'The Republican Party is over': Robert Reich explains why GOP’s 'tragic' collapse is bad for America

Liberal/progressive economist Robert Reich has a lot to say about former the state of the Republican Party in 2024 — none of it positive. As the former Clinton Administration labor secretary sees it, the fact that Donald Trump is the GOP's presumptive 2024 presidential nominee despite facing four criminal indictments is a terrible indictment of the party.

But in an opinion column published by The Guardian on April 19, Reich argues that the Republican Party's "tragic" moral collapse is not something to celebrate.

"Friends, the Republican Party is over," the 77-year-old Reich laments. "That's tragic, because America needs two parties capable of governing. It needs two parties with a sense of the common good, even if their interpretations of it differ."

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Reich cites New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu's recent endorsement of Trump as evidence of how dysfunctional the GOP has become.

Sununu has been highly critical of Trump at times, and he endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley during the 2024 GOP presidential primary. But during a recent interview with ABC News' Stephanopoulos, Sununu defended his endorsement of Trump despite having previously blamed him for the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

"Hello? Politics is not about right and wrong?" Reich writes. "I haven't seen or heard a clearer indictment of the Trump Republican Party…. Sununu's willingness to destroy American democracy so his party can stay in power is shared by most Republican office holders today. It is a rejection of American democracy — an abrogation of the self-government that generations of Americans have fought for and died for."

Reich adds, "The death of the Republican Party is not to be celebrated. It is a tragedy."

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Reich notes that back in the mid-1970s, he served in a Republican presidential administration and was part of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) under President Gerald R. Ford.

"The Republican Party once stood for limited government, active opposition to Soviet aggression and a balanced budget," Reich explains. "Now, it stands only for Trump and his authoritarian neo-fascism."

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Read Robert Reich's full column for The Guardian at this link.