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They argue that Republicans are targeting transgender youth now as a way to score political points with a segment of their base at a time when the party is out of power at the federal level and squabbling over some of the fundamental policies that used to unite them from fiscal conservatism to cozying up to big business.

When you have nothing to say, when you have no case, what you do is you throw everything at the wall, said US Representative Marie Newman, a Democrat from Illinois who is also an advocate for LGBTQ issues. You throw all the spaghetti at the wall and you see what sticks.

More than 30 states are considering legislation that limits transgender rights, with many of those bills focusing on barring transgender children from participating in school sports or on restricting the medical care they can receive.

The onslaught of legislation is new in its focus on children, and in its volume.

We have seen more bills introduced just since January in state legislatures across the states attacking transgender youth than weve seen in the previous five years before, said Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU in Massachusetts.

The proponents often frame the bills as civil rights legislation protecting women, arguing that transgender girls will have an unfair advantage in girls sports.

Over 30 states have considered or passed civil rights legislation to protect female athletes and thats just one among other important goals states have pursued, Meridian Baldacci, a spokeswoman at the Family Policy Alliance, a conservative Christian organization that is pushing for the legislation, said in a statement.

But activists cite several reasons they suspect that these bills are more about firing up the GOP base with culture war issues than addressing an actual policy problem in their states.

Most of the sponsors of the legislation targeting transgender children in sports could not name any examples where a transgender student athlete was competing in their state or region when asked to do so by the Associated Press. The bills, which their proponents are framing as about womens rights, are also not accompanied by broader support for womens sports or other womens issues.

Theyre not introducing bills that support funding for womens sports in their states, pointed out Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a pro-LGBTQ organization. Theyre not introducing bills that champion pay equity for women.

The bills also come during a time of transition for the Republican Party nationally, as it struggles to define itself after Donald Trumps election loss. The former president shattered the partys consensus on economic issues by embracing more government spending and taking populist positions on trade, while uniting Republicans through fierce fights with liberals and by targeting immigrants. Those culture war issues papered over the cracks in the coalition.

They didnt even have a platform, Rose pointed out, referencing the Republicans decision to not try to write a party platform in 2020. The party instead released a document saying their platform was Trumps America First agenda.

In recent months, as President Biden passed a COVID relief bill and now turns to infrastructure legislation, both measures that poll well among conservatives, Republicans have sought to divert attention by raising concerns about cancel culture and censorship as they attempt to claw back power in the midterms. (Cancel culture generally refers to efforts, often online, to ostracize someone for expressing views that are deemed offensive.)

Representative Jim Banks, the chair of the House Republican Study Committee, argued in a recent memo that Republicans should make fighting wokeness a core campaign message. (Wokeness can refer to anything from supporting the Black Lives Matter movement to Dr. Seuss own estate pulling some of his books that contained racist imagery.) Banks also included under the wokeness umbrella legislation protecting LGBT people from discrimination, arguing that efforts to redefine sex are unpopular among Latino and Black voters.

Thats a message that Republicans like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia appeared to hear loud and clear. After her House office building neighbor, Representative Newman, hung a pink and blue transgender pride flag outside her door, Greene posted a sign outside her own office in retaliation. There are TWO genders: MALE & FEMALE . . . Trust The Science! it read. (Newmans daughter is transgender.)

Newman said she hopes to invalidate the state bills by passing federal legislation that ensures transgender rights. We need to put together legislation that makes these state bills completely moot, she said.

Congress, which is narrowly under Democratic control, is not considering any bills similar to those targeting transgender people that are being debated on the state level, and LGBTQ rights advocates have scored some key victories at the federal level recently.

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that federal civil rights laws that protect individuals from being discriminated against on the basis of their sex in the workplace also protect transgender people. (A Trump nominee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, wrote the opinion.) And Biden reversed Trumps executive order banning transgender people from serving in the military and appointed the first transgender American to be confirmed to an administration position by the Senate.

Jennifer Pizer, law and policy director of the LGBTQ legal organization Lambda Legal, said the coalition of groups that are pushing for these laws were also often the drivers of past attempts to ban same-sex marriage.

As it became more obvious in opinion research that the general public was no longer worried about married same-sex couples we just werent scary anymore showing up at the PTA, shopping for groceries the attention shifted to transgender people, Pizer said. It was chosen as a political tool to be used in the same way same-sex couples had been used.

