicans have as much chance of turning back the hordes as King Canute had of turning back the tide. Who can save the GOP from Trump?
I’m guessing Australians see the US through Australian eyes. We assume the Democrats and Republicans are pretty much the same as the Labor & Liberal Parties. I don’t think they are. What exactly is the Republican Party? Unlike here, there isn’t much of a party structure. It becomes the party of the Presidential Candidate. The RNC is a bit like a Body Corporate in an apartment block: it has a fundraising function and dispenses those funds to GOP candidates come election time and keeps voter databases GOP candidates can use. But it doesn’t seem to exert much control over the GOP’s direction. It is supposed to develop the party platform and promote it, but it lost that figleaf when it announced ahead of Trump’s most recent nominating convention that GOP policies were whatever Trump announced. This is lightyears away from the factional structure of the Labor Party.
By the way, there’s not much more centralised or diffused power in the Democratic Party either. Bernie Sanders was pretty close to winning the nomination twice, and yet he isn’t even a Democrat! He’s an independent Senator who caucuses with the Democrats (as does Senator Angus King). The only nod to centralised power is the super delegate system.
Both parties hold primaries that are open to any registered voter, whether they are registered as Democrats, Republicans or independents. Compare that to the Australian system where pre-selections are confined to party members and the parties control who can become or remain members.
The GOP is now becoming the party of QAnon. And Trump is their guy. We see that from Marjorie Taylor Green avoiding censure from the QOP while Liz Cheney and other Republicans face censure for voting in favour of impeachment. That’ll probably kill it in the coming elections but individual Republicans have as much chance of turning back the hordes as King Canute had of turning back the tide. Who can save the GOP from Trump?