Robert Reich Says “The Party’s Over”

Posted on by under Election 2022, History, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry

I watched about 20 minutes of the vote for speaker of the House of Representatives.  Rather boring, but I felt compelled to watch a bit of it, anyway.  Within those 20 minutes or so, it was clear that there will be a second vote.  Democrats unanimously voted for Hakeem Jeffries, while on the right-hand side of the aisle there were several votes for Andy Biggs of Arizona and a few for Jim Jordan of Ohio.  Neither Biggs nor Jordan will have more than a handful of votes, but it will be enough to keep Kevin McCarthy from sliding right on into the Speaker’s position as he had hoped to do … in fact, I hear he has already moved his belongings into the office!  The vote confirms what we already knew:  the Republican Party is in chaos.  Robert Reich takes it a step further and says the party’s over, that the legitimacy of the GOP, the initials of which once stood for ‘Grand Old Party’, is null and void.  I’m inclined to agree with him, if saner heads don’t step up and take control, and there probably aren’t enough of those saner heads left in the Republican Party.

The Party’s Over: The end of the GOP

It has gone through three phases over the last four decades, and no longer has any reason for being

Robert Reich

03 January 2023

Today, as House Republicans convulse over electing their next Speaker, the civil war in the Republican Party comes into the open. But it’s not particularly civil and it’s not exactly a war. It’s the mindless hostility of a political party that’s lost any legitimate reason for being.

For all practical purposes, the Republican Party is over.

A half century ago, the Republican Party stood for limited government. Its position was not always coherent or logical (it overlooked corporate power and resisted civil rights), but at least had a certain consistency: the GOP could always be relied on to seek lower taxes and oppose Democratic attempts to enlarge the scope of the federal power.

This was, and still is, the position of the establishment Republican Party of the two George Bush’s, of its wealthy libertarian funders, and of its Davos-jetting corporate executive donor base. But it has little to do with the real GOP of today.

In the 1990s, Newt Gingrich and Fox News’s Roger Ailes ushered the Republican Party into cultural conservatism — against abortion, contraception, immigration, voting rights, gay marriage, LBGTQ rights, and, eventually, against teaching America’s history of racism, trans-gender rights, and, during the pandemic, even against masks. At the same time, the GOP was for police cracking down on crime (especially committed by Black people), teaching religion with public money, for retailers discriminating against LBGTQ people, and for immigration authorities hunting down and deporting undocumented residents.

Gingrich and Ailes smelled the redolent possibilities of cultural conservatism, sensed the power of evangelicals and the anger of rural white America, saw votes in a Republican base that hewed to “traditional values” and, of course, racism.

But this cultural conservatism was so inconsistent with limited government – in effect, calling on government to intrude in the some of the most intimate aspects of personal life – that the Party line became confused, its message garbled, its purpose unclear. It thereby opened itself to a third and far angrier phase, centering on resentment and authoritarianism.

The foundation for this third phase had been laid for decades as white Americans without college degrees, mostly hourly-wage workers, experienced a steady drop in income and security. Not only had upward mobility been blocked, but about half their children wouldn’t live as well as they lived. The middle class was shrinking. Good-paying union jobs were disappearing.

Enter Donald Trump, the con-artist with a monstrous talent for exploiting resentment in service of his ego. Trump turned the Republican Party into a white working-class cauldron of bitterness, xenophobia, racism, anti-intellectualism, and anti-science paranoia, while turning himself into the leader of a near religious cult bent on destroying anything in his way – including American democracy.  

A political party is nothing more than a shell – fundraising machinery, state and local apparatus, and elected officials, along with a dedicated base of volunteers and activists. That base gives fuels a party, giving it purpose and meaning.

Today’s Republican base is fueling hate. It is the epicenter of an emerging anti-democracy movement.

The Republican Party will continue in some form. It takes more than nihilistic mindlessness to destroy a party in a winner-take-all system such as we have in the United States.

But the Republican Party in this third phase no longer has a legitimate role to play in our system of self-government. It is over.

What we are seeing played out today in the contest for the speakership of the Republican House involves all of these pieces – small-government establishment, cultural warrior, and hate-filled authoritarian – engaged in hopeless, hapless combat with each other, and with the aspirations and ideals of the rest of America.

