'More tension within parties and less between them'
Is an inner party split over what the government should fund healthy for democracy?
The U.S. Senate is increasingly stocked with pairs of Republicans who hail from the same state but have deep ideological fissures that split them apart on votes.
Think John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, Mitt Romney and Mike Lee and Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul.
It’s largely generational, with the younger GOPers staking out harder, uncompromising turf on spending, regulation and foreign aid.
In my latest piece for McClatchyDC Newspapers, I dive into the substantive divide between the senators from the commonwealth of Kentucky on a pretty standard government funding bill. Whereas Paul sees “waste,” McConnell lists millions of dollars in wins.
As I neared the end of reporting my piece, I reached out to Eli Lehrer, the president of the R Street Institute, a right-leaning Washington-based think tank that emphasizes pragmatism in policymaking.
I was seeking a broader perspective on the inner-state, inner-party divides that are re-shaping the Republican Party.
His response surprised me: They’re good. And better than the predictable red v. blue partisan chasm driven by entrenched tribalism.
Read my entire piece HERE, including a much more detailed explanation of Lehrer’s thinking.
