Conservative Bill Kristol sounded a dire note about the future of the Republican Party this week. In an op-ed and a TV interview, he wondered if the GOP cause was lost.
Kristol published an article at The Bulwark on 14 July asking hard questions about the future of the party. He reiterated the view on MSNBC on Thursday night.
“On the one hand, with embarrassingly few exceptions at every level, the Republican Party is Donald Trump’s party,” Kristol wrote.
“So in many ways, it deserves to be a lost cause. On the other hand, after November 3, the GOP may stop — more or less suddenly, and more or less convincingly — being Donald Trump’s party.”
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“It might even stop being the party of Trumpism,” he said.
“On the third hand, it will still have been Donald Trump’s party. And that moral and political stain can’t, and shouldn’t, simply be wished away.”
Throughout his op-ed, Kristol equivocated, saying he didn’t really know if the party was lost or not. He offered various different possibilities about the “Grand Old Party” and its future.
“I will admit that my heart, today, is with ‘the Republican party is a lost cause’ faction,” he admitted toward the end of the article.
“Heart or mind? Lost cause or worth trying to save? I don’t know,” he lamented.
On Thursday, Kristol repeated this feeling to MSNBC’s Chuck Todd.
“Part of me thinks it may well be a lost cause, and it may deserve to be a lost cause,” he said.
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Darragh Roche is a journalist covering U.S. politics and media
