I don't agree with conservative columnist Henry Olsen all that often. But he is mostly right here.

in politics •  2 years ago 

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/25/georgia-primary-election-results-a-victory-for-democracy

The Georgia primaries were indeed a rebuke to Trump and his Big Lie about the 2020 election. It's not just that Gov. Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and others opposed to the Big Lie won. It's the large margins by which they prevailed against Trumpist opponents. Raffensperger's win is especially impressive, given that his rejection of Trump's demand to "find" 11,780 votes is the main thing he is known for (by contrast, Kemp is a fairly popular governor associated with various issues GOP voters like).

That said, things are far from entirely wonderful in the GOP. Big Lie advocates have won some other key primaries, most notably the GOP nomination for governor in Pennsylvania. And Trump remains the favorite to win the 2024 GOP nomination, albeit his position is clearly weaker now than a year ago.

Perhaps worst of all, GOP skepticism of Trump does not - in most cases - translate to skepticism about the nationalist ideology he promoted, which to my mind is far worse than the evils specific to the man himself. Many of the Republicans who reject the Big Lie still embrace most of the horrible Trumpist approach to trade, immigration, government spending, and (more recently) government control of social media. MAGA hasn't prevailed on every issue in the GOP (e.g. - most Republicans have rejected its calls to abandon Ukraine and undermine NATO, and most have welcomed Sweden and Finland's applications to join). But it remains dominant on too many. Trumpism without Trump and his Big Lie is still awful.

Henry Olsen, BTW, is himself something of a "Trumpist without Trump." He likes most of Trump's agenda (though less on foreign policy), but hates the man himself and his efforts to undermine the democratic process. That is far from an unusual viewpoint among conservative intellectuals.

The future of the GOP is still somewhat fluid, and things might improve over time. But they could also get worse. Trump's grip on the party has weakened somewhat, and opposing the Big Lie is not an automatic death sentence for GOP officeholders. Those are good things! But there's still reason for serious concern about where the party is and where it's going.

There are also, of course, some negative trends on the Democratic side. But I will save that for another time.

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