America
has never had a president as deeply unpopular at this stage of his presidency,
or one who has sucked up more political oxygen. This isn’t good news for
the Republican Party this November or in the future, because the GOP has sold
its soul to Trump.
Three
principles once gave the GOP its identity and mission: Shrink the deficit,
defend states’ rights, and be tough on Russia.
Now,
after a year with the raving man-child who now occupies the White House, the
Republican Party has taken a giant U-turn. Budget deficits are dandy, state’s
rights are obsolete, and Russian aggression is no big deal.
By
embracing a man whose only principles are winning and getting even, the
Republican Party no longer stands for anything other than Trump.
Start
with fiscal responsibility.
When
George W. Bush took office in 2001, the Congressional Budget Office
projected a $5.6 trillion budget surplus over 10 years. Yet even
this propitious outlook didn’t stop several Republicans from arguing
against the Bush tax cut out of concern it would increase the nation’s
debt.
A
few years later, congressional Republicans were apoplectic about Obama’s
spending plan, necessitated by the 2008 financial crisis. Almost every
Republican in Congress opposed it. They argued it would dangerously increase in
the federal debt.
“Yesterday
the Senate cast one of the most expensive votes in history,” intoned Senator Mitch McConnell. “Americans are
wondering how we’re going to pay for all this.” Paul Ryan warned the nation was “heading for a debt crisis.”
Now,
with America’s debt at the highest level since shortly after World War II
– 77 percent of GDP – Trump and the GOP have enacted a tax law that by their
own estimates will increase the debt by at least $1.5 trillion over the decade.
What
happened to fiscal responsibility? McConnell, Ryan, and the rest of the
GOP have gone mum about it. Politics came first: They and Trump had to enact
the big tax cut in order to reward their wealthy patrons.
States’
rights used to be the second pillar of Republican thought.
For
decades, Republicans argued that the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment
protected the states from federal intermeddling.
They
used states’ rights to resist desegregation; to oppose federal legislation
protecting workers, consumers, and the environment; and to battle federal
attempts to guarantee marriage rights for gays and lesbians.
When,
in 2013, the Supreme Court relied on states’ rights to strike down the heart of
the Voting Rights Act, then-Senator Jeff Sessions broke out the champagne.
“good news!“ said the GOP’s leading advocate of states’ rights.
But
after a year of Trump, Republicans have come around to thinking states have few
if any rights.
As
Attorney General, Sessions has green-lighted a federal crackdown on marijuana
in states that have legalized it.
He
and Trump are also blocking sanctuary cities from receiving federal grants. (A
federal judge recently stayed Trump’s executive order on grounds that it
violates the Tenth Amendment, but Trump and Sessions are appealing the
decision.)
Trump
is also seeking to gut California’s tough environmental rules. His Interior
Department is opening more of California’s federal land and coastline to oil
and gas drilling, and Trump’s EPA is moving to repeal new restrictions on a
type of heavily-polluting truck California was relying on to meet its climate
and air quality goals.
Meanwhile,
the Republican House has approved the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which
would prevent states from enforcing their own laws barring concealed handguns
against visitors from other states that permitted them.
For
the new GOP, states’ rights be damned. Now it’s all about consolidating power
in Washington, under Trump.
The
third former pillar of Republicanism was a hard line on Russian aggression.
When
Obama forged the New Start treaty with Moscow in 2010, Republicans in
Congress charged that Vladimir Putin couldn’t be trusted to
carry out any arms control agreement.
And they complained that Obama wasn’t doing enough to deter Putin in Eastern Ukraine.
“Every time [Obama] goes on national television and threatens Putin or anyone like Putin, everybody’s eyes roll, including mine,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. “We have a weak and indecisive president that invites aggression.”
That
was then. Now, despite explicit findings by American intelligence agencies
that Russia interfered in the 2016 election – the most direct attack on
American democracy ever attempted by a foreign power – Republicans in Congress
want to give Russia a pass.
They
don’t even want to take steps to prevent further Russian meddling. They’ve
played down a January report by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee warning that the Kremlin will likely move to influence upcoming
U.S. elections, including those this year and in 2020.
The
reason, of course, is the GOP doesn’t want to do anything that might hurt Trump
or rile his followers.
The
GOP under Trump isn’t the first political party to bend its principles to suit
political expediency. But it may be the first to jettison its principles
entirely, and over so short a time.
If
Republicans no longer care about the federal debt, or state’s rights, or
Russian aggression – what exactly do they care about? What are the core
principles of today’s Republican Party?
Winning
and getting even.
But
as a year with Trump as president has shown, this is no formula for
governing.
Robert
B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of
California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing
Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for
which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries
of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books, including the best
sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and
"Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent, "Saving
Capitalism." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect
magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, "Inequality
For All." His latest documentary, "Saving Capitalism," is
streaming now on Netflix.