Whether Mr. Trump intervenes in the Virginia race, how the Republican candidates approach him and what kind of response voters have to the soon-to-be former president may set the stage for the 2022 midterm elections, in which both parties fortunes may turn on the strength of the countrys recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
For now, many ambitious Republicans are glad to embrace the element of Trumpism that is most animating to the right: seizing on the most extreme ideas of the left. Such oppositional politics allows party leaders to draw attention away from Mr. Trump, reminds voters of what gives them pause about Democrats and has effectively become the adhesive binding Republicans together.
The G.O.P.s de facto platform that the left has gone around the bend was on display last week when a range of figures on the right, including two potential presidential candidates in 2024, Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Ted Cruz of Texas, highlighted a report that San Francisco was considering stripping Abraham Lincolns name from one of its schools.
With millions of Americans at risk of losing unemployment benefits, though, most of the partys congressional wing was focused last week on pandemic relief.
The final major legislative acts of Mr. Trumps presidency may well arise not from the White House but from bipartisan coalitions on Capitol Hill that have filled a leadership vacuum in Washington.
One such coalition, a loose group of centrists in the House and Senate, forged a framework for striking a deal on a winter relief package for individuals and businesses.
While Mr. Trumps Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, has participated intermittently in the talks, the final agreement is expected to be settled by congressional leadership. On another matter, lawmakers in both parties have spurned Mr. Trumps demands to use an annual military policy bill to strip technology companies from certain legal protections, raising the prospect that Mr. Trumps final legislative fight could end in his first overridden veto.read more
A President Who Can’t Put Aside Grudges, Even for Good News
