FiveThirtyEight: Why The Republican Party Isn't Rebranding After 2020

[DonViejo]

APR. 6, 2021, AT 6:00 AM

By Perry Bacon Jr.



Typically, after losing a presidential election, a political party will undertake an intense intra-party debate over why it didn’t win and how the party needs to change to take back the White House. Democrats did so after losing in 1988, 2000, 2004 and 2016. In fact, even after winning in 2020 — taking control of the White House and U.S. Senate and maintaining control in the U.S. House — Democrats are having an intra-party debate, trying to figure out why they didn’t win more House seats and struggled with Latino voters. Republicans, too, have had such debates, after losses in 1996, 2008 and 2012.

But not this time.

Despite Republicans losing the White House and Senate in 2020, and thus being totally swept out of power in Washington,1 there’s been no official “autopsy” or widespread consideration of appointing new leaders or anything else. In the period after the 1988 presidential election, the Republican Party has lost the popular vote in all but one presidential race (2004). It has lost three of the last four presidential elections and allowed itself to be dominated by former President Donald Trump, who was twice impeached for breaking with democratic values. But it is moving forward like none of that really happened.

Some examples:

Republicans on Capitol Hill and at the state level are returning to their Obama-era strategy of opposing everything the incumbent Democratic president does;

Republicans at the state level are adopting laws that make it harder for left-leaning people to vote, just like they did before and during the Trump presidency;

more
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-the-republican-party-isnt-rebranding-after-2020/

[NCDem47]

1. We here at DU don't need PhDs to figure this one out.

Republicans know they’ve lost the numbers game in terms of demos. All they have left are suppression tactics and scare the hell out of folks with some conservative leanings. Keep their core base together and ride it out. And the core is ROTTEN.

[FlyingPiggy]

3. Yep. Nailed it.

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. Republicans are in an ideological straight jacket.

No deviation in thinking is allowed. Anyone with an independent thought is expunged from the ranks. There is no one left to debate the results and offer alternatives to today's GOP. Rather than change to attract more diverse voters, they have opted to self-select their voters.

[Wounded Bear]

4. Well, they did an autopsy after 2012, then doubled down on the shit it said they needed to fix...

so this isn't really surprising. The former guy was a symptom of the rot in the repub party much more than some "revolution."

The conservative movement desperately needs an enema.

[Hortensis]

5. And the same after 2008, but by then the wealthy corrupt men

served by the GOP had already decided they weren't going to integrate or share.

Where I diverge is that they set out instead overthrow our representative government, and the rot is an inevitable factor in that. Their previously slow-rolling takeover is very real, even if they've had trouble controlling the mobs they spread their corruption and subversion to. They've been able to turn to their benefit their base's pathetic failed rebellions against them (Tea Party and then Trump), though, and have made scary-big advances.

Purging and legal caging required, for sure.

[Ford_Prefect]

7. This is exactly why they are full steam ahead on voter suppression and obstruction.

The Money behind them has planned for this and built state party dominance to control redistricting. They think they are one election way from congressional control that will eventually strangle Federalism and Equal Justice. They aren't worried about losing a fair election. They've seen the future of the planet and it means they need to own as much of it as they can without interference from our, or indeed any government. However bad the future is they believe they will be insulated from it by their wealth.

This is what is pulling the strings on the GOP. These people with an insatiable lust for power. The Republican Party of old was made of people who had a sense of loyalty to the country at large even if their version of that country wasn't mine. What passes for the GOP now is group of slavering zombies in comparison.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

6. They love being the "Stupid Party."

[WarGamer]

8. Frankly, why would they?

They set a record for votes in a Presidential election, 90% of them love Trump, he's not going away and he's the King-maker for coming elections.

Did anyone actually believe that Steve Schmidt, Bill Kristol and Paul Ryan would take the party back into Neo-Conland?

[byronius]

9. It's all gone too far.

There was never really a path back after Bush. Right wing radio made sure of that. Their polling, I’m sure, showed they made the best gains when they stayed just below full Nazi.

Enter Trump.

I think there won’t be a path back for them for thirty years. I predict a split down the line. Maybe sooner than later.