While some polls show more Americans are skeptical of transgender rights than of gay rights, it still doesnt appear that targeting transgender people is a winning political issue. A new PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll found that roughly two-thirds of Americans say they oppose bills limiting transgender rights, including a majority of people who identify as conservative. More than half of Americans say they personally know a transgender person up from less than one-third of people who said the same five years ago.

Bills targeting transgender people are not new. In 2015 there was a wave of bathroom bills that were mainly aimed at excluding transgender women from using womens restrooms. Bills that make it difficult to obtain a new ID with the correct gender on it after transitioning also proliferated. But the focus on children gives this push a different feel with different consequences.

Being one of the most high profile social issues of the day is not one any high schooler wants, said Casey Pick, a senior fellow at the Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on suicide prevention. It is showing up in what were hearing from our LGBTQ youth on our crisis hotlines.

Liz Goodwin can be reached at elizabeth.goodwin@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizcgoodwin.

Read more from the original source:
Republicans, out of power and squabbling, are targeting transgender kids to score political points, activists say - The Boston Globe

Georgia Secretary of StateBrad Raffensperger doesnt regret standing up to former President Donald Trumps challenges to the 2020 election.

But dont ask the bespectacled 65-year-old formercivil engineer to give out a list of state Republicans he counts as friendsas he gears up for reelection next year against a Trump-endorsed primary opponent.

I wouldnt out them right now," Raffensperger told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview, "but we have lots of friends who are reasonable and rationale Ronald Reagan-type Republicans."

Raffensperger'shesitancy to name his closest allies shouldn't besurprising; he knows better than most about what getting on Trump's bad side can bring.

As recently as last week, the former president targeted Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp as "RINOs" Republicans in Name Only. Around the same time as Trump's latest missive, Raffensperger noted his wife receiveda new round of death threats via text message.

For Republicans trying to unite the state party after a round of Democratic victories in the presidential election and two pivotal Senate runoffs, a civil war against top state GOP leaders, led byTrump and his supporters,is seen as an unnecessarydistraction.Many party officials would rather spend time rallying against Democratic opponents ofa new election law, which has again thrust Georgia into an unflattering national spotlight.

President Trump pressures Ga. Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger on voter fraud in the state

In a recorded phone call, President Trump is heard pressuring Ga. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to 'find' votes to reverse his loss.

Staff Video, USA TODAY

But among conservativesbrought to politics and activismbyTrumps fiery populism, the belief is that a party purge is needed.

Tyler Johnson, autility line workerwho voted for Trump in 2020, said the former presidents dispatches are a welcomed push to the right.

"He'sstill involved and he's still fighting," said Johnson,chairman of the Lee County Republican Party. "And that's something I believe has been missing from the Republican Party."

Whether it's banning transgender students from participating in high school sports or establishing a "religious liberty" law,current Republican officeholders makepromises that are rarely kept, Johnson said. And inthe wake of a backlash against the election law which Trumped branded "too weak" but critics have called"Jim Crow 2.0" grassroots conservatives feel theyvecompromised enough.

"A lot of times when (controversial)things happen, it just always seems like Republicans backed away," Johnson said.

As Georgia Republicans look to mend their fractures after Trump's election loss and his assault on the state's elected officials,theintraparty power struggle will serveas a roadmapfor how the national partynavigates Trump's magnetic persona.

"As a Georgia Republican, I do feel we have many strengths that we're bringing to the table, but wehave a little bit of healing to do and wehave to take a look at our party and where we're going in the future," said Marci McCarthy, a Georgia businesswoman and Republican activist.

Raffensperger's race is one of the earliest tests for how Republican candidates and voters will maneuver a post-Trump worldas the former president continues to use hisFlorida-based Mar-a-Lago resort for fundraising and settling personal scores against Republican leaders.

Some state Republicans are nervous, pointing to Southern states that were once long-held GOP strongholds and are now considered more competitive because of Trumps drag on the party. A recent Quinnipiac poll showed 50% of Americans have a less favorable opinion of the Republican Party compared with a year ago.

Republican John Cowan, a self-described constitutional Christian conservative neurosurgeon who lives in northern Georgia, said the continued obsession some voters have with the former president has gone too far.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference on, Nov. 11, 2020, in Atlanta.Brynn Anderson, AP

Until we had President Trump, I never really saw the conservative movement making an idol out of the party leader where it was a fealty more than a loyalty, he said.