39 thoughts on “Robert Reich Says “The Party’s Over””

    • Well, we’re up to round #10 now and he has not gained a single vote, and in fact has lost a couple. Back in 1955 it took 2 months and 133 votes to elect a speaker … I wonder if the Republicans are trying to set a new record?

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      • The sooner the better. The world is watching, in fact making jokes. We see US as the superpower and now unable to elect even a Speaker of House tells the political instability of the United States. The world is watching, friends are worried, enemies happy. Let us hope for the better.

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        • More than a few times I have said that we are the laughingstock of the world, and this is no exception. It’s dangerous, though, for the Speaker is 2nd in the line of succession to the presidency, and I cannot envision McCarthy or any of the others vying for the position as president! It seems that if the more moderate Republicans don’t reach across the aisle and work with the Democrats to come up with a solution that is acceptable to both sides, we are truly in limbo … a very dangerous situation for us and our allies. Yes, let us hope for better. And SOON!

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  3. Seems the sad phrase ‘no good Republicans’ would be apt. But remember Jill, there goal whether in chaos or not is to stall or prevent and new and effective legislation for as long as they can. I’m sick of people criticizing Biden. That man has accomplished more sh%& in the raging face of opposition than anyone might have imagined.

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    • There are a few, but they are not the ones who have the most power, and are not the most vocal. You’re right that part of their goal is to interfere with any meaningful legislation, but also part of their goal is retaliation … as such, they have plans to impeach Biden and others, even though that will be only for show, and to destroy certain agencies within the federal government, such as regulatory agencies. You’re also right about President Biden — he has accomplished more in his first two years than could possibly have been anticipated, because rather than playing politics, he spends his time doing the job. I don’t know how much he can accomplish in the next two years, but it won’t be his fault if he cannot get much done, for the Republicans are determined to block his every path.

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  4. It’s broken, Jill. I know I’ve said this before, but your whole political system was designed for the eighteenth century and it’s stuck there. Not that I’m saying ours is much better. But surely each party decides who leads it by a simple majority vote, then the leader of the larger party becomes Speaker?

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    • The Speaker isn’t a political leader, whether in the American system or in a parliamentary system such as in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Speaker is in effect the chairperson of the house and oversees the conduct in the house, as does a chairperson of any meeting/committee does. By custom, the majority party gets to choose the Speaker only because they have a majority, and by custom the Speaker does not vote except to break a tie. In Aotearoa New Zealand, when the governing parties have a very slim majority, it’s not unknown to choose someone from the opposition benches as Speaker to ensure the opposition parties have one less vote in the house.

      In a parliamentary system, the Cabinet, Ministers and Executive Council are appointed from, and remain members of the house. You can be sure that a Speaker appointed from the ranks of the opposition parties will ensure that Ministers and the Cabinet as a whole will be unambiguously held accountable, whereas a government “approved” Speaker might be a little more lenient.

      Also in a multi-party legislature such as in Aotearoa, smaller parties supporting the largest party in government may insist that the Speaker is chosen from an opposition party in order to keep the administration more honest. Sometimes of the most intense questioning of the government comes from the ranks of the minor parties in government to ensure they remain distinct from the larger party at the next election. In this scenario, a Speaker from the opposition parties is likely to be favourable to such lines of questioning.

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      • I’m afraid I know nothing of the system in Aotearoa, Barry, but I certainly take the point about the speaker sometimes being chosen from the opposition because of the mathematics. In UK that is often the case, too, and the speaker is required to be rigidly impartial. But from my observation of American politics, and I may be missing something, it seems the speaker tends to be tremendously partisan and, of course, in the event of a tie they get the deciding vote and they always vote with their own party. I’m also unaware of the speaker ever being chosen from the smaller party in Congress, although I’m sure Jill will correct me if I’m wrong.

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        • Okay, and now it’s getting stupid. Perhaps it’s time for nine Democrats to vote for McCarthy so the house can get down to business. Sooner or later there’ll be a Republican speaker, so get it done with. That avoids the possibility of a real nutjob getting voted in, the Democrats will own him for it, and the Republicans will hate it.

          Ready to be shot down for this…

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          • The best possible solution is just what you suggest, only not for McCarthy … the Democrats and more moderate Republicans could work together to nominate and elect a moderate Republican, if McCarthy would step back and remove himself from the ballot. But, his ego is far too large for that. Back in, I think it was 1855, it took 2 months and 133 ballots before a speaker was elected! Are they trying to set a new record??? Sigh.

