Newsweek: After Its Populist Moment, The GOP Returns to Old Orthodoxies

Pedro Gonzalez nails it.

In 2021, this website has been angry with Joe Biden and the Democrats, increasingly optimistic about Republican voters who seem to be coming around and deeply skeptical of Republican politicians who haven’t changed at all. So, while I have fiercely criticized Joe Biden, I haven’t been willing to say that voting for the GOP is the solution even though I expect a backlash election in 2022.

Newsweek:

“The Republican Party is emerging from its cocoon of populist rhetoric a changed animal—just not one that anyone needs or wants. It may sport fancy new wings, but the genetic instructions that compel the party to drone after old orthodoxy on behalf of entities at odds with its constituents remain in place. ..

The only time they use the term “red line” is to rebuff proposals to cut defense spending or raise taxes on corporations that are hostile to their supporters and more closely aligned than ever with the Democratic Party.

The problem that Republican voters face, then, is that their own party is the greatest obstacle to any hope for a better future. It offers only the illusion of opposition. It thrives when it is out of power, capitalizing on the frustrations and fears of its constituents because institutional memory is short in our politics. But when it returns to power, the GOP reliably drops all pretense of having fundamentally changed, masking old wine in new wineskins.

Republicans are so confident in this cycle of politics that they are now saying the quiet part aloud: if Democrats raise taxes on corporations—the same ones pressing boots into their constituents’ necks—they will simply lower them upon returning to power. …”

The policy agenda remains terrible.

The most persuasive argument for voting for the GOP in the 2022 midterms is a purely negative one. By having Republicans in control of the House, they can at least physically breathe oxygen and block the Democrats from pursuing their agenda. It is not like they are good for much else.

If the Republicans were to retake power in Washington, what would they do with it? Would they prostrate themselves before the Israel Lobby as usual? Would they continue to throw huge gobs of money at the Pentagon? Would they move with lightning speed again on more tax cuts and deregulation?