Rachel Maddow: The Republican Party Is Dissolving Itself

Rachel Maddow noted that the Republican Party under Donald Trump’s leadership appears to be dissolving itself.

Transcript via MSNBC/The Rachel Maddow Show:

So to recap, it’s a political party with no party platform, no normal nominating process for its nominees, no primary debates, and no general election debates. They’re just coming off the worst back-to-back electoral performance by any party since before FDR, and it’s all because it’s what Trump wants.

And, of course, why would anything else matter? Because who could doubt the political instincts of a man with this kind of a track record, right? With this kind of an electoral track report.

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A man who handed out fake “I’m an autoworker” signs in Michigan at a fake union event and then filed the receipts for it publicly. Who could doubt a man with political instincts of that level of genius?
Why have a political party when you can just follow wherever he’s leading?
Political parties are not the most important institutions in a democracy. But they are part of it. And right now, in our country, one of our two major political parties is dissolving itself. And just tonight, potentially preparing to oust yet another of its top leaders, all in the service of just doing stuff for their great leader instead of doing normal party stuff and normal democracy stuff anymore.

And I don’t know how many of you watching this tonight, you know, are mourning the illness and potential demise of the Republican Party as an institution, I understand. But if we are going to stay a democracy with a two-party system, there do need to be two-parties of some kind, or we’re not kind of system anymore. We’re going to have to develop into something else.

I mean, right now, what we’re very fast becoming is one party on one side and just a guy on the other — a guy who this week is going before a United States Supreme Court that is going to decide if maybe he might be ineligible to ever hold federal office ever again. What do you call that kind of a system? What could possibly go wrong?

Videos:

What is happening within the Republican Party is what Trump wants to do to America. Donald Trump wants to get rid of institutional structures and democracy. The replacement will be doing what the leader wants.

Trump has hollowed out the Republican Party and turned it into an organization that serves the interests of only one person.

Mitch McConnell killed the bipartisan border bill because Donald Trump is the leader and he wanted it dead. Rachel Maddow was correct. Trump’s destruction of the Republican Party has an impact on democracy, not because of the loss of the GOP, but it shows what can happen when democracy is replaced by an authoritarian model.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association