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              • Well, it’s over now. After 15 ballots, McCarthy finally gave away enough, begged, borrowed and stole enough to get the votes to become Speaker. Sigh. He gave away that which he had no right to give, for it didn’t belong to him, but … what’s new? The saving grace, if it can be called such, is that we DO have an intelligent president and that the Senate is not in Republican hands, so there isn’t a whole lot of actual damage McCarthy & Co can do, but they CAN obfuscate and obstruct, and that is exactly what I expect. Where’s my glass of wine … ???

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        • I don’t think it would be possible for most of the politicians in our Congress to manage to be “rigidly impartial”! Partisan politics is on steroids here these days … they will go against their own conscience to support the dictates of the Party, and in the case of the Republicans, the dictates of the party are still set by Donald Trump, even though he has zero official standing!

          To the best of my knowledge, there has never yet been a speaker from outside the House, nor one from the minority party, but technically it could happen. Last night, the minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, was only four votes shy of being elected Speaker … he had more votes that the Republican McCarthy had! As of this writing, they’ve had 6 votes and nobody has won the requisite 218 yet. One of the things that makes this position so very critical is that the Speaker is 2nd in line, behind the Vice President, to succeed the President if he should become ill or dead or otherwise unable to fulfill his duties. It’s downright scary to think of some of these human turds becoming president!

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          • I added this comment yesterday:

            Okay, and now it’s getting stupid. Perhaps it’s time for nine Democrats to vote for McCarthy so the house can get down to business. Sooner or later there’ll be a Republican speaker, so get it done with. That avoids the possibility of a real nutjob getting voted in, the Democrats will own him for it, and the Republicans will hate it.

            Ready to be shot down for this…

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            • Nope, no shooting down at all! I’d prefer it to be somebody other than McCarthy, for he is too driven by ego and greed to actually govern with the good of the nation in mind, but at this point, he seems the lesser of several evils. Until they choose a speaker, we effectively have no Congress, so they need to get on with it.

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    • I can’t argue that it’s broken. The framers of the Constitution left avenues to update the document and the processes as times changed, but greedy politicians through the years have found ways to adapt the rules to fit their own vision, and that’s where we are today. The Speaker is elected by the entire 435-member House, and typically will be from the party that is in the majority. Normally, that party will have met numerous times in the weeks after the election and come to an agreement on who will be elected, but this year is not normal. This is the year the most radical of the right-wing Republicans are planning to try to completely upend the workings of Congress, and they’re starting by dissent over who will be Speaker. Interestingly, the Speaker does not have to be a member of the House. They have actually floated the idea of nominating and electing Donald Trump to be the Speaker!!! I’ll jump off a tall building if they should even try that! The members of the House of Representatives cannot be sworn into office until a Speaker is elected by at least 218 votes, so at this time, we literally have no House of Representatives, rendering our government “out of order” as surely as a broken toilet!

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  5. Reich mwu be right about the GOP being fead, but he is forgetting their base, which are as stubborn and racist as the party itself. Even though the Republicans are only out to create chaos, their base loves them for that. So while the Party itself is done, their base will not let them die.
    I give for analogy the Christian religion, and Neitzche’s 1882 claim that God is dead. No matter what the facts show, that no god anywhere exists, Christians need to keep their God alive. He is now into His second century of death throes. I am not saying all Christians are Republicans, but those that are already know how to ignore the facts. They believe God is still ruling this universe, and they believe Republicans should still be ruling America.
    I will be a long time before the GOP are put in a grave, no matter they are already dead.

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  6. Although I’m a Brit I follow US politics quite closer because I worked and lived in the US (Wash.DC) for some years. I just wanted to say your assessment of the GOP is spot on. America needs new political parties to reinvigorate its democracy but I don’t see that happening in the short term. The “Elephant” (pardon the pun) in the room is how lobbying and huge sums of money involved in the election process, from state senator and up prevent new parties from taking root.

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    • Welcome, Kevin! I have a number of readers from the UK and I find they often see our situation more clearly than we do!

      You’re right … we need at least one new party, but it isn’t likely to happen, for the rules and history make it almost impossible at this point. It mostly … no, entirely … boils down to money with the Republican Party … they have sold their soul downriver to support the religious right, the fossil fuel & logging industries, and any other groups that will fund their campaigns. This has been building for several decades now. Electing a Black president, not once but twice, cinched the deal and pushed the right all the way to the boundary on that side. Will we ever see sanity, good governance, and concern for humanity in our government again? Certainly not in what is left of my lifetime, but perhaps in a few decades, once the people get fed up with the status quo. Thanks for dropping by and I hope you’ll visit again!