Cowan, who lost a primaryrace against now-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said Republicans such as Raffensperger should be praised, rather than run out of the party, for sticking to the rule of law.

Republicans like himself still have great respect for Trump, but Cowan added conservatives like himhave to be akeel for the ship in 2022 to keep the GOP from tippingover and further alienating moderate voters in Georgia's suburbs a crucial constituency in Democrats' recent statewide victories.

Trump was a dynamic leader, and after eight years of (Barack) Obama the party was looking for someone to bring us out of the wilderness, Cowan said. And instead of him being Moses, some people turned him into God, and I think we lost our way a little.

But University ofGeorgiapolitical science professor Charles Bullock said Republicans who don't hold Trump's worldview will have a difficult time. The university's statewide polling in Januaryshowed about three-fourths of Republicans believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, Bullock said, while noting a number of primary contenders more closely aligned with Trump's brand of politics have emerged and will bevying for multiple state government offices.

"Right now it looks like come summer of 2022 we'll have a range of candidates pledged to Trump running, and that can create a huge rift in the Republican Party," Bullock said. "That could ultimately unfold in November to benefit the Democrats. For instance,we seewhite college-educated voters going for Republicans, but at a much lower rate in each election since 2016."

Charles Bullock, University of Georgia professorUniversity of Georgia

Republicans therefore will face tougher choices in primary battles often along the fault lineof whether to dig deeper into right-wing populism that excites a largely white, working-class base or choose policies that appeal to the states changing demographics.

So far theyve doubled down on the populism, Bullock said.

National observers have repeatedly called attention totheincreased diversification of the Souths population, which makes statewide races inGeorgiamore competitive .

Trump allies don't think that automatically puts them at a disadvantage, however, and they say Trumps populist appeal broke through four years of him being branded as a racist. Voting data showed Trump improved his supportin 78 of the countrys top 100 majority-Hispanic counties from 2016 to 2020.

Theres a potential, if the Republican Party changes its attitude about immigrants, (it) can make some headway with that group, Bullock said. If so that would rebalance the power towards their direction.

Political activist McCarthy, believed by many to be in lineto take over the DeKalb County Republican Party,told USA TODAY that Georgias conservative movement has to reevaluate itself.

"I really want to say Republicans are not white supremacists, and that notion is a really horrible stereotype," she said.

McCarthy,president and CEO of T.E.N., an Atlanta-basedcybersecurity firm, said that includes being a more inclusive party that canbring forth new voters across racial lines. But whatever differences state party leaders and activists have, one thing that won't change ishowTrump,who is still the subject of investigation into allegations of improper election interference byFulton County prosecutors, remainsan important figure.

McCarthy said reconciliationwithin thestate GOP should begin withsticking upfor the new election law,which she and others organized to get passed,rather than where voters, officialsor candidates stand onTrump.

"We turned anger into action and advocacy, and we made a difference with the passing of the election integrity bill, which is 100% being misunderstood,"she said.

McCarthy noted that fact-checkers dingedPresidentJoe Biden for falsely stating Georgia's Republican-controlled legislature ended "voting hours early so working people cant cast their vote after their shift is over."

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp holds a news conference in Atlanta after Major League Baseball's pulled the 2021 All-Star Game from the city over objections to a new state voting law.The Associated Press

Under the new law, Peach State counties are now allowedto extend voting hoursas early as 7 a.m. and as late as 7 p.m.

"The misinformation being spread about the law is astounding," she said.

Kemp, also a frequent targetof Trump, has been heeding McCarthy's advice by defending the law in national media interviews but also to rural voters in stops across southern Georgia, according to GOP activists.

"The state is really rallying behind Brian as far as his stance on the law," saidRepublican Tracy Taylor, a Dougherty County firefighter, who considers the governor a mentor.

Several Georgia Republicans acknowledge that the election law representsKemp's last hopeto mend fenceswith a base fiercely loyal to Trump.

I want to be clear: I will not be backing down from this fight, Kemp said in a news conference April 3. "We will not be intimidated, and we will also not be silenced."

Taylor noted the governor is taking his message directly to voters that boycotts against the state, including Major League Baseball's decision to move its All-Star Game,will hurt minority-owned businesses most. He said the attacks from Trump may havemade many leery of Kemp, but the election law fallout has awakened conservatives to the threat ofDemocrat Stacey Abrams running for governor again in 2022.

