The unkillable zombie of the George W. Bush Republican

Tom Cotton, the new senator from Arkansas, is proof that the GOP is still in the grips of the neocons

Tom Cotton
(Image credit: (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images))

Rand Paul and his libertarian supporters like to think they have a shot at reorienting the Republican Party away from its post-9/11, Bush-era fixation on militarism, its embrace of reckless fiscal indiscipline, and its indifference toward civil liberties. If the result of the Arkansas Senate race is any indication — a contest in which one-term Congressman Tom Cotton defeated Democrat Mark Pryor — those hopes are badly misplaced.

The GOP is and remains the party of George W. Bush and his neoconservative brain trust.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.