Deace: With Republicans in disarray, we’re overdue for a new plan

I hereby nominate Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) for speaker of the House. He’s a man of conviction and integrity, yes, but as a former U.S. Senate staffer, he also understands the legislative process at a time when actual governing, not merely serving as a disruption agent, is paramount.

Or we can proceed as if all is well and the fact that Democrats have overperformed by an average of 11 points in 30 special elections so far this year is an awesome sign of things to come!

Well, on with the show, said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in a moment of no self-awareness whatsoever. Gingrich appeared on Fox News the other day to lament the removal of McCarthy by his fellow Republicans. Gingrich called the them “traitors.” Never mind that Gingrich did much the same thing to Robert Michel in the early 1990s. I have long loved and admired Gingrich since I came of age politically. I even supported his 2012 presidential campaign. But come on, man.

Maybe my friend Julie Kelly is just nuts when she wonders if McCarthy might have been spared his fate had he not embraced Ukraine funding all year, formed a new, properly bipartisan January 6 committee, demanded a highly functioning government weaponization committee, and moved aggressively to impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. If McCarthy had done any of that, maybe, just maybe, he would not have been forced to vacate his chair.

The Republican Party is ensnared in a trap of its own making. The party can no longer openly betray its base and pocket the money because the emergence of Donald Trump and his base fundamentally disrupted the old paradigm. Trump absolutely deserves the credit for that. Trouble is, he failed — or simply never intended — to provide a counter-vision or foster a new breed of leadership to replace the old surrender caucus. Instead, the standard became Trump alone and how bigly you could fawn over him.

Uh-oh.

Trump loyalists such as Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) didn’t even agree with each other when it came to unseating McCarthy. McCarthy became speaker largely because Trump offered his blessing in return for saying nice things about him. Congressmen with good voting records, like Gaetz, aligned with total RINOs like Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Nancy Mace (R-N.C.). The only thing they have in common is loyalty to Trump.

Meanwhile, the left has a generational vision for world domination. Although it may be a demonic one, a demonic vision will defeat a rudderless cult of personality every single time. Which is exactly why we are right back to where we started before Trump rode down the elevator in 2015 to announce his presidential run. This is true no matter how loudly the MAGA dog barks at you on social media.

Nothing has really changed. The cake is still being baked the same. The frosting is just zanier than ever, but there remains no soul, no direction, no dignity of purpose, no plan. Thus the GOP continues to have no true power.

Trumpian disruption is fine as far as it goes. But at some point, you actually have to govern effectively. One of the reasons I never went full-throated MAGA is that I never saw a tangible plan for governance. In fact, the Trump movement doesn’t seem to take governing seriously at all. “Drain the swamp” ... but put Anthony Fauci in charge of the pandemic response. “Release the Kraken” ... but have no strategy or lawyers in place ahead of the 2020 election to prevent the disaster in the first place.

And still no apology or alternative plan going into 2024.

If we send a priest into a house with a demon, we don’t want him to merely come out and confirm there are demons there. We expect him to confront and exorcise those demons. Likewise, the office of president is not merely for muckraking. It is, in fact, the most important governing office on earth.

Policy wins. You acquire the right to implement policy either by force or through politics, but either way, policy is what is victorious in the end. You will either implement policy for yourselves or it will be implemented for you. This has been true always and everywhere.

We all have the same enemies. So what is the plan to defeat them? We all live here. So what is the plan to actually preserve our way of life and make the lives of others better? I want us to win. I want us to beat the evil in our midst. So please, at long last, show me the plan where governing becomes an actual threat instead of a perpetual punch line.

There is no time for anything else.