Fournier: GOP Is Party of Nothing

Republican leaning columnist Ron Fournier calls out his party in National Journal.

The Republican Party stands for nothing. As Barack Obama threatens to fumble away his presidency along with the Democratic Party's reasons for existence—championing an active, efficient government—the GOP lurches into the leadership breach with … zilch. Rather than be the party of solutions in a gridlocked capital, appealing to a leadership-starved public, the GOP is the party of obstruction, ensuring that its putrid approval ratings nose-dive apace with Obama's.

The country needs sensible immigration reform that brings 11 million or so undocumented residents out of the shadows. No, says the GOP. The country needs to tame a massive debt that will be 100 percent of the gross domestic product by 2038 unless Congress raises revenue and trims entitlements. No, says the GOP. The country needs fair debate and compromise around existential issues such as climate change, income inequality, and a deteriorating 20th-century infrastructure. No, says the GOP.

For months, I have been warning that Obama risked the public turning sour on his leadership (here, here, here, here, here, and here) and credibility (here, here, here, here, here, and here). The Benghazi attack, the seizure of telephone records from the Associated Press, the IRS's investigations of political groups, the National Security Agency's massive domestic-spying operation, the "red line" in Syria, and now Obamacare—the White House responded to every controversy or quasi-scandal by mocking its critics and ignoring the warning signs.

Now the public has had enough. Americans are beginning to not trust their president, and so what does the GOP offer as reasonable alternative—a modicum of sanity, comity, or seriousness? Nope. Other than hard partisans on the left and right, the majority of the people—moderate, fix-it Americans who simply want a sensible government—now have nowhere to turn, because the GOP is the party of nothing.