There is a split in the Republican Party, and it isn’t primarily about ideology. That’s not to say there aren’t deep disagreements in the party over major issues. Republicans are at odds over immigration, trade, and foreign policy. They aren’t all on the same page about Russia’s war in Ukraine. The GOP no longer speaks with one voice about the optimal size of government, if it ever did.
But divisions have persisted, even intensified, despite the fact that the Republican Party is more homogeneously conservative than it has ever been. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is arguably the most conservative Republican leader in the upper chamber of Congress since Mr. Republican himself, Robert Taft. And yet to hear many conservative activists tell it, you would think the Senate Republican leader was the second coming of Nelson Rockefeller.