"I've never seen a governor down here in rural Georgie as active as Brian making the case this way," Taylorsaid. "It's very much what we need. He's not easy to rattle, so youdon't seehim bickering with every Trump comment,and those voters are really warming back up to the governor."

Raffenspergerhas also praised parts of the election law, such as expanding the number ofearly voting days and requiring a voter ID to obtain an absentee ballot, an idea he supported during the 2018 campaign.

In a recent op-ed, Gabriel Sterling, chief financial officer in the secretary of state's office, joined the chorus of Georgia Republicans bycalling out Biden. He said the president's comments about the law are "dangerous hyperbole" no different fromTrump's rhetoric.

"While this isnt necessarily how Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, or I, would have written this law, it is not what President Biden claims," Sterling wrote."We saw just three months ago how election disinformation such as this can lead to violence. It was wrong then, and its wrong now."

Ann White demonstrates at the Georgia State Capitol building after lawmakers passed an overhaul of state election laws.Alyssa Pointer, AP

Republican activists, however, noted Raffensperger has sharply criticized other parts of the law in contrast to Kemp's full-throated defense.

He chastisedGeorgia lawmakers forstripping the secretary of state of his role overseeing state election boards; forbidding food and water to be given to voters a certain distance from the polls;and an effort to block Sunday voting thateventually was taken out of the final version of the bill.

"You don't get any credit when you're going to dosomething bad and then all of a sudden you go back to where it was," Raffensperger told USA TODAY. "From that standpoint, it was just not politically wise what they did there."

Raffensperger also broke with the party line on the boycotts against the state, and he tookGeorgia legislators to task when asked about the MLB yanking its 2021 All-Star Game out of the state, saying they should have done a better job smoothing things over with corporate leaders and sports leagues before the bill passed.

"I would have thought the General Assembly, particularly (Speaker of the House David Ralston), would have had more conversations with these corporations to really hear them and explain what you're doing and what you're not doing," he said.

Johnson, the Lee County GOP chairman, said conservative activistsin his part of the state, along thesouthern border close to the Florida Panhandle, notice the difference. He said that while many stillresentKemp for failing to back Trump on his election challenges last fall, those south Georgianvoters appreciate howthe governor is using his time to standup to national brands andmedia outlets over the election law.

"There is kind of a renewed rally going on at the state party level and down here at the grassroots level," Johnson said. "There's a lot of support for Kemp, and that'sbecause webelieve Stacey Abrams is going to run for governor again, and we've got to pretty much bet on the horse we have in the race already and the guy we've been behind for the last four years."

Raffensperger, however,hasno chance at redemption or winning,he said.

"I can't find you100 people who would vote for him at this point," Johnson said.

Link:
'A little bit of healing to do': Georgia Republicans look to mend after months of division - USA TODAY

As the author of a book-length love letter to big business, I have long viewed the Republican Party as more aligned with corporate America than are Democrats. Thats certainly the case from a rhetorical standpoint, and on policy as well: It was former President Donald Trumps administration, after all, that pushed through a significant cut in the corporate income tax rate.

Yes, the real picture is much more complicated. Big business typically wants more high-skilled immigration, which Democrats tend to favor, and the Democratic Party at times has done more for free trade than have Republicans.

In any case, all that has changed. Many U.S. big businesses have sided with Democrats on some aspects of the culture wars, and leading members of the Republican Party have responded with vitriol. In the span of just a few years, they have gone from making apologies for big business to making threats against it.

The final straw may have been Major League Baseballs decision last week to relocate the All-Star game to Denver from Atlanta over concerns about a new voting-rights law in Georgia. Many Republicans in the state favored the changes, and the response from some Republicans in Congress was to start talking about revoking baseballs antitrust exemption.

More from

This is what it has come to in 21st-century America: Left-wing activists bully corporations through social media, while right-wing critics threaten them with the law.

Baseballs relocation of the All-Star game was very likely a business rather than a political decision. If the game had proceed in Atlanta, some of the players undoubtedly would have spoken out against the new voting law or boycotted the game. The event might have been dominated by politics. So baseball followed a common crisis-management strategy, deciding to take one public-relations hit now instead of having to confront a slow drip of unpleasant revelations over the next several months.

