David Pakman

Now, this may be changing, but it would be changing because the electorate is realizing I actually need to consider the Democratic Party, not because they are saying we are desperate for the Pence style Republican Party.

So when I hear Mike Pence go now, the Republican Party really hasn't changed.

To me, it sounds like wishful thinking.

It's what you say when your relevance depends on a version of the party that really doesn't exist anymore.

And there's a bigger point here.

Political parties don't just snap back after a shift like this.

When a party gets reshaped, the change tends to stick.

I'll give you an example.

In 2010, during Barack Obama's first term, we had the rise of the Tea Party movement.

It wasn't like, OK, a bunch of tea partiers won in 2010 and then their influence was gone by 2012.

What happened is that the views of the Tea Party were integrated into the Republican Party.

They stopped being as relevant as this separate entity, but they simply became part of what the Republican Party was.

And then that evolves again.

And then in 2016, in comes Trump.

And there's another evolution.

The point is, you never rewind.

You go forward based on where you are right now.

In the entire time I've been following politics, there has never been a return to some previous version of the parties.

And so is it possible that people like Pence can reintegrate themselves into the party and shape it again?

But this idea of that old Republican Party is still, you know, if you pick up all of the wreckage of Trumpism, you've got this shiny 2011 style Republican Party under there now.