Reap the Whirlwind
Well-known member
Leadership does indeed suck, especially when you become number 3 with an old fashioned Queens Democrat as your boss when you want to move in a libertarian direction. I think Ryan will be happier at AEI though, he was always more of a think tank fellow.That's not really accurate, though?
Like, there's admittedly the leadership in Congress which is the Pelosi-Schumer pairing that, sure, 'old white folk' would be accurate. But going back a few years people were happy to use the Republican Presidential primary as a showcase of 'up-and-comers', and to apply the same standard this time around the field expands a good bit with folks like Buttigieg (<40), Yang (<45), Castro (45), O'Rourke (<50), and Harris (<55) all playing against the type pretty well (to take the top contenders who aren't Biden, Warren, Sanders).
One could argue those folks are perhaps less relevant or representative since they are polling significantly lower than those top three whereas the Republican 'young blood' last time around was more competitive, but they do exist in a way that young blood in the Central Committee did not.
Then, perhaps expanding from there...There are 'public image' and policy movers-and-shakers who break that mold (sometimes to the consternation of established leadership). With Ocasio-Cortez as a particularly famous example there, and Tim Ryan as perhaps another (even if one who was shut-out from speakership by the old party leadership when he staged a challenge).
Course, how much any of those folks might go on to be influential is debatable. Despite his notable presidential run, Rubio is kind've just a run-of-the-mill senator as I'm aware nowadays, Nikki Haley is out of politics (I think?), and the 'rising star' young-buck of the House Ryan went outta politics as well, so...Leadership sucks and prognosticating the future is hard?
Rubio ran into the problem of having to try and help bridge the GOP from first half of decade with second half, trying things like tax credits for families to get people to get married and have kids, while also doing things like moving forward with pressure in Venezuela. He’s also one of the ones who has basically caught on to just how much the media is generally despised, though it to his public depantsing at that CNN townhall after Parkland to really dig him into that point.
Nikki Haley is the favorite for GOP nomination in 2024, as everyone in GOP seems to like her. A lot of Never Trumpers want her to run a primary against Trump, but she’s too smart to launch a kamikaze at Trump to assuage their egos(I say this as a committed Never Trumper myself.)
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