There is a simple solution for the Republican Party, if it is interested: Give up its opposition to such voting laws. Even if it opposes some parts of the laws, or if the negative aspects of the laws have been exaggerated, it hardly seems worth the price to be pushed into these ideological corners. Practically speaking, the best evidence suggests that such laws may not be a big deal anyway.

There is also something about baseball itself. This is the institution that so helped race relations in America by clearing the path for Jackie Robinson. You dont have to agree with MLBs every decision to see its overall social influence as strongly positive. It is hardly a historical villain in need of restraint.

Beyond sports, there is more evidence of a falling-out between Republicans and big business. When more than 100 major corporate leaders had a conference call last week to discuss what to do about the voting laws in Georgia and elsewhere, J.D. Vances response was the social-media equivalent of pounding the table with his shoe. Raise their taxes and do whatever else is necessary to fight these goons, tweeted the best-selling author and likely Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio. We can have an American Republic or a global oligarchy, and its time for choosing.

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, meanwhile, has put forward a trust busting plan to rein in big business. The plan seeks to beef up antitrust prosecution and eliminate mergers and acquisitions for firms of $100 billion or more in value. It is something you might expect from the far left wing of the Democratic Party, not a leading Republican senator.

Of course this isnt a serious proposal. Do Republicans really want to see Democratic administrations have the dominant hand in antitrust decisions for four or maybe more years? Does the U.S. want to stop major pharmaceutical firms from acquiring smaller, more innovative companies with drugs of potential importance? Hawleys bill is meant to send a message: Nice business youve got here. Be a shame if anything happened to it. It is both a plea and a threat about big businesss leftward slide.

I am not seeking to debate Georgias voting rights bill, nor those of any other state. But I do know a little about sports. Baseball has long been the least political and most traditional of Americas pastimes, and it has a relatively old fan base. So the question Republicans might want to ask themselves is not how to punish Major League Baseball. Its how to get it back. Right now, Republicans are moving in exactly the wrong direction.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:Tyler Cowen at tcowen2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:Michael Newman at mnewman43@bloomberg.net

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

See the article here:
Republicans Will Regret Their Breakup With Big Business - Bloomberg

Two members of Congress, two former gubernatorial candidates and former Mayor Rudy Giulianis son will address a gathering of Republican leaders in Albany Monday, as the state party starts to settle its ticket for Novemberof 2022.

NYGOP Chairman Nick Langworthy said in an interview that his singular focus is defeating Gov. Andrew Cuomo in next years statewide elections, adding he hopes for a consensus about his partys candidates before years end.

It is imperative that we get the ball rolling, said Mr. Langworthy.

There are now more than twice as many Democrats in the state as Republicans, and the GOP hasnt won a statewide office since Gov. George Pataki was elected to a third term in 2002. Republicans also lost control of the state Senate majority in 2018, hampering the state partys efforts to raise campaign money.

U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, who represents a district in eastern Long Island, on April 8 became the first major GOP candidate to declare a gubernatorial bid. His campaign said he raised $1 million on its first day of operations. In January, Mr. Cuomo reported he had $16.8 million in his war chest.

Link:
New York Republicans Make Their Case to Take on Gov. Andrew Cuomo - The Wall Street Journal

Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your wrap-up of the week in national politics. Im Lisa Lerer, your host.

In 2005, two senators went on a global tour.

They visited dilapidated factories in eastern Ukraine where workers were taking apart artillery shells. They drank vodka toasts with foreign leaders and local dignitaries in Saratov, Russia. And on the way home, they met Tony Blair, then the British prime minister, at 10 Downing Street in London.

From Russia to Ukraine and Azerbaijan to Britain, one of the men was greeted like a superstar. And it wasnt Barack Obama.

I very much feel like the novice and pupil, Mr. Obama said during the trip, looking out the window as he flew over the Russian countryside.

His teacher? Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, one of a caste of Republican foreign policy mandarins who prided themselves on bipartisan deal-making on matters of global importance. Mr. Lugar was a smart choice for a mentor: Nearly a decade before the Sept. 11 attacks, he worked with Sam Nunn, the Democratic senator from Georgia, to pass legislation that helped destroy surplus stocks of nuclear weapons, keeping dangerous materials from reaching terrorists.

