The terror that mainstream conservative Republican politicians have felt over the threat of being called insufficiently conservative — of being tagged as Republicans in Name Only — has made governing difficult for them since the 1990s. But whenever they were the minority party in Washington, they could correctly assume that there was little electoral cost to mollifying the party’s right wing.
This year, that presumption may no longer hold up. With an incumbent president whose approval rating barely tops 40% and plenty of discontent about the economy, Democrats should be facing heavy losses. Instead, there are signs Republican might only make minor gains in the November midterms. The GOP could even lose seats in the Senate and among governors. And that is all due to Republican fears of being labeled RINO.
From the 2016 presidential campaign through the second impeachment vote in the Senate, Republicans have had plenty of opportunities to rid themselves of Trump. Yet time after time, they chose instead to stick with him, with the party and with party-aligned media, giving Trump, who apparently cares little about public policy or the conservative movement, the ability to decide what counts as orthodoxy.
