Stefanik's impeachment dive into Trump's MAGA nihilism reveals dark Republican future

Reed Galen, Opinion contributor
Updated

Rep. Elise Stefanik’s sudden dive this month into an empty MAGA swimming pool isn’t symptomatic, it’s revelatory.

A former staffer in President George W. Bush’s White House, Stefanik was seen as a new breed of Republican politician: one who would transcend the worsening trends for Republicans among women, young people and moderates. In 2014 she won in her sprawling rural swing district in northern New York with 53% of the vote. Two years later, she won with 65% and President Donald Trump swept the district by 13.7 percentage points.

Stefanik is one of many young American conservatives revealing their stripes. They’re markings born not of the younger Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” but of climbers, aspiring to higher forms of power, authority and influence and happy to take the easiest available path. Stefanik’s rise to prominence coincided with what writer Joseph Spector characterized as her "piercing questions" of witnesses and continuing clashes with House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff during this month's public impeachment hearings. Once considered a moderate, Stefanik’s Twitter account is now filled with low-brow name-calling of her opponent in New York’s 21st Congressional District.

MAGA shift damages electability

Like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California before her, Stefanik’s transformation from thoughtful conservative to frontline Trump defender should worry lifelong Republicans, NeverTrumpers and conservative-leaning independents. They once claimed an ideal, if built only on one-liners. That foundation has been shed and shredded, replaced by the GOP’s increasing nihilism.

We’re already seeing the electoral consequences of this shift within the Republican Party. Last year, Cruz survived by a hair against a hard charge by then-Rep. Beto O’Rourke. And while Cruz survived to tilt at more deep-state windmills, many suburban Texas Republicans in the House and legislature were turned out of office.

Rep. Elise Stefanik listens to former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testify before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Nov. 15, 2019.
Rep. Elise Stefanik listens to former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testify before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Nov. 15, 2019.

Just this month we’ve seen important wins in three Southern states go to Democrats. The Virginia suburbs handed the state legislature to the Democrats for the first time in nearly 20 years. While Republican Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky was thoroughly unpopular, his defeat was not preordained. Nor was Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ reelection in Louisiana. Had Trump been perhaps only half as ugly as he is, Richmond, Frankfort and Baton Rouge would be firmly in Republican hands.

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Much of what we see from Stefanik and her ilk, beyond the easy path of the Dark Side, is a fear of Trump’s vaunted “base.” Today, this group makes up about 40% of the country. The urban core detests him.

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The suburbs are experiencing a different version of white flight as college-educated white voters flee the GOP. The irony for Trump’s congressional minions is that they've chosen to plant their flag in a decidedly eroding coastline: political lemmings waiting for that final leap.

White nationalists invited into the GOP

Outside Congress, conservative organizations such as the Young Americas Foundation and Turning Point USA are just now understanding what it means to invite vampires into the house.

Donald Trump Jr., of all people, was recently heckled at an event promoting his new book — not by liberal college kids, but by alt-right demonstrators who do not believe the president has gone far enough to assist the white nationalist agenda. Turning Point, never a group to hew to a set of principles, tweeted that such people have no place in their movement.

Further highlighting the troll effect, the conservative, the decades old Young Americas Foundation fired Michelle Malkin from its campus lecture program last week because of her ties to a white, nationalist, Holocaust denier. The Trump-conservative movement in this country is replete with these Lost Boys, and they aren’t going away. Eventually, they will infect whatever mainstream, thoughtful Republicans are left.

Forget Donald Trump: Republicans, save the GOP for the sake of your party's future.

Stefanik is the latest, but not the last, young Republican leader to eschew whatever principles she claimed in favor of Fox News appearances and presidential plaudits. Nihilism is neither a governing ethos nor a foundational ideology. Once it infects a host, it runs its course — in personality, politics and beyond. When it’s done, there is nothing to fall back on. Cynicism leaves its hosts with little but the abyss that was once their core belief system.

Welcome to 21st century Republicanism.

Reed Galen is an independent political consultant who left the Republican Party in 2016 after working for President George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Follow him on Twitter: @reedgalen

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Impeachment showcases Stefanik and dark Republican future under Trump