The GOP's walking dead

This is what a party looks like when it knows it's doomed — and it doesn't care

Paul Ryan at a news conference about tax reform
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

This week we learned once again that there is no rock bottom with today's Republican Party. There will never be a rock bottom, just an infinity staircase leading to the bottomless depths of bad faith, irresponsible policy, and hypocrisy.

The party has been busy dealing with the fallout from its primary voters having nominated a man who allegedly enjoyed picking up and assaulting adolescent girls while he was in his 30s. GOP leaders are frantically trying to cancel the election in deep-red Alabama, a state Trump carried by 27 points but where Roy Moore (R-The Mall) trails his Democratic opponent by double digits according to the GOP's own polling. They are losing state legislative seats in districts where Trump clobbered Hillary Clinton and where Republicans should breeze to easy victories. The president, incapable of showing restraint or decency for more than 5 minutes, is about to watch several more of his closest campaign associates indicted. Meanwhile, it was revealed that President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner forwarded Russian email overtures to other members of the campaign team and then, of course, lied about it.

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David Faris

David Faris is an associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics. He is a frequent contributor to Informed Comment, and his work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Indy Week.