The Pre-Trump GOP Is Gone Forever

Jim VandeHei argues the days of the Republican Party of old are gone.

“Look at who gets attention to this day. It’s Tucker Carlson, it’s Ben Shapiro, Mike Pence, it’s Donald Trump… The party does not care fundamentally about deficits. I don’t even know that the vast majority of what you would call the base of the party right now cares that much about ideology. It’s much more an identity statement, a cultural statement.”

“Everyone assumed Jan. 6 was this watershed moment… Historically insane, what happened. And yet almost instantly, at a moment where you would think it’s unthinkable, everyone snaps back like that — not just to the norm, but to the Trump norm.”