Yet Mr. Lugar would serve only one more term after that trip. Seven years later, Mr. Lugar lost by more than 20 percentage points in a primary battle against Richard E. Mourdock, a conservative Tea Party candidate who attacked his moderate opponent for his willingness to work with Mr. Obama, by then the president. And today, the story of that trip one where an older senator spent weeks tutoring a younger member of the opposing party in the ways of foreign policy feels distinctly sepia-toned.

I was thinking a lot about that history this week, as I watched President Biden announce his decision to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11. It was a humbling moment for the country, a painful admission that the staggering costs in money and lives of the forever war would never accomplish the mission of ushering in a stable democracy.

But for Republicans, the withdrawal offered another reminder of the partys own unresolved conflict. As I detailed in the paper on Friday, the usual suspects gave the usual responses to the decision. The statements largely mirrored the reception to a pledge last year by former President Donald J. Trump to withdraw by May 1, 2021 though with a bit of added vitriol.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, called it a retreat in the face of an enemy. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said it was dumber than dirt and devilishly dangerous and warned that the withdrawal could lead to another terrorist attack. Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming called the decision a huge propaganda victory for the Taliban, for Al Qaeda.

But the pushback was hardly overwhelming. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky heralded the move, tweeting, Enough endless wars. And Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah offered various degrees of praise.

Its clear from that divergent response that there is little agreement within the party on a fairly basic question: How do Republicans view Americas place in the world?

The post-9/11, Bush-era, hawkish consensus that guided the party for years is under siege, weakened by Mr. Trumps more transactional, America First foreign policy that rejected the internationalist order that was party orthodoxy for decades.

To the extent that Republican voters care about foreign policy, they are now largely driven by Mr. Trumps interests and isolationist tendencies.

Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster, said he saw three foreign policy issues resonating with G.O.P. voters: restricting immigration, taking a tougher stance against China (which many blame for the spread of the coronavirus) and ending foreign entanglements.

Just because Donald Trump is no longer president, that doesnt mean that Republicans arent taking their lead from him on the issue of foreign policy, Mr. Newhouse said.

But those views arent shared by some of the partys leaders and a foreign policy establishment that was effectively exiled from policymaking posts during Mr. Trumps administration.

A small minority believe that we need to make our peace with the populist impulses that have driven President Trumps choices, said Kori Schake, who directs foreign and military policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and served on the National Security Council under President George W. Bush. But my sense is that an inchoate larger plurality is converging around the notion that we havent done our jobs well enough of explaining to Americans, who dont spend all their times thinking about foreign and defense policy, why the positions that we advocate make the country safer and more prosperous.

This is hardly the only area where Mr. Trump has scrambled Republican orthodoxy by shifting his party in a more populist direction. As I wrote last week, the cracks that he has created between Republicans and their traditional allies in the business community have become a chasm. The huge amount of new spending during his time in office has made it difficult for the party to revert to its traditional position of fiscal responsibility and argue against the huge price tags of Mr. Bidens coronavirus relief and spending bills. On Friday, Mr. Bush published an op-ed article striking a gentler tone on immigration, quite a contrast from Mr. Trump and his calls to build the wall.

There is very little unity in the G.O.P. right now when it comes to setting a policy agenda. And there doesnt appear to be overwhelming interest in confronting these divides.

During the first months of the Biden administration, Republicans have been consumed with issues like so-called cancel culture, re-litigating the election and corporate wokeness. Those culture-war topics fire up the conservative base, leading to interview requests and campaign cash for Republican candidates and politicians.

But in all of this discussion of conspiracy theories and culture wars, theres little room or apparent desire to sort out what the post-Trump Republican Party stands for on the biggest issues of the day.

Mr. Lugar died in 2019. Just two years later, the bipartisan comity that he championed certainly feels like a relic from a bygone era. Whats far harder to see is whether his partys leaders, activists and voters can find their way to a future where they agree even with themselves.

We want to hear from our readers. Have a question? Well try to answer it. Have a comment? Were all ears. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com or message me on Twitter at @llerer.

Thats the number of mass shootings so far in 2021, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Heres a small glimpse of the gun violence that the country has already suffered this year.

A perk of the princehood: Designing your own hearse.

Thanks for reading. On Politics is your guide to the political news cycle, delivering clarity from the chaos.

Is there anything you think were missing? Anything you want to see more of? Wed love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.

Continued here:
The Republican Retreat on World Affairs - The New York Times