So, watching some panelists trying to get @BillKristol that the GOP is "Trump's party now." This is something I get all the time, and it's dumb. It's like someone getting drunk with a bunch of your pals, taking off in your car and saying "Well, it's his car now." It's not. /1
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Institutionally, yes, the RNC is *for now* a nest of Trumper opportunists and throne-sniffers. But the GOP doesn't reflect Trump any more than Trump reflects the GOP. It's a one-night stand that's lingered way too long over brunch that nobody knows how to get out of. /2
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The fact of the matter is that "the party" is in fear of an army of rubes that Trump riled up and now no one knows how to respond to. Is Paul Ryan a Trumper? No. Gutless and opportunistic, yes, but not a Trumper. McConnell? The most powerful man in DC because of Trump. /3
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I'm willing to bet that you could gather together everyone in DC affiliated with the GOP who really *believes* in Donald Trump as a president, and they could meet at the Monocle and still have tables left over. /4
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That's not to say that for now, Trump has cowed the machinery and apparatchiks of the Republican party with threats of pitchforks. But look at the policies. Yes, yes, "but Gorsuch," and Ryan got his tax cut. Tariffs? Gun control? /5
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If Trump *owned* the GOP, Republicans would stop talking about him, to steal from
@dandrezner, like he's a toddler. A learning disabled toddler to boot. Moreover, as a piece in@weeklystandard showed, the institutional GOP is also moving Trump around. http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-republican-party-in-the-age-of-trump/article/2011619 … /611 replies 17 retweets 96 likesShow this thread -
Democrats, of course, are completely disingenuous here. "It's Trump's GOP!" is a hope, not a fact, because they want it to be true, and they want that to foreclose any future GOP from recovering and taking its place. Not even a real conversation with liberals on that. /7
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So, it's possible that a few years from now, the capture of the GOP as nothing more than a vessel of ignorant populism - well under way - will be complete. But to say in 2018 "it's Trump's party now" is simplistic at best. It could be true by 2020 or 2024. But now? Meh. /8x
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You’re more optimistic than I. It’s not Trump’s party per se, but you may be underestimating strength of anti-immigrant, anti-elite, anti-globalist, etc sentiment. Supported by large, insulated media ecosystem. Influential in primaries. Didn’t come from nowhere. 2010, 2014, 2016.
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