The Republican Party Is Self-Destructing Before Our Very Eyes

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.

The conservative movement is broken and no one is fixing it.

That’s according to S. E. Cupp, who wrote exactly that in a column for the New York Daily News this week and joined The New Abnormal to share her perspective on a host of recent headlines—including this week’s chaos over the race for a new House Speaker.

Cupp explains how the American right—including conservative media—is essentially broken, in part thanks to one notable former president: Donald Trump.

“The right-wing—which could encompass the Republican party…conservatism…right-wing media included—all should exist to be a check on the left. That’s why we have two parties,” Cupp explains.

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“While the House is speakerless and Republicans are fighting Republicans, they’re not really being an effective check on the left. They’re also not governing as a party. That’s the function of the Republican Party: to get Republicans elected to govern, to legislate, to solve problems. They’re not doing any of that.

“The right-wing media instead has followed Trump down into rabbit holes in lawsuits that has made them kind of self-destruct. They’re not holding anyone really accountable in believable, credible ways because they’ve lost a lot of credibility in defending Trump to the end. So, like all of this stuff is broken. And while conservatism remains intact, because that’s a set of values, the Republican party is broken as a functioning party.”

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Plus! Jonathan M. Metzl, author of the book, Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing Americas Heartland, discusses the psychology behind the rise in hate and how it’s connected to the rhetoric and misinformation that we are hearing on a regular basis.

Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.

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