Can we dare hope that Sasse, Cheney, and Romney - and maybe Murkowski and Collins - will quit the GOP and become independents?
And what? Caucus with the Democrats? Doing so might net them some desirable committee assignments, but I think chairmanships, even assuming the Democratic Party retains its majorities in one or both chambers, would be beyond their reach. And their prospects of advancing legislative proposals they were genuinely comfortable with would be negligible given the influence of the Democratic liberal wing in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
I think the majority of Republican elected officials at the federal level remain genuinely conservative, not just the few who have dared to challenge the crazyTrump faction. They never were comfortable with the right-wing populists that catapulted Trump into office—and certainly not with Trump himself, who I'm sure most of them detest.
But they certainly don't appprove of many of the policy directions of the Democratic Party, either, despite President Biden's centrist instincts; where legislation is concerned, he shares power with Charles Schumer (Senate majority leader) and Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the House of Representatives), both of whom must be responsive to the liberal wing of the party to maintain their leadership positions.
The problem for the Romneys, Cheneys, et. al., is that the center of gravity among Republican
voters has radically shifted—or is that shifted radically?—and many Republican
officeholders have a well-founded fear of populist primary challenges* if they stick to the principles they believe in.
I have a great deal of sympathy and respect for them, even though I don't always agree with their policies. The party and the conservative principles to which they have devoted their political careers is careening away from them in a genuinely bizarre direction and I don't know whether they have any decent options other than to retire or to try to hang on, fight the good fight and, in many cases, ultimately lose their seats.
———
*For those of you outside the United States who are unfamiliar with the term, "primary elections" are intraparty elections to select the candidates who will stand for office in a subsequent general election.
