Stephen K. Bannon and two of his longtime benefactors are putting together a political coalition designed to ensure that the victory of a Republican insurgent in the Alabama Senate primary this week was just the beginning of the surprises that await the party establishment. Mr. Bannon brings to the effort […] Read more »
A Divided Party Cannot Stand. Or Can It?
Eight years after the rise of the Tea Party, the GOP remains engaged in intra-party warfare. Capturing all levers of political power in Washington has done nothing to temper the deep-seeded tension between the forces of the traditional “establishment” wing of the party and its populist/libertarian infused “anti-establishment” wing. … […] Read more »
When the Out Party Runs Out of Luck
The dominant theme in next year’s Senate elections is the confluence of two competing forces: The huge number of seats the Democrats are defending versus the usual boost that the non-presidential party, in this case the Democrats, enjoys in midterm elections. On one hand, Democrats are defending 25 of 33 […] Read more »
What Happened to Mountain Republicans in the South?
Even when Democrats dominated the so-called Solid South, the GOP showed strength in mountain areas of the region. Northwestern Arkansas, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina and western Virginia all had substantial Republican sympathies. But now that the national Republican Party has transitioned from the Party of Lincoln to the party […] Read more »
Can the Republican Party Keep Its Coalition Together?
Donald Trump and the Republican Congress this week are straining every fraying seam in their party’s coalition. In just days, Trump’s White House has advanced aggressively nationalistic initiatives on trade and immigration, while also starting an incendiary fight with protesting NFL players. Each of these confrontations has energized elements of […] Read more »
The Trump Voter Paradox
Roy Moore’s decisive victory over Luther Strange in the Republican Senate primary runoff on Tuesday in Alabama confirms — as I have reported before — that many Republican voters have a strong sense of white identity, that they harbor high levels of racial resentment and that they sometimes exhibit authoritarian […] Read more »