CNN: “Donald Trump has left the White House, but the Republican Party just can’t quit his stunt politics. As President Joe Biden sells a popular Covid-19 rescue plan, highlights a quickening national vaccine effort, positions himself to benefit from an economic growth spurt after the pandemic and tackles economic inequity in American society, the GOP seems to be acting out the temperament of the last President. At times, the party seems trapped in a perpetual primary race, shaping positions that seem best suited as fodder for the culture warriors at Fox News. The party has spent the first months of the Biden administration rewriting electoral laws to suppress minority votes, denying the truth of Trump’s Capitol insurrection, raging against vaccine passports and trashing science with state openings that threaten to cause unnecessary pandemic deaths. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell unleashed a fearsome attack on ‘woke’ corporations that reacted to a discriminatory voting law in Georgia. McConnell, at least in his rhetoric, sounded a lot like the former President. ‘Businesses must not use economic blackmail to spread disinformation and push bad ideas that citizens reject at the ballot box,’ the Kentucky Republican said. In fact, what Georgia voters rejected at the ballot box – causing the GOP to change the laws – was a second term for Trump and two Republican senators.”
“The most eye-catching current story about the Republican Party is not the way it is mobilizing to thwart Biden’s increasingly radical presidency. It is the multiple scandals ripping around Trump protegé Rep. Matt Gaetz, the latest being a New York Times report Tuesday night that alleged the Florida Republican sought a preemptive pardon for himself and congressional allies at the end of the ex-President’s time in office. Gaetz is refusing to show contrition in a defiant and unapologetic stand reminiscent of his mentor. While few Republicans are rushing to defend him, it has been an unwelcome distraction for the GOP as they try to reposition the party for the elections of 2022. Another one of the most visible Republicans this year has been first-term pro-Trump Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who is known for conspiracy theories and spreading false narratives about Trump’s election loss. The party’s strategy does reflect the views of much of its activist base voters – among whom Trump remains deeply popular in an audience that is fully bought into the ex-President’s lies about the last election being stolen. But it is far from clear the Trump-style uproar is proving to be an effective counter to Biden, as he rushes to put a lasting liberal imprint on social policy that echoes Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.”