Parties ostensibly exist so that ideas live beyond one candidate. Obama essentially endorsed Hillary Clinton and many Democrats in Congress now worked for Obama or who were inspired by him. Joe Biden won the Democratic nomination as a continuation of the Obama era.
My best analysis is that this is the first time in a long time (ever??) that reactionaries (by definition) are in the driver's seat and that's simply open ocean. So Dems are not dead by any conventional political analysis, but if the board doesn't exist then who's to say.
Trump's feud with Ron DeSantis is a perfect example. DeSantis tried to position himself as "DeFuture" and Trump nuked him. Even at CPAC, there has not been a focus on new talent.
It’s personally important to Trump that there are no alternatives to him, either now or in the future.
I’m sure if he can swing it he’ll try to make Don Jr or Bannon his successor but he’s sure that’ll be after he dies so he doesn’t care about it all that much
Democrats are messy. They have to appeal to everyone from Jared Golden to AOC. From Bernie Sanders to Tim Kaine. Them losing means they are going to have to rejigger themselves, figure out what works in the midterms. The GOP hasn't laid a plan out for the future.
Two final thoughts: the DOGE boys are a perfect example of this. Right now, Congress is talking about whether to do “One Big, Beautiful Bill” or two. But it’s faded to the background. Big Balls and Elon basically went around them. There’s no Paul Ryan policy wonk who thinks about balance sheets.
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I’m sure if he can swing it he’ll try to make Don Jr or Bannon his successor but he’s sure that’ll be after he dies so he doesn’t care about it all that much