Fighting Elephants

By Zamboni

This is interesting — despite (or maybe because of) the source, the right-wing National Review. It's also the kind of story that many journalists are too lazy or too uninformed or too lacking in institutional memory to care and/or write about.

"In at least a quartet of key states," the magazine reports, "the state Republican parties are collapsing — going broke and devolving into infighting little fiefdoms. Even worse for the GOP, these aren't just any states — Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, and Minnesota all rank as either key swing states or once-purple states that would be tantalizing targets in a good year."

If 2024 ends up being another GOP letdown, NR avers, it will be because these states replaced "competent, boring, regular state-party officials with...blustering nutjobs who have little or no interest in the basics of successfully managing a state party or the basic blocking and tackling involved in helping GOP candidates win elections."

All four parties are controlled by Trump loyalists. The Arizona and Minnesota Republican parties have no money, and Colorado's and, most famously, Michigan's are consumed with cat fights and circular firing squads. (And also broke.) Colorado is even talking about canceling next year's GOP primary. Just imagine the coverage if this were happening in blue states. You'd never hear the end of it (because as we all know, "Democrats" and "disarray" both start with the letter "d").

This bodes well for sane Americans like us. It's just another reason that we're choosing not to freak out about mid-2023 national polls, or endless predictions of a recession that's not going to happen, or even about the idiots behind the so-called "No Labels" group. Because behind all the third-party chatter lurks this ever-present question: Are they doing the work? Organizing in key states, getting on ballots, etc.? (It's overwhelming, and a grind.) Or are they just holding silly events, lending themselves out as talking heads on TV, and prattling away on social media? We suspect the latter. We cats PURR.

(IMAGE: Wyoming Tribune-Eagle)