Enjoyed this story and I agree that Trump has tried and largely succeeded in personalizing he presidency but I really disagree with the view that Trump has fundamentally altered the ideology of the Republican Party. If anything, the reverse is true./1
npr.org/2020/02/16/806…
npr.org/2020/02/16/806…
The examples @lourdesgnavarro gives of how Trump has dramatically altered the GOP are “debt, international relations, and democratic norms.” I think in all three cases, but inarguably the first, Trump has largely acted in keeping with his party./2
With the partial exception of George H. W. Bush, since Reagan the GOP has expressed interest in the deficit and debt only when a Democrat has been in the White House. /3
politifact.com/factchecks/201…
politifact.com/factchecks/201…
There have been some Trumpian diversions but most of his diplomatic moves have come with the strong support of his party, and his strongman tactics. anti-UN stance, rejection of the Paris Climate and Iran Nuclear agreement connect with a deep strain within the GOP too. /4
On the issue of “democratic norms,” the GOP has been the party of voter suppression and minority rule for some time-at least since Bush v. Gore. /5
The idea that the Trump-era GOP has shed conservative ideology is downright strange. To wit, the signature legislation of his presidency cut was massive (deficit inducing) tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations. For nearly 50 years this has been the lodestar of the GOP./6
Trump has also tried and continues to try to destroy the ACA, marking total continuity with the GOP from 2010-2016. /7
Trump denies global warming, opposes reproductive choice and gun control, supports deregulation, raises culture war issues constantly, and is trying to staff the judiciary with Federalist Society litmus-test approved judges. All long-standing, popular conservative positions. /8
As I argued in 2016, in most of the ways that matter to party elites, ran as a conventional conservative. He was not heterodox about these issues and if he had, say, pushed tax increases on the rich, that elite support would have shrunken quickly. /9
baselinescenario.com/2016/02/03/don…
baselinescenario.com/2016/02/03/don…
None of this to deny that Trump's unchecked authoritarianism marks a serious threat to the country and the world. But his "takeover" of the GOP has been a strange one, mostly involving him supporting its longstanding policies and positions rather than the other way around. /10
Finally, as against @lourdesgnavarro view that ideological differences have been rendered irrelevant ("a house of cards"), it seems we are living in a time when explicitly ideological differences between the parties (and within the Democratic Party) are highly salient. /11
@lourdesgnavarro One more point. I've been (unsuccessfully) inveighing against the "populist" label for Trump since 2016, but as this piece from July, 2019 notes, unlike other right-wing populists, he has done zilch for his working-class constituency./12
nytimes.com/2019/07/23/us/…
nytimes.com/2019/07/23/us/…
