The purge the GOP really needs

NationalReview.com

“What’s a revolution without purges?” asked Kevin Williamson. Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers, last week urged major Republican donors to conduct a “purge” of GOP legislators who aren’t on board with the Trump agenda. But “what, exactly, is the Trump agenda?” This administration promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but the president has never provided any actual health-care policy beyond saying he wants “terrific” coverage. His taxreform plan consists of a vague set of numerical cuts, with no explanation of what loopholes and deductions would be eliminated, and he has no coherent policy on entitlements, the national debt, the border wall, foreign policy, crime, abortion, or anything else. The president “has many thoughts about the ratings of various television programs,” and tweets incessantly about how awful his critics, Cabinet members, and other Republicans are. He “has been successful at one thing—bringing Americans politics down to his level,” which is “childish and emotionally incontinent.” We’re now supposed to purge Republicans who aren’t comfortable with the daily insanity? A purge is indeed needed in coming years, “but it won’t be the one that Nick Ayers is contemplating.”