What if It’s All Burned Down Already?

As it looks increasingly likely that President Trump is going to lose reelection in November, the attention of disgruntled Republicans has moved down the ballot. Hence the “Burn It All Down” debate: To what extent should Trump’s failures be taken out on the rest of the Republican party?

Mona Charen, for example, argues that “the only thing that will send a message to the Republican party commensurate with its moral abdication over the past four years is to lose in a landslide. Not just Trump, but his silent enablers too.”

To some extent, I suspect this debate is academic. A lot of voters have already decided to extend their disgust with Trump to other Republican officer-holders, and as we saw in 2018, they’re doing it indiscriminately. So we may not have to worry about burning down the Republican congressional majority. The voters are going to do that for us whether we think it’s a good idea or not.

That’s why it’s a mistake to look at this question on a purely electoral level. The real question for the right is: What if it’s all burned down already? What if it’s not just Republican majorities in Congress or in the statehouses that are in danger?

What if the underlying ideological coalition of the right has been shattered?

And what if it’s not going to come back together again?

Read the rest at The Bulwark.