GOP Is No Longer Interested In Legislating Or Governing

We used to have two political parties. They disagreed on many issues, but they negotiated and came up with solutions that were good for the country. That is not true today. Now there is only one political party interested in legislating or governing -- the Democratic Party. The Republican Party has devolved in a cult of fealty to their orange demagogue that is not interested in either legislating, negotiating, or governing.

The following is a tiny part of an op-ed by Michael A. Cohen at MSNBC.com:

As Congress gets closer to an agreement on a multitrillion-dollar budget package, there is one actor notably missing from the negotiations: the Republican Party.

While Democrats are fighting over the details of policy proposals that could create the nation’s first paid family and medical leave program, make pre-K universal, lower the cost of child care, expand Medicare and prepare the nation for the effects of climate change, the GOP is contentedly sitting on the sidelines, throwing spitballs and complaining that the whole thing is going to cost too much money.

Republican campaigns are increasingly defined by a laser-like focus on cultural issues, such as "critical race theory" or nonexistent voter fraud, with barely a mention of serious substantive policies. None of this is even considered unusual or surprising anymore. It’s just the way things are in politics today.

Ironically, it wasn’t that long ago that Republicans boasted about being the party of ideas. Conservative think tanks proudly rolled out policy proposals and encouraged Republican officials to embrace them. Today, other than venerating former President Donald Trump or accusing Democrats of being socialists or communists, it’s hard to find a single policy issue that defines the modern Republican Party. . . .

All of this is simply taken for granted. The national news media simply accepts that the default Republican position on any and all policy issues is steadfast opposition with no alternative proposals. To evoke a phrase by a former Republican president, the modern GOP is profiting from the “soft bigotry of low expectations.”. . .

The result is that voters are being given two options: the policy ideas Democrats want to implement or not implementing those policy ideas. To put it mildly, this is not a healthy situation for American democracy, particularly one in which the tools of obstructionism are so numerous. America doesn’t just need a Republican Party that isn’t beholden to Trump and his authoritarian politics. They need one that actually thinks governing matters.