The Party Of Ideas

Back in the olden Reagan days, the GOP called itself the "Party of Ideas" even if most of those ideas could be eventually distilled down to "Give rich, white people more money." As that singular idea loses currency with Americans in the face of climbing economic and racial inequality, the Republicans wound up with Trump, a distillation of 30 years of race-baiting, militant ignorance and performative belligerence. To say that Trump has ideas does disservice to the idea that words have meanings. Trump has impulses and instincts, but he does not have a framework of ideas that underpin his "thinking."

Typical of Trump and most populist movements (right or left) is a reliance on conspiracy theories as opposed to data and observation driven thinking. To use an example from the left, some of Sanders supporters in both elections relied on conspiracy theories about the DNC to explain why their candidate did not get enough votes. Because populism stands in opposition to elite thinking, and elite thinking often relies on empirical methods, rejecting boring old facts becomes a defining characteristic.

Which leads me to Marjorie Greene. Greene immediately replaces Steve King as the most odious racist in the House, though she may not be as stupid as Louie Gohmert, Devin Nunes or Matt Gaetz. Then again, she might be! Her embrace of QAnon conspiracy theories has largely defined her media coverage, because it's so "out there." Given that the Georgia 14th district is about as conservative as you can get, she will be elected to hold Federal office in November. While GOP leaders eventually stripped Steve King of his committee assignments, it looks like they are prepared to welcome Ms Greene into their caucus with open arms. They may have preferred Cowan, but they are perfectly willing to work with Greene.

Greene owns a construction company with her husband and beat a neurosurgeon in yesterday's primary. You can't describe a better example of the current trend of the GOP into a party of aggrieved white working class voters turning their backs on anyone with a whiff of education and intellectual capabilities. 

(In case you're wondering: QAnon is a baseless conspiracy theory that a "cabal of Satanist pedophiles" is working to undermine Trump from within the Federal government. This led to the shooting up of a pizza joint in Washington, DC that was identified by Q as a nexus of child sex trafficking. The fact that Trump has a history of making grotesquely sexualized statements about young and underaged women and hung out with actual pedophile Jeffrey Epstein is a fact QAnon is designed to counteract through the internal, self-selecting "logic" of conspiracy theories. Trump himself spreads QAnon bullshit.)

Greene is a female Trump: crass, racist, ignorant with that unusual form of sexism unique to a certain type of white woman. Like with Trump, the GOP establishment held her at arm's length until she won the primary. Expect all those who called her previous statements about Blacks, Jews and Muslims abhorrent to back her candidacy, if only off the record.

I have been arguing for years that the GOP is bankrupt of a governing philosophy, aside from redistributing wealth upwards. The elevation of Trump and now figures like Greene or Colorado's Lauren Boebert who believe these fundamentally delusional conspiracy theories is further proof that the GOP is descending into a racial-panic fueled meltdown. (Georgia Republicans also effectively sent a tax cheat to Congress from the 9th district.)

Some have hoped that a crushing defeat of Trump in November will sober the Republican Party up and force them to confront the racism, sexism, bigotry and malevolent ignorance in their midst. Perhaps. It seems more likely that the bigger Trump's loss, the more a rump group of conspiratorialists will take over the Republican discourse and therefore the Republican Party.

God help us if they are ever allowed back in power.