When asked what he thinks of the Republican Party in the Trump era, retiring Sen. Bob Corker said, in concerned tones, “We’ve got to remember what the Republican Party is.”
The Tennessee Republican clearly means what the Republican Party used to be. And it’s worth asking what it was before President Trump and before the Tea Party.
Perhaps Corker yearns for the simpler time of his predecessors such as Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Before coming to Congress, Corker watched Frist wheel and deal in the halls of Congress. Corker later watched Frist lobby for Obamacare in retirement and make a fortune from his stock options in the Hospital Corporation of America in the process.
Maybe Corker misses the days of Majority Leader Eric Cantor. That Virginian was as respectful and proper a Republican as anyone in Congress. He was also worth $3.5 million to Wall Street. After getting booted in the primary by an aftershock of the Tea Party, Cantor leveraged his political experience into a gig in finance.
Possibly Corker wishes former Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, (now a lobbyist) was still in charge of the House. During his time holding the gavel, he turned the speaker’s office into a veritable “tollbooth.” Before a bill could come up for consideration, members had to deposit the requisite campaign contribution into party coffers. All of this, no doubt, will be covered in the former speaker’s upcoming and aptly named book, “Notes From a Smoke-Filled Room.”
Boehner and Cantor and Frist were all respectable members of the Republican country club. They were genteel. Each also used their influence to enrich themselves, arguably at the expense of the country.
It is no surprise that politicians such as Corker want the good old days back. Who can blame them? Life was good before the Tea Party; life was easier before Trump. For anyone lucky enough to get elected at least.
Life didn’t seem so great for the electorate.
Flyover country got tired of sending sons to fight in high-minded, mush-mouthed wars. Workers at home were depressed by stagnant wages. Entire communities were depleted as they watched factories ship jobs overseas. And so they registered their outrage by electing an often bankrupt, perpetually philandering reality television star. For better or worse, Trump lit Corker’s country club on fire.
Instead of brushing off their jackets and sorting through the ashes, these elites should look outside of the beltway and beyond the past. The last Republican Party didn’t offer much except for empty promises (hello, Obamacare) and fat post-congressional paychecks (hello, Wall Street).
So Corker asks a good question. But Corker will come up with the wrong answer if he tries to restore a Republican Party that governs for the good of itself instead of its constituents.
