California Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy recently released his party’s “Commitment to America,” which is of course meant to harken back to Republican victories (falsely) attributed to Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.” How did McCarthy’s rollout go?
Let’s just say the current leader of House Republicans is no Newt Gingrich. Picture a kid who triple-spaced his term paper and increased the margin widths as much as possible and you’ll have a good idea of the intellectual heft of McCarthy’s Commitment to America.
The vagueness of the Republican platform is likely intentional, in order to have more members sign on. The more fuzzy and abstract the document, the more crazies and slightly-less-crazy Republicans can find common ground. Who isn’t for a strong economy and good stuff like less crime in America? (The 2020 election results and conspiracies about satanic Democratic cabals may cause a tad more division within the party.)
Meanwhile, if things go Republicans’ way in the midterms, Kevin McCarthy wants to use his shiny new “commitment” as a platform to become the next speaker of the House . . . no matter how many white nationalist election-deniers sign on.