Trumpism has destroyed the GOP's next generation of leaders: report

In a column for the New York Times, political analyst Charlotte Alter claimed that the Republican Party's stable of rising political stars -- and hence the future of the party -- has been all but decimated during Donald Trump's four years in office as the party grows older and refuses to change with the times.

According to Alter, the GOP's future once looked brighter as younger lawmakers including Reps. Mia Love (R-UT), Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) made their marks and gave the party of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) fresh new faces that could appeal to younger voters.

But two of them -- Love and Curbelo --had a falling out with Trump which led to election losses and the party is now left with only Stefanik who has embraced Trumpism as she seeks to climb the leadership ladder while turning her back on the positions that once made her popular with younger voters.

Writing "Mr. Curbelo, a sharp critic of the president, lost his re-election bid. Mia Love, the only Black Republican woman in Congress, was also defeated in the Democratic wave that year. Another young House Republican, Justin Amash, left the party in the face of Trumpism and dropped his bid for re-election in 2020. And Will Hurd, a young moderate and one of the few Black Republicans in the House in recent years, also decided not to run again," the analyst added, "Ms. Stefanik is one of the few of this set who survived, but only by transforming into a MAGA warrior. By 2020, she was co-chairing Mr. Trump's campaign and embracing his conspiracy theories about a stolen election."

According to Alter, the loss of the more moderate younger Republicans -- only to be saddled with far-right extremists including Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) -- does not bode well for the Republican Party.

"Ms. Stefanik's rise — and her colleagues' fall — is not just a parable of Trumpism. It's a broader omen for a party struggling to reach a 21st-century electorate," she suggested. "She ascended by embracing a movement that is all about relitigating the past rather than welcoming the future. Now she and other new Trump loyalists in Congress are caught between their party and their generations, stuck between their immediate ambitions and the long-term trends. The G.O.P. has embraced a political form of youth sacrifice, immolating their hopes for young supporters in order to appease an ancient, vengeful power."

To make her point about the aging of the party and how pervasive Trumpism has become, Alter noted that Gaetz and Taylor took their America First show on the road "with a Trumpian rally at the Villages, Florida's famous retirement community."

She then warned, "Once, the young leaders of the G.O.P. were trying to present next-generation solutions to next-generation problems. Now they've traded their claim on the future for an obsession with the past."

You can read more here.