 |  |  |
| 0:00 | -49:58 |
Is the Republican Party in the midst of a policy wasteland? Today’s guest, Ben Ginsberg, surely thinks so. According to Ginsberg, who is perhaps the most prominent Republican election lawyer of our time, the future of the GOP rests on its ability to transform its policy agenda into one that appeals to minorities and women. “If [the GOP] can avoid the circular firing squad and instead concentrate on positive policy ideas to appeal to voters,” Ginsberg warns, then “there is a chance for the resurrection of the party.” Stick around for a conversation about our democracy’s nonexistent voter fraud problem and the GOP’s concerted effort to restrict access to the polls.
Show Notes:
-“My party is destroying itself on the altar of Trump,” by Ben Ginsberg in the Washington Post.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This was an outstanding and reassuring conversation. Mr. Ginsburg earned this Liberals respect with his Washington Post Op-Ed. Now I also really like him... and hope he might lead the States to have internal election uniformity.
Great podcast.
Much like the interview of a certain former RNC chair (who Steve and Ben appeared to be sub tweeting a tad), the interview was informative but rather depressing at the same time. However, Ben himself really came across as much more solidly grounded and sincere.
I had asked in comments to the Sweep a few months earlier that TD address the frequent accusation that the GOP has been actively using voter suppression as a winning strategy, and this certainly did.
IMO Trump's message both in 2016 and this time struck me NOT as a campaign for President of the United States, but for President only for the "real America", who is needed to fight the "elites" who represent "globalist interests".
The insinuation is that half the people living in this country don't really have an allegiance to the US the way "real Americans" do, but either actively despise it and want to tear it down, or simply don't care about the country's welfare or who gets left behind, as long as whatever globalist corporation paying them gets to thrive. Call that nationalism, or America First, or whatever. But this idea that "there are Two Americas and I will fight for the Real America" is an inherently exclusionary message.
So, the fact that Trump still picked up some votes from people many of his supporters would deny are "real Americans" is ironic, but I think indicates the GOP might actually be capable of forming a more diverse coalition than it has recently. That's the light at the end of the tunnel for me, though I am quite aware it could be a train that's about to run me over.