If your political base is irrational, get a new base - By Jennifer Rubin
October 3 at 12:45 PM
President Trump capitalized on unhinged anger that had been brewing for years on the right — among talk radio listeners and Fox News viewers, among anti-immigrant groups fanning fear of brown-skinned newcomers, among more “respectable” pundits spinning a tale that the “establishment” had betrayed “real” Americans. With Hillary Clinton there to generate a vicious Pavlovian response on the right, Trump squeaked by with some substantial help from Russians, who either fantastically understood the dynamic on the right or had some direction as to where to direct their social media messaging.
Like the proverbial dog that caught the bus, the GOP now finds it impossible to govern rationally with an irrational base and equally irrational media echo chamber. McKay Coppins writes:
“Trump seems uniquely able to give voice to voters’ anger, but incapable of channeling it towards a larger purpose,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist whose firm released a client memo on Friday featuring data that suggested the president’s endorsement had no impact whatsoever in the Alabama race.
At this point, Conant said, no one can predict how the roiling anger in the conservative electorate will manifest itself during next year’s midterms—but it’s unlikely it will subside anytime soon. “We need to be honest about the fact that there are some powerful people inside the Republican Party who have no interest in governing,” he told me. “They’re focused like a laser on decapitating the party’s leadership, and have no interest in growing the party’s base into a lasting majority.” The resulting dysfunction, he said, will only further inflame voters’ frustrations.
In other words, if politicians and voters on the right and center-right want rational, productive governance, they need a new base of voters. That sounds strange. A party or section of a party that wants to fire its base? Well, that is precisely what happened in the 1960s, when the Democrats unloaded white Southern anti-integrationists, ceding the South to the GOP. It could do so because the population in the North and Midwest was growing, minorities were registering and voting in large numbers and previously non-voting or infrequent-voting segments of American electorate (e.g. the youth vote, legal immigrants) sided with Democrats.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/10/03/if-your-political-base-is-irrational-get-a-new-base/?utm_term=.9b1207015485