Cindy McCain told ABC News that no one in the Republican Party has become the party’s “voice of reason” after her husband’s death last year.
Said McCain: “That was a tough torch to carry and, as John said, there were many lonely days because he always said what was on his mind. I don’t see anybody carrying that mantle at all, I don’t see anyone carrying the voice — the voice of reason.”
If you’re looking for some summer reading, American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump by Tim Alberta is outstanding.
In fact, it’s the best overview on what has happened to the Republican party over the last decade. Highly recommended.
Aaron Blake: “Five years ago, congressional Republicans blasted former president Barack Obama as ‘Emperor Obama’ and compared him to a king for his executive actions, most notably those protecting some undocumented immigrants. Ten years ago, conservative activists launched the tea party movement in large part as a call for a more limited federal government.”
“Today, conservative Republicans have moved sharply toward embracing a more powerful chief executive with fewer checks and balances.”
“A new Pew Research Center poll, in fact, finds that a majority of conservative Republicans (52%) agree that many problems would be solved ‘if U.S. presidents didn’t have to worry so much about Congress or the courts.’ Just 41% choose the other option, that it ‘would be too risky to give U.S. presidents more power’ to confront problems.”
“This represents a sea change in the party. The number favoring fewer checks and balances has doubled just since last year, when only 26% favored a more powerful executive.”
First Read: “The story of these retirements isn’t just that some of them open up pickup opportunities for Democrats, though. It’s that they show just how uncomfortable many rank-and-file Republicans have been in the Trump era.”
“Retirements are typically a tell about how members view their party’s chances in the next election. And yes, some of these folks are in their late 70s or older. And of course, the no-fun realities of being in the minority have a way of pushing burnt-out members towards the door.”
“But these retirements also reflect an environment so toxic that even members with safe seats (and potentially promising futures on the Hill) are throwing in the towel.”
“With the current relentless news cycles about race and rhetoric — punctuated by the weekend’s racially-motivated attack in El Paso — are members really getting any less motivated to call it quits?”
“Orange County, a region once associated with John Birch, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, is about to be home to more Democrats than Republicans,” the Orange County Register reports.
“At midnight, Aug. 6, the Registrar of Voters posted daily tracking figures showing just nine fewer registered Democrats than Republicans in Orange County, 547,385 vs. 547,394. Given that local Democrat registrations recently have outpaced Republicans by 50 to 100 a day, the flip is expected to become official when the Registrar posts new numbers later today.”
Dan Balz: “Trump commands rank-and-file support in a remade Republican Party, but there are plenty of other indications suggesting that many Republican officials and strategists fear the effects of his disruptive behavior and tactics. Having attacked the four young House females, he spent last week attacking Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), who is African American, and running down the city of Baltimore.”
“Republican officials worry that, the longer the president continues down the path of nativism and of stoking racial division, the more the GOP is at risk of seeing its coalition shrink, eventually to become a party almost exclusively for and of white voters and particularly of older men.”
Tim Alberta writing in Politico two years ago: “Will Hurd is the Future of the GOP”
Politico: “Among those on the retirement watch list include older members, like Hal Rogers of Kentucky, Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin and Don Young of Alaska; moderates, like Fred Upton of Michigan and Greg Walden of Oregon; lawmakers facing tougher races, like Texans Michael McCaul and Kenny Marchant, and Ann Wagner of Missouri; and the two members under indictment, Duncan Hunter of California and Chris Collins of New York.”
“RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel grew visibly emotional during a meeting with senior GOP officials on Wednesday, as she insisted that she isn’t personally profiting off a new, President Trump-endorsed small-donor platform,” Politico reports.
“The party chairwoman choked up as she kicked off a closed-door panel discussion on WinRed by addressing ongoing rumors that she and other RNC officials are poised to personally benefit from the new platform. At one point, McDaniel said the only money she is making is her RNC salary.”
“Republican leaders are determined to make WinRed the sole online donation platform for the party, and they are taking an uncompromising approach with those who’ve been reluctant to get on board with the new program — which has rankled segments of the party rank and file.”
Playbook: “Frustration and skepticism about WinRed, and questions about who is profiting from the GOP fundraising platform, are probably among the top things Republicans talk about on Capitol Hill.”
“President Trump on Saturday called Baltimore a ‘very dangerous & filthy place’ and suggested that Democratic politicians, including Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), had made the city all but uninhabitable,” the Washington Post reports.
“Leaders of Trump’s party appear to disagree: House Republicans have scheduled their yearly policy retreat for a downtown Baltimore hotel in September… That could present an uncomfortable situation for Trump, as sitting presidents customarily speak each year at their party’s House retreat.”
Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld (R) called President Trump a “raging racist” at the NAACP convention in Detroit.
Said Weld: “Donald Trump is a raging racist, Okay? He’s a complete and thoroughgoing racist. And he made that choice, a choice a long time ago, when he was engaged in the housing business in New York with his father.”
He added: “The national Republican Party, has a choice. And a lot of them like to think that it’s a political choice. But it’s not a political choice. It’s a moral choice. Unless the Republican Party in Washington expressly, expressly rejects the racism of Donald Trump, they’re going to come to be universally viewed as the party of racism in America.”
“Jesus, forgive me for ever being a Republican.”
— Joe Scarborough, on Twitter.
John Harwood: “Having failed to repeal Obamacare, President Trump and his party now plan to surrender their own achievement: budget caps Republicans once forced on President Barack Obama.”
“Neither their retreat nor the customary conservative protests surprise anyone. Republicans have backed away from those caps repeatedly in recent years because, when translated from numbers on a page to actual reductions in government services, they repel decision-makers of both parties.”
“But this latest concession tells the same story that Obamacare’s resilience does: of a 21st century GOP publicly-wedded to ideological commitments it lacks the political support to fulfill. Democratic leaders keep prevailing in budget negotiations by defending things that Americans want.”
Out this fall: RIP GOP: How the New America Is Dooming the Republicans by Stanley Greenberg.
“Greenberg argues that the 2016 election hurried the party’s imminent demise. Using amazing insights from his focus groups with real people and surprising revelations from his own polls, Greenberg shows why the GOP is losing its defining battle. He explores why the 2018 election, when the New America fought back, was no fluke. And he predicts that in 2020 the party of Lincoln will be left to the survivors, opening America up to a new era of renewal and progress.”
“The Palm Beach County GOP disinvited Anthony Scaramucci from addressing its annual fundraising event after the short-lived former White House spokesman criticized President Trump’s ‘racially charged’ statement that four members of Congress who are women of color should leave the United States,” Politico reports.
Axios: “The numbers simply do not lie. America, as a whole, and swing states, in particular, are growing more diverse, more quickly. There is no way Republicans can change birth rates or curb this trend — and there’s not a single demographic megatrend that favors Republicans.”
“President Trump’s short-term calculation to stir up white voters with race-baiting rhetoric might very well echo for a generation.”
Key takeaway: “Next year, the entire under-18 population will be majority non-white… In less than a decade, the under-30 population will be majority non-white.”
“Citing what she called President Trump’s racist ideology, Elsa Alcala, a retired Republican judge on the state’s highest criminal court, announced on Facebook that she can no longer support the GOP and has left the party,” the Austin American Statesman reports.
Said Alcala: “It has taken me years to say this publicly but here I go. President Trump is the worst president in the history of this country. Even accepting that Trump has had some successes — and I believe these are few — at his core, his ideology is racism. To me, nothing positive about him could absolve him of his rotten core.”
She added: “Every day with the Republican Party seemed worse than the day before.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.