According to a report from Politico, Donald Trump may no longer be president but the Republican Party he left behind has been damaged to the point where it has almost become as "toxic" as he is to voters, according to one former top aide to a Republican senator.
As the report notes, high-profile members of the Republican party are still pushing Trump's "Big lie" that the 2020 election was stolen from him and have made that their focus going forward in lieu of proposing new policies that would allow them to win back the White House and both chambers on Congress.
Writing for Politico, David Siders explained, "Nearly four months after the election and one month into Joe Biden's presidency, the politics of grievance has become the near-singular organizing principle of the post-Trump GOP. And whether at CPAC or in statehouses across the country, policy prescriptions for restoring so-called voter integrity have emerged as the primary focus of the party's energy."
That focus on stopping people from voting could blow up in their faces, but worse still, it means they have no other message for voters other than the fact that they are lingering on Trump's loss.
Benjamin Ginsberg, a conservative election lawyer asked, "Tell me what the innovative Republican policies have been of late?" before adding it is "probably a sign that the Republican Party is mired in a bit of a policy wasteland and doesn't know which way to turn to get out."
According to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who served in President George W. Bush's administration, there is no evidence of widespread election fraud and Republicans harping on it is, "a big distraction. And I worry that it will continue to be a big distraction as long as a certain individual makes statements that it was stolen."
Former Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) adviser Kevin Madden was a bit more blunt in his assessment.
"It is a party that has been fashioned in the mold of Trump — Trump's message, Trump's tactics — and it is perfectly comfortable being a party that is defined by what it's against," he explained before adding, "... you become almost toxic as a party brand to larger, growing parts of the electorate. … The limitation of a message and a platform that's just about disagreeing with the opposition is that it doesn't speak to the broader concerns or anxieties of a big part of the electorate."
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