Recommended: The G.O.P. Is a Mess. It’s Not All Trump’s Fault.

I have been harshly critical of liberals in general and Democrats in particular over the past few months because I actually believe in many, perhaps even in most, liberal goals. But I think the current Democratic Party is doing a terrible job of promoting those goals. Hence my critical comments.

But that doesn’t mean I think the Republicans are, by contrast, in good shape. The Republican Party is in just as bad a mess, or perhaps even a worse mess. Their electoral successes in the past decade, both at the national level and the local level, certainly show that they are more in touch with voters, and have a better game plan. But their current inability to get anything done in Congress is a clear symptom of their problems.

In that regard, I highly recommend Peter Suderman’s Oct 13 Op Ed in the New York Times: The G.O.P. Is a Mess. It’s Not All Trump’s Fault.  I have been arguing that Trump is not the problem; he is a symptom of the problem. And if he hadn’t come on the scene someone very like him would have. Perhaps without quite the same chaotic personality, but certainly responding to the same working-class anger.  I think Suderman has a pretty good analysis of what ails the GOP.