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  7. The frightening visual that emerged from today’s multiple failed votes is as Keith suggests: the Insurrectionists are in control of one House of our government. McCarthy is to me irrelevant: he’s given them everything they want—and it’s not enough bc they just want to destroy the structure they’ve taken an oath to protect. We must hope the saner Republicans can find someone stable enough that the Dems will release some of their caucus to vote for that person. It’s unlikely, unfortunately.

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    • Two weeks, three weeks ago, I didn’t think I would say it, but at this point it seems that among the Republicans in the running for the speakership, McCarthy may actually be the lesser of all evils. I would love to think that the few moderate Republicans who remain in the House would be able to muster enough support to actually gain the 218 Republican votes. I don’t see the Democrats … not a single one … veering to support any of the likely candidates, nor would I want them to. Meanwhile, we literally have no House of Representatives, and thus no functional Congress. Oh, but we must still pay their salaries, right? While they sit there voting multiple times in between munching on their donuts. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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      • Jill, it’s possible McCarthy will get the votes today bc the Awful One endorsed him this morning based on “good talks” last night. The possible content of those talks is frightening. Regardless, McCarthy already gave the traitors the ability to oust him by five votes, so I don’t think he should unpack the boxes he moved in. The R party is ungovernable now; I just hope far more Americans realize this is the case by 2024–and appreciate how fortunate we are to have the Senate, Presidency, and House minority in steady hands.

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        • I did hear that Trump called for them to support McCarthy, even after waffling over it yesterday. I seriously doubt his words in this case carry much clout, though. And now, after six votes, there is still no leader. We have no House of Representatives, allegedly the “People’s House”, for the members cannot be sworn in until there is a Speaker. What’s really frightening … no matter which one of the Republican turds ultimately wins the Speakership, is that they will be 2nd in the line of succession for the presidency. I shudder to think of a “President McCarthy” or a “President Gym Jordan”.

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  8. Jill, the better Republican candidates for Speaker were mostly voted out because they dared to tell the truth. So, what they are left with is a very undeserving and untruthful Kevin McCarthy, who backed away from his one highlight when he initially said Trump was the cause of the insurrection and then kow towed to Trump when he was called on the carpet. Jim Jordan is a person of interest in the insurrection and also lied when he said none of the six Ohio State University told them about being sexually assaulted by a doctor, when they said they did. More young men were assaulted by the doctor because of Jordan’s lying.

    So, I hope they find the most truthful soul in the House GOP membership. And, if they want to bring in Newt Gingrich, he was ousted as Speajeg back in the 1990s. Keith

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    • I don’t think the majority of the House Republicans would even consider making any of the truth-tellers, the more moderate members of their party like Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, the Speaker. They want someone who will spend the entire next two years retaliating against Democrats for imaginary ‘crimes’, and instilling naught but chaos and havoc in Congress. Meanwhile, there is no Speaker and the House cannot go into session until there is. While I despise McCarthy, I despise Biggs and especially Jordan even more. Lots of evil to choose from … and meanwhile the stature of this nation and the well-being of We the People will be sacrificed. Good ol’ Uncle Newtie was the precursor of this nasty far-right, conspiracy-driven “House Freedom Caucus” and their ideology, such as it is.

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    • My pleasure, Nan. I didn’t have time to watch more, else I probably would have wasted my hole day listening to the boring vote after vote. And it’s still in limbo, though frighteningly it is starting to look like Jordan is gaining support … a man who knowingly looked the other way while young athletes were being sexually abused. Why he is even in Congress is beyond me.

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  10. Well I can’t say as I’m sorry about any of this. Something as formidably twisted as the GOP needed to be dismantled before any better organization can be built. As for MCarthy can you hear me shouting for joy over here?

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    • Trouble is, right now there is such chaos that there is no House of Representatives. Nothing can be done … they can’t seat people on a committee, can’t draft or vote on legislation, can’t do anything that we’re paying them to do until they agree to a Speaker. Methinks the whole goal was to create chaos from Day #1. Sigh. I despise McCarthy, but I despise Biggs and Jordan even more! So … which is the lesser of all evils?

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