Watching the Republican Party these days is like watching a dog try to attack its own tail. Far from a well-oiled machine, the GOP has devolved into a dysfunctional mess punctuated by moments of fecklessness that push voters further away.
The most recent example came as a segment of Republicans joined with Democrats to effectively scuttle an attempt to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. What seemed like an open and shut case over the last few months was punted back to committee because when push comes to shove, the GOP just can't bring itself to take a tough vote and move forward with a unified front. Democrats do that routinely in order to move the ball forward. For Republicans, it's like herding cats strung out on meth. An impossible task.
Members of the GOP are scattered, looking after themselves, rarely seeing the forest through the trees. They won't impeach Mayorkas because it might cost a seat in some blue state, but by not impeaching him, they suppress their own voters, leaving to ask what the point of voting Republican even is anymore.
It's not just the impeachment failures, though. After a prolonged fight to replace the Speaker of the House, Republicans in the House and old ones in the Senate are now pushing to pass a clean continuing resolution with no spending cuts. Remind me again what the point of that embarrassing, month-long spectacle was if it ends with essentially the same budget plan as before.
Meanwhile, you've got another part of the party obsessed with celebrity, intoxicated by a completely unearned sense of invulnerability, believing that by simply taking their next breath they will win elections. There's no coherent strategy or message. Only the hope that this time Democrats will finally be too unpopular to win. That despite years of evidence to the contrary.
Few in the party seem to be taking any of the foundational issues seriously, and that includes the GOP's organization structure, which seems content to pass the buck every time something goes wrong instead of looking internally to decide on meaningful, necessary changes. Where's the tangible effort to get out the vote for Republicans? Instead, we are served up fundraising scheme after fundraising scheme, as if that's moved the needle in any of the last four major cycles.
Of course, everything I'm writing will fall on deaf ears because it's always someone else's fault in the GOP. The problems facing the party could be transcribed in the heavens, and you'd still end up with various factions battling it out for supremacy instead of working together to, you know, win elections.
Here's the thing. People read my writings and think I'm "pro" this guy or "anti" this guy. That's misreading my negativity because frankly, I'm pretty much just anti-everybody at this point. There's no one across the national Republican Party's vast hierarchy of leadership that shows me competence, discipline, and an ability to unite and lead. Because of that, the results will continue to be predictable.