republican party (g.o.p.)

Deconstructing Paul Ryan’s Condemnation of Donald Trump

19Dec

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

Deconstructing Paul Ryan’s Condemnation of Donald Trump

Last week, Paul Ryan, the former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, did an online video interview in which he called Donald Trump a “populist, authoritarian narcissist.” Ryan’s comments produced the predictable reaction: a slew of headlines; an angry diatribe from a Trump spokesman (“Paul Ryan is a loser who left Congress in disgrace after he, along with Mitt Romney, failed miserably”); and then nothing. The political world rapidly moved on to the next controversy.That’s how things work these days, but, as we prepare to move into a Presidential-election year with Trump seemingly poised to capture the G.O.P. nomination for a third time, it’s worth stopping to examine Ryan’s remarks, which went beyond his three-word zinger. Since retiring from Congress at the end of 2018, R...

Why Ron DeSantis Doesn’t Have a Prayer in Iowa

6Dec

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

Why Ron DeSantis Doesn’t Have a Prayer in Iowa

Those social conservatives had won big legislative margins in the 2022 midterms that had gone against Republicans in other states, and they had used their majority to pass a “fetal heartbeat” bill, outlawing most abortions after around six weeks, which in effect comes close to an outright ban. DeSantis had signed a nearly identical bill in Florida; Trump has criticized these measures as too extreme, saying they would backfire on Republicans. So the true believers in Iowa had a substantive reason to turn away from the former President, too.It was a highly self-selecting crowd at the Thunderdome—people willing to spend a couple of hours of their Saturday at a DeSantis campaign event—but, as I walked around chatting, I did get the impression that the fetal-heartbeat contretemps had given som...

Nikki Haley Takes On the Scum at the Third Republican Debate

9Nov

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

Nikki Haley Takes On the Scum at the Third Republican Debate

The Republican Presidential primary has been a curiously hidden contest: with Donald Trump effectively boycotting the trail, the remaining candidates have mostly struggled to draw the attention of potential supporters and the political press, both of whom seem sure that the real action is elsewhere. But by the end of the third Republican debate, on Wednesday evening, the main development of the primary had become clear. Nikki Haley is the best debater in the field, and she would probably be the G.O.P.’s most effective opponent to Joe Biden. “Do you want Dick Cheney in three-inch heels?” Vivek Ramaswamy, who has been baiting the former South Carolina governor all campaign, asked the audience at one point. Haley’s response drew cheers: “They’re five-inch heels.” But she didn’t disavow Chene...

How Mike Johnson Went from Relative Obscurity to Speaker of the House

26Oct

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

How Mike Johnson Went from Relative Obscurity to Speaker of the House

On Wednesday morning, after House Republicans nominated Representative Mike Johnson, of Louisiana, as their fourth candidate for Speaker in a span of three weeks, many in Washington were forced to admit how little they knew about the man who was about to be second in line for the Presidency. The Republican senator Susan Collins said she’d have to Google him. In a conference of bracing personalities, Johnson’s relative anonymity to the wider world was an advantage. Trim and bespectacled, with dark hair and a youthful face, he blends in rather than stands out. Democrats call him “Jim Jordan in a coat,” because of his history of taking radically conservative positions—especially on the 2020 election, which he refused to certify—and presenting them with lawyerly polish. Hours before Johnson w...