Donald Trump and Ken Paxton are undermining principled conservatism and the American Middle

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This editorial reflects how most Americans want all elected officials to draw moral lines, even if they are attacked for doing so.

Not sure which allegation is more ridiculous former President Donald Trump called Sen. John Cornyn as part of the deep state, or suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accusing Texas House Republicans of voting to impeach him as part of a liberal cabal.

Politicians often reflexively accuse and deflect when pressured or invent conspiracies where none exist, a cycle of obfuscation that usually signals a deep-rooted individual or political crisis. And in these instances, Paxton’s and Trumps’ attacks illustrate the depth of the GOP’s intraparty struggle and every politician’s battle with reality.

Cornyns breach was to tell The Dallas Morning News that Trump cannot win a general election and that the party must find another presidential standard bearer in 2024, a rare piece of political punditry from a measured lawmaker who defended Trump throughout his presidency and voted to acquit Trump in two impeachment trials. Cornyns’ truth-telling is a signal to traditional conservatives that the GOP needs a presidential candidate with less baggage who can appeal to moderates and independents, or at least not antagonize them.

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As for Paxton, lawmakers with an R after their name make up the majority in the Texas House and Senate. So if there ever was a panel of peers, it was their motivation to hold accountable a bad elected official under a cloud of controversy and possible wrongdoings both in and out of office.

The modern Republican Party is filled with unhealthy conspiracies, grievances, and vendettas that undermine legitimate conservative ideas and discourse, unlike previous challenges in the parties’ history.

In the 1950s, Sen. Joe McCarthy’s communist-under-every-bed paranoia was demonized with impunity until he was caught in his lies.

In the 1960s, led by the influential conservative writer William F. Buckley Jr. a crusade to remove from the early conservative movement the right-wing extremism of the John Birch Society.

In the 1970s, GOP party leaders urged Richard Nixon to resign from the presidency and not risk a constitutional crisis, an effort to put country above party. And as governor and as president, George W. Bush encouraged the GOP to embrace a diverse big tent of conservatives and, while in Austin, worked effectively across the political aisle with Democrats on issues that mattered to everyone. Texans regardless of political sentiment.

We can debate whether the government is sufficiently in touch with the concerns of the majority of Americans, and who has the hearing of elected officials. But that’s why we have elections. Most Americans live in the political middle, some degree on either side of the center, and want elected officials to draw a moral line against those who peddle malice, slander and hate that are slander and lies. is a political dead end for conservative ideas and principled governance.

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