Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Ronald Reagan, the president who reinvigorated the Republican Party, promoted the GOP as the \u201cparty of new ideas<\/a>\u201d on his way to a landslide reelection in 1984.<\/p>\n In the post-Donald Trump era, judging by the fare inside the Orlando ballroom where the Conservative Political Action Conference unfolded, the GOP has evolved into the party of precisely two ideas: re-litigating Trump\u2019s defeat and seething over the de-platforming of the former president and his supporters.<\/p>\n At the first major gathering of Republicans since Trump left office, conservatives spent the weekend clinging to the false claim that Trump\u2019s presidency was stolen from him and raging over the perceived \u201ccancel culture\u201d of Big Tech and the left.<\/p>\n Nearly four months after the election and one month into Joe Biden\u2019s presidency, the politics of grievance has become the near-singular organizing principle of the post-Trump GOP. And whether at CPAC or in statehouses across the country, policy prescriptions for restoring so-called voter integrity have emerged as the primary focus of the party\u2019s energy. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are two things the conservative grassroots care about more than anything else,\u201d Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and founder of the youth movement Turning Point USA, said at CPAC. \u201cNo. 1, restoring election integrity in our country for fair and free elections. And No. 2, it is challenging Big Tech, it is giving us the ability to speak freely on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n Much of the intellectual and legislative thrust of the Republican Party nationally remains grounded in the election and its aftermath \u2014 a preoccupation sparked by the former president\u2019s unfounded claims that the election was stolen from him through voting fraud and other means.<\/p>\n In Georgia, where Democrats not only beat Trump in November but flipped the U.S. Senate in the runoff elections, the Republican-controlled state Senate on Tuesday approved a bill requiring an ID<\/a> when requesting an absentee ballot. The following day, it was a bonanza across the country. The Iowa House passed a bill<\/a> designed to limit early voting. In Missouri, the Republican-controlled House passed legislation that would require a photo ID at the polls<\/a>, while a legislative committee in Wyoming moved forward with a similar bill<\/a>. <\/p>\n The Brennan Center for Justice<\/a> is tracking more than 250 bills to restrict voting by lawmakers in 43 states. <\/p>\n Benjamin Ginsberg, an elections lawyer who has represented past Republican presidential nominees, lamented the death of the <\/b>\u201cideas factory\u201d in the GOP.<\/p>\n \u201cTell me what the innovative Republican policies have been of late?\u201d he said. The focus on re-litigating the last election is \u201cprobably a sign that the Republican Party is mired in a bit of a policy wasteland and doesn\u2019t know which way to turn to get out.\u201d<\/p>\n Alberto Gonzales, the former attorney general in the George W. Bush administration, said \u201call Americans should be concerned about election integrity.\u201d But with no evidence of widespread fraud beyond normal irregularities, he said, the focus by some in the GOP on the last election is a \u201cbig distraction\u201d from issues that are more pressing to the electorate.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a big distraction,\u201d Gonzales said. \u201cAnd I worry that it will continue to be a big distraction as long as a certain individual makes statements that it was stolen.\u201d<\/p>\n There is nothing to suggest that Trump, who will speak at the convention on Sunday, is letting go \u2014 or that the party\u2019s rank-and-file is prepared to pivot away from his claims that the election was stolen from him, despite more than 60 losses in election lawsuits<\/a> challenging the presidential election. <\/p>\n It hasn\u2019t always been this way in the Republican Party. Last year, CPAC\u2019s theme was \u201cAmerica vs. socialism<\/a>.\u201d The year before that, there were no fewer than three panels focusing on the challenges posed by a rising China<\/a>. This year, CPAC did not go off without an airing of the party\u2019s greatest hits: trade, China, immigration and abortion. And there were shoutouts for Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand. But the fallout from November was the main fixture \u2014 in the Republicans\u2019 frustration at de-platforming and the seven-part exploration of \u201cprotecting elections.\u201d<\/p>\n In part, the party\u2019s lack of a more forward-looking posture is a function of its sudden dearth of power in Washington. The GOP is settling in as an opposition party \u2014 with conservatives constituting what Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas described at CPAC as \u201cthe Rebel Alliance.\u201d But there is little room for innovative, policy-focused conservative thought in a party so in thrall to one leader \u2014 a leader obsessed with the notion that he lost in a rigged election.<\/p>\n Ken Khachigian, a former aide to Richard Nixon and chief speechwriter for Reagan, said the Republican Party today doesn\u2019t have \u201ca singular voice like they had with Reagan, for example, or Bill Buckley, the movement conservatives who could get up on a stage and move everyone the way Jack Kemp did back in the day.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always hope,\u201d Khachigian said, suggesting that \u201cwhen you have nitwits like AOC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] on the other side, it\u2019s not hard to come up with somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n But the backward-looking focus on November and its fallout, he said, is \u201cshooting blanks.\u201d<\/p>\n It may come at a cost. As the Republican Party prepares for the midterm elections and the next presidential primary, it\u2019s doing so as a shell of itself, having lost the White House and both houses of Congress in the span of four years. The last time it carried the popular vote in a presidential election was 2004, and America\u2019s shifting demographics are making it increasingly unlikely that it will do so in 2024 \u2014 regardless of attempts to raise barriers to voting.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a party that has been fashioned in the mold of Trump \u2014 Trump\u2019s message, Trump\u2019s tactics \u2014 and it is perfectly comfortable being a party that is defined by what it\u2019s against,\u201d said Kevin Madden, a former Mitt Romney adviser.<\/p>\n The difficulty for the party, Madden said, is \u201cyou become almost toxic as a party brand to larger, growing parts of the electorate. \u2026 The limitation of a message and a platform that\u2019s just about disagreeing with the opposition is that it doesn\u2019t speak to the broader concerns or anxieties of a big part of the electorate.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible that the party\u2019s fixation on election fraud and on the perceived silencing of those who tried to overturn the outcome will fade. Trump\u2019s effort to contest the election postponed the traditional, post-election period of mourning for the losing party. And because a majority of Republicans still approve of Trump and believe the election wasn\u2019t free or fair<\/a>, there is a political imperative for the party to mollify them.<\/p>\n Sal Russo, a former Reagan aide and Tea Party Express co-founder, said that \u201csometimes you\u2019ve got to give some deference to where your base wants to go. \u2026 Do I think the Republicans have to get over the election process issues? Yes, because you don\u2019t win on \u2018we\u2019re going to tighten up absentee ballot eligibility.\u2019 It doesn\u2019t turn out to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s a catharsis that has to happen,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cit\u2019s probably a good thing that CPAC is spending a lot of time\u201d on the subject.<\/p>\n