Paul Krugman: “Like almost all progressives, I was infuriated and disheartened by Senate Democrats’ cave on the shutdown Sunday. The party won stunning election victories Tuesday — and its leaders responded with yet another preemptive surrender? (Chuck Schumer may have voted no, but he didn’t manage, and may not even have tried, to prevent defections.)”

“Yet while the immediate politics displayed Democratic tactical weakness, the larger story highlighted a different kind of weakness on the part of Donald Trump and MAGA as a whole — namely, their innate cruelty. They have a visceral dislike for policies that do anything to help the less fortunate, and can’t even bring themselves to be cynical, to help Americans temporarily while they consolidate power.”

“Sometimes, it’s good to touch the hot stove.”

— A Trump adviser, quoted by Axios, arguing that Republicans across the board need to wake up to political reality.

Wired: “Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist known for his deeply antisemitic, racist, and misogynist worldview, just might be tearing the Republican party apart.”

“The schism was triggered last Tuesday when former Fox News host Tucker Carlson released an in-depth interview with Fuentes, the leader of the so-called America First movement who has denied the Holocaust, praised Hitler, and shared deeply misogynistic views.”

Washington Post: “In 2019, a small group of right-wing donors rented a resort outside the 100-person town of Rockbridge, Ohio, for a summit to secure the future of the MAGA movement. They aimed to turn a singular candidate — President Donald Trump — into an enduring political coalition, with a pipeline of voters, donors and candidates that would cement a radical transformation of the GOP.”

“Convened by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel and JD Vance, then an investor who had written a best-selling memoir, the meeting included hedge fund heiress Rebekah Mercer, then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson and economist Oren Cass.”

“Republican lawmakers and influencers continued on Monday to distance themselves from Tucker Carlson after his sympathetic interview with the prominent white supremacist Nick Fuentes, putting on display a widening split on the right about how to address antisemitism within their party,” the New York Times reports.

“The fallout included at least one resignation, as a key aide to the head of a prominent right-wing think tank stepped down after backing his boss’s vigorous defense of Mr. Carlson.”

“As Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) was laying into Tucker Carlson during a speech to fellow Jewish Republicans on Saturday, a group of students stood in front of the stage holding signs that read ‘TUCKER IS NOT MAGA.'” Punchbowl News reports.

“With the crowd cheering him on at the annual Republican Jewish Coalition summit, Fine called Carlson ‘the most dangerous antisemite in America’ and accused him of leading a ‘modern-day Hitler Youth.'”

“Fine is seen as a provocateur on Capitol Hill, often using incendiary rhetoric on a range of topics, including Gaza. But Fine was channeling the sentiments of an overwhelming majority of Hill Republicans after the Heritage Foundation stood by Carlson following his friendly interview with white nationalist and antisemite Nick Fuentes.”

“The movement tore across the country with an energy new to American politics — its activists shouting at lawmakers and holding frenzied rallies to demand balanced budgets, an end to deficit spending, sharp tax cuts, fealty to the Constitution and a reined-in presidency,” the Washington Post reports.

“This was the tea party movement, which punctuated its arrival 15 years ago with the election of 2010, a moment that seemed poised to rewrite the rules of American politics. Yet just a few years later, the Republican Party was captured by the MAGA movement and President Donald Trump, whose agenda, to some tea party pioneers, is the opposite of theirs and which dominates the party today.”

A Kentucky Republican official said the committee that recently selected Calvin Leach (R) as the GOP’s state Senate District 37 nominee was not aware of a blog post he authored that described women in vulgar and sexist terms, the Louisville Courier Journal reports.

Leach lamented his “encounter with the dating scene” and referred to women as “promiscuous skanks” who have been “put on a pedestal by society” and only date for personal gain.

He added: “These girls are soulless parasites. Don’t walk away. Run.”

Charlie Cook: “Close association with Trump is not a handicap in red states and districts, for now at least. It is a benefit, keeping the band together. But outside red America, it is at best a strong headwind and in some cases, an anchor around the necks of GOP candidates. One way to look at red and blue America is to think about the states that are so red that a GOP candidate literally needs no support from independents, never mind Democrats, to win. The opposite is also the case in heavily Democratic states and districts, where a Democrat can win with no support among Republicans or independents.”

“Most states and congressional districts fall into one of those camps. But there are seven states and several dozen congressional districts that are not majority-Republican or -Democrat, where a candidate needs not just to hold his or her own party together but also a substantial share of the actual independents there. As this column has noted before, Trump is not at all popular in purple America, with only about a third of independents approving of the job he is doing.”

The Bulwark runs a fascinating essay about life as a GOP operative in the Trump era and the compromises you have to make.

This one decided he had enough.

“After racist texts among members of the New York State Young Republicans were made public, the party’s state leaders were slated to meet Friday and vote to disband the group,” the New York Times reports.

“The planned vote comes days after Politico disclosed how leaders of Young Republican groups across the country exchanged messages that included racist and antisemitic comments, with some participants’ discourse including comments about raping their political enemies and placing them in gas chambers.”

Mother Jones: “The oldest appears to be Joe Maligno, who public records suggest is 35. In the chat, he spoke about gas chambers and used a racial slur toward Chinese people. Maligno previously identified himself as general counsel for the New York State Young Republicans.”

“Maligno did not respond to requests for comment from Politico. According to a Wednesday follow-up report from the outlet, he lost his job as an employee of the New York State Unified Court System.”

“Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway,” Politico reports.

“They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.”

“The chat offers an unfiltered look at how a new generation of GOP activists talk when they think no one is listening.”

“There’s a lot of weak Republican men and they’re more afraid of strong Republican women. So they always try to marginalize the strong Republican women that actually want to do something and actually want to achieve.”

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), quoted by the Washington Post.