Just what is the current state of the Republican Party?

It seems the subject of how the GOP is faring ten months into the Trump era is on a lot of minds today.

There's an editorial at The Weekly Standard entitled "The Surrender" .

David M. Drucker at the Washington Examiner has a piece called "Trump Has Won the Civil War Where It Counts - With Voters."

On their "The Editors" podcast, the NRO guys call their discussion about it "The GOP vs. the GOP vs. the GOP."



Michael Barone's take at Real Clear Politics is called "Both Parties Trying Harder to Defeat Themselves."

David Limbaugh at Townhall's take is that "There is No GOP Civil War."

And Joe Cunningham at Red State, no fan of Trump, says, "Love Him or Hate Him, Trumps Economics Seem To Be Working."

A common thread among the assessments over whether it's a good or bad thing is that the Republican Party is now Trump's party.

Ready for LITD's take?

It's that that is probably true, but it's not on balance a good thing, the greatly improved economy, the defanged EPA, the return to seriousness in foreign policy and great judicial appointments notwithstanding.

Why? Because we would have achieved these things with an actually conservative president, without the cult of personality which, coming on the heels of the cult of personality surrounding the previous president, probably insinuates that feature into the nation's political landscape so that it will be a given in races into the foreseeable future. And now that it's been established that the politically motivated populace chooses as figures to surround with such cults men lacking character in one way or another, our chances for getting choices between really exemplary public servants will not get better.

The argument that goes, "What is there to argue with? We're getting the results we wanted" leaves out the cultural level, which, as you know LITD insists drives the political, economic and national security levels. The country's educational apparatus, its entertainment industry (including sports and highbrow arts), what's left of its journalism, and a great deal of its corporate world, most definitely including the big social-media companies, are still in the hands of people who, as we warned, are able to conflate Trump's cringe-inducing behavior (which never abates for more than a few minutes) with actual conservatism. (Then there is the related thorny matter of the different kinds of Republican opposition to Trump. Let's not stand for any conflating of Sasse and Cruz style opposition with that of shaky-at-best-and-often-downright-squishy opposition from the likes of Flake, Corker and McCain.)

Yes, I'd say Piers Morgan is probably right that Trump is on track to win a second term. But he'll do so with incredibly high disapproval ratings. The public discourse will continue to be one big snarl-fest, with no doubt annual scream-at-the-sky events every November.

We seem to have settled for getting what we want policy-wise by dragging it over the finish line at the expense of any improvement in the state of our culture.

And I daresay it won't be long at all until Trump pulls yet another policy-level stunt that will have his slavish devotees swallowing hard and actual conservatives saying, "